VAT on £15
Add or remove VAT at 20%, 5%, 0% on £15, with the net, VAT and gross figures.
Adding 20% VAT to £15 gives £18.00, of which £3.00 is VAT. Removing 20% VAT from £15 gives £12.50 net, with £2.50 of VAT inside the price. At the 5% reduced rate the VAT is £0.75 when added and £0.71 when removed; at 0% nothing changes.
£15 at every VAT rate
| Calculation | Net | VAT | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add 20% | £15.00 | £3.00 | £18.00 |
| Remove 20% | £12.50 | £2.50 | £15.00 |
| Add 5% | £15.00 | £0.75 | £15.75 |
| Remove 5% | £14.29 | £0.71 | £15.00 |
| Add 0% | £15.00 | £0.00 | £15.00 |
| Remove 0% | £15.00 | £0.00 | £15.00 |
What £15 looks like with and without VAT
A £15 purchase is the kind of thing that ends up as a receipt in a drawer: fuel, stationery, a parking charge, a working lunch. If the receipt shows a VAT number and the price includes VAT, then £2.50 of that £15 is tax you can reclaim on your return, leaving a net cost of £12.50. Without a valid VAT receipt you can still claim the £15 as an expense against profit, but not the VAT itself.
Working the other way, if you quote £15 before VAT and you are VAT registered, the customer pays £18.00: your £15 plus £3.00 that you collect for HMRC. At the 5% reduced rate, which applies to things like domestic energy and children's car seats, the same £15 becomes £15.75. Zero-rated items such as most food, books and children's clothing stay at £15 on the invoice, though they still count as taxable sales.
The 20% figures catch people out because the VAT inside a gross price is not 20% of the price. It is 20% of the net, which works out at 16.67% of the gross. So £15 including VAT contains £2.50, not £3.00. Keep that in mind when you are checking a till receipt or splitting a shared bill between personal and business use.
Source: GOV.UK: VAT Flat Rate Scheme; GOV.UK: VAT thresholds. Last updated .
Frequently asked questions
- How much is £15 plus VAT?
- £15 plus 20% VAT is £18.00. The VAT element is £3.00. At the 5% reduced rate the total is £15.75, and at 0% it stays at £15.
- How much VAT is included in £15?
- If £15 already includes 20% VAT, the VAT inside it is £2.50 and the net amount is £12.50. You divide by 1.2 to find the net, then subtract to find the VAT.
- What is £15 minus VAT?
- £15 minus 20% VAT is £12.50. That assumes the £15 was a VAT inclusive price. If £15 was already the net price, there is no VAT to take off.
Cite this page: “VAT on £15”, SoleKit, https://solekit.co.uk/vat-calculator/15