Separate the tax rate from the taxable base.

Multiply the pre-tax price by the combined rate expressed as a decimal: $1,200 at 8.25% is $1,200 × 0.0825 = $99, for a total of $1,299. To go the other way — from a receipt total back to the pre-tax price — divide rather than subtract: $1,299 ÷ 1.0825 = $1,200, and the difference is the tax. Subtracting 8.25% from the total is the classic mistake and gives the wrong answer every time.

Because most of the United States layers local taxes on top. A state might levy 6.25% while your county adds 1% and your city another 1%, giving a combined 8.25%. Rates change at municipal and even special-district boundaries, which is why online sellers use address-level lookups rather than state tables. Five states — Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon — have no statewide sales tax at all, though some Alaskan localities levy their own.

A state suspends sales tax on specific categories for a few days, most commonly back-to-school clothing, school supplies and computers in late July and August, and sometimes emergency preparedness or energy-efficient appliances at other times of year. Each state sets its own dates, its own list of qualifying items and its own per-item price caps — a $120 cap on clothing means a $150 jacket is taxed on the full amount, not just the excess. Check the official list published by your state department of revenue for the current year, because both dates and categories change.

The assessor sets a value for your property, the taxing districts set rates, and the bill is the assessed value multiplied by the combined rate. Rates are often quoted as mills — dollars per $1,000 of value — so 15 mills is 1.5%. The effective rate people quote is the bill divided by market value, which is lower than the nominal rate wherever the state assesses at a fraction of market value.

On average effective rates for owner-occupied homes, New Jersey (2.38%), Illinois (2.32%) and New Hampshire (2.15%) sit at the top, while Hawaii (0.28%), Alabama (0.43%) and Louisiana (0.51%) are at the bottom. The national average is around 0.9%. Be careful drawing conclusions: Hawaii's low rate applies to very high home values, and states with no income tax often lean harder on property tax to compensate.

A minority of states levy an annual personal property tax on vehicles in addition to registration fees. Missouri, Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, South Carolina and a few others do; most states do not. In Missouri, statute sets the assessed value at 33⅓% of market value and the local districts set a combined levy per $100 of that assessed value. Virginia taxes the assessed value at a rate set by each city or county, and the state then subsidises part of the bill on personal-use vehicles.

Under the Personal Property Tax Relief Act, Virginia reimburses localities so that a percentage of the tax on the first $20,000 of assessed value on a qualifying personal-use vehicle is not charged to you. The percentage is set each year by each locality out of a fixed pot of state money, so it drifts down as vehicle values rise — it has ranged from the high twenties to around 50% in recent years depending on where you live. Value above the cap gets no relief, and business-use vehicles get none at all.

Hold an asset more than one year and the gain qualifies for the preferential long-term rates of 0%, 15% or 20%, applied to the gain stacked on top of your other taxable income. Hold it a year or less and the gain is taxed as ordinary income at your marginal rate, which can be as high as 37%. The holding period runs from the day after you acquired the asset through the day you sold it, so timing a sale around that anniversary can be worth a large amount of money.

Yes. For tax year 2026 the 0% band covers long-term gains stacked up to $49,450 of taxable income for single filers and $98,900 filing jointly. Because the band is measured on taxable income — after the standard deduction — a retired couple with modest income can realise a meaningful long-term gain and owe no federal capital gains tax at all. Note that the gain itself counts toward the stack, so only the portion sitting below the threshold gets the 0% rate.

An additional 3.8% on the lesser of your net investment income and the amount by which your modified adjusted gross income exceeds $200,000 single or head of household, $250,000 married filing jointly, or $125,000 married filing separately. It applies on top of the capital gains rate, which is how a 20% headline rate becomes an effective 23.8% for high earners. The thresholds are not indexed for inflation, so more filers cross them every year.

Start with what you paid, then add purchase commissions, and for real estate add capital improvements — a new roof or an addition, not repainting. Subtract any depreciation you claimed. The result is your adjusted basis, and the gain is the sale price minus that basis minus selling costs. Poor basis records are the single most common reason people overpay capital gains tax: without documentation you may end up treating the entire sale proceeds as gain.

Capital losses first offset capital gains of the same type, then the other type. If losses still exceed gains, up to $3,000 of net loss can offset ordinary income in a year ($1,500 if married filing separately), and anything left carries forward indefinitely to future years. The wash sale rule blocks the deduction if you buy a substantially identical security within 30 days before or after the sale — the disallowed loss is added to the basis of the replacement.