Final answer:
To find the list price of the car before tax, start by converting the sales tax percent to a decimal and subtracting it from the total price paid. In this case, the list price before the 8.5% sales tax would be approximately $21,990.32.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine the car's list price before tax, you need to calculate the amount of sales tax included in the total price and subtract it from the total. To do this, let's say the total price paid with tax is $23,850, and the sales tax rate is 8.5%. We first represent the sales tax rate as a decimal, which is 0.085. To find the car's list price (let's denote it as P) before tax, we can use the following equation:
Total Price Paid = List Price + (List Price × Sales Tax Rate)
Therefore,
$23,850 = P + (P × 0.085)
Combining like terms gives us:
$23,850 = P(1 + 0.085)
Solving for P gives us:
P = $23,850 / 1.085
Upon calculating this, we find that the list price P is approximately $21,990.32. This means the car's list price in Roswell before the addition of the 8.5% sales tax would be around $21,990.32.