Question

An item costs $490 before tax, and the sales tax is $9.80.Find the sales tax rate. Write your answer as a percentage.

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

We are given the cost of an item before tax and that is $490.

Also, the sales tax on that item is $9.80.

We shall use the following method to calculate the rate of tax as a percentage (since the amount has been given);

`(x)/(100)=(9.8)/(490)`

Note that the ratio of the tax rate over 100% is the same as the ratio of the tax paid ove the total item cost.

With the equation set up above, we can now calculate for x, the rate of tax (as a percentage);

`\begin{gathered} (x)/(100)=(9.8)/(490) \\ \text{Cross multiply and we have;} \\ x=(9.8*100)/(490) \end{gathered}`
`x=(980)/(490)`
`x=2`

Therefore, the sales tax rate is;

ANSWER:

`2\%`