VAT on £85
Add or remove VAT at 20%, 5%, 0% on £85, with the net, VAT and gross figures.
Adding 20% VAT to £85 gives £102.00, of which £17.00 is VAT. Removing 20% VAT from £85 gives £70.83 net, with £14.17 of VAT inside the price. At the 5% reduced rate the VAT is £4.25 when added and £4.05 when removed; at 0% nothing changes.
£85 at every VAT rate
| Calculation | Net | VAT | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add 20% | £85.00 | £17.00 | £102.00 |
| Remove 20% | £70.83 | £14.17 | £85.00 |
| Add 5% | £85.00 | £4.25 | £89.25 |
| Remove 5% | £80.95 | £4.05 | £85.00 |
| Add 0% | £85.00 | £0.00 | £85.00 |
| Remove 0% | £85.00 | £0.00 | £85.00 |
What £85 looks like with and without VAT
A £85 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 £14.17 of that £85 is tax you can reclaim on your return, leaving a net cost of £70.83. Without a valid VAT receipt you can still claim the £85 as an expense against profit, but not the VAT itself.
Working the other way, if you quote £85 before VAT and you are VAT registered, the customer pays £102.00: your £85 plus £17.00 that you collect for HMRC. At the 5% reduced rate, which applies to things like domestic energy and children's car seats, the same £85 becomes £89.25. Zero-rated items such as most food, books and children's clothing stay at £85 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 £85 including VAT contains £14.17, not £17.00. 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 £85 plus VAT?
- £85 plus 20% VAT is £102.00. The VAT element is £17.00. At the 5% reduced rate the total is £89.25, and at 0% it stays at £85.
- How much VAT is included in £85?
- If £85 already includes 20% VAT, the VAT inside it is £14.17 and the net amount is £70.83. You divide by 1.2 to find the net, then subtract to find the VAT.
- What is £85 minus VAT?
- £85 minus 20% VAT is £70.83. That assumes the £85 was a VAT inclusive price. If £85 was already the net price, there is no VAT to take off.
Cite this page: “VAT on £85”, SoleKit, https://solekit.co.uk/vat-calculator/85