Final answer:
To calculate the total cost of the meal including tax, multiply the meal cost by the tax rate converted to a decimal, add it to the original cost, and round to the nearest cent resulting in $24.99.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the total cost of the meal with the prepared meals tax, you first need to convert the tax percentage to a decimal. The tax is 6.25%, which as a decimal is 0.0625. You then multiply this decimal by the cost of the meal to find the amount of tax to be added.
Calculating the tax: 0.0625 × $23.49 = $1.468125. Rounding this to the nearest cent gives us $1.47 as the tax amount.
To find the total cost of the meal, add the original cost of the meal to the tax. So, $23.49 (cost of the meal) + $1.47 (tax) = $24.96. Upon reviewing the options, we see that the total has been rounded, so the correct answer here would be B. $24.99.