VAT on £55
Add or remove VAT at 20%, 5%, 0% on £55, with the net, VAT and gross figures.
Adding 20% VAT to £55 gives £66.00, of which £11.00 is VAT. Removing 20% VAT from £55 gives £45.83 net, with £9.17 of VAT inside the price. At the 5% reduced rate the VAT is £2.75 when added and £2.62 when removed; at 0% nothing changes.
£55 at every VAT rate
| Calculation | Net | VAT | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add 20% | £55.00 | £11.00 | £66.00 |
| Remove 20% | £45.83 | £9.17 | £55.00 |
| Add 5% | £55.00 | £2.75 | £57.75 |
| Remove 5% | £52.38 | £2.62 | £55.00 |
| Add 0% | £55.00 | £0.00 | £55.00 |
| Remove 0% | £55.00 | £0.00 | £55.00 |
What £55 looks like with and without VAT
A £55 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 £9.17 of that £55 is tax you can reclaim on your return, leaving a net cost of £45.83. Without a valid VAT receipt you can still claim the £55 as an expense against profit, but not the VAT itself.
Working the other way, if you quote £55 before VAT and you are VAT registered, the customer pays £66.00: your £55 plus £11.00 that you collect for HMRC. At the 5% reduced rate, which applies to things like domestic energy and children's car seats, the same £55 becomes £57.75. Zero-rated items such as most food, books and children's clothing stay at £55 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 £55 including VAT contains £9.17, not £11.00. 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 £55 plus VAT?
- £55 plus 20% VAT is £66.00. The VAT element is £11.00. At the 5% reduced rate the total is £57.75, and at 0% it stays at £55.
- How much VAT is included in £55?
- If £55 already includes 20% VAT, the VAT inside it is £9.17 and the net amount is £45.83. You divide by 1.2 to find the net, then subtract to find the VAT.
- What is £55 minus VAT?
- £55 minus 20% VAT is £45.83. That assumes the £55 was a VAT inclusive price. If £55 was already the net price, there is no VAT to take off.
Cite this page: “VAT on £55”, SoleKit, https://solekit.co.uk/vat-calculator/55