Final answer:
To include sales tax in an entry, a seller multiplies the item's price by the rate of sales tax (converted to a decimal), then adds the resulting sales tax amount to the original price to calculate the total cost for the customer.
Step-by-step explanation:
When a seller includes sales tax in an entry, they take the original price of a good or service and apply the rate of sales tax to calculate the additional cost that must be collected from the customer. This process typically involves converting the sales tax rate from a percentage to a decimal and then multiplying it by the price of the item.
For example, to find the amount of sales tax on a $150 item with a 10% sales tax rate, we first convert 10% to a decimal (0.10) and then multiply it by the item's price: $150.00 × 0.10 = $15.00
Once the sales tax amount is calculated, it is added to the original price to determine the total amount that the buyer must pay. Thus, the item in this example would cost a total of $165.00 ($150.00 + $15.00 in sales tax).
Let's consider another scenario: a $65.00 item with a 5% sales tax rate. First, we convert 5% to a decimal (0.05) and multiply it by the $65.00 price tag: $65.00 × 0.05 = $3.25
Adding this $3.25 in sales tax to the original price means the buyer pays a total of $68.25 for the item. Similarly, for small purchases, like $10.00 worth of goods with an 8.25% sales tax, we have: $10.00 × 0.0825 = $0.83
The total with sales tax in this case would be $10.83. The critical aspect is to remember that sales taxes are a percentage of the sold goods' price, contributing to the overall cost that customers pay.