Gross Amount to Nett Amount

[chrissa1]

Can anyone tell me how to work out the following figures?

I want to work out the VAT on a figure that has been derived from an amount that has had 21.5% taken off it. In other words, I know the amount I have been paid but need to know what I would have been paid before the 21.5% was taken off so that I can work out the VAT on the Nett figure to claim it back. Clear as mud??

I can do it for VAT @17.5%, as it is the gross x 7 divided by 47.

Help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Buenchico]

If 21.5% has been taken off, that means that you've been left with 78.5% of the original amount. i.e. the original amount has been multiplied by 0.785.

So to reverse the operation you must perform the inverse operation:
DIVIDE BY 0.785

Chris

[chrissa1]

Thanks for that Chris. However my middle finger has been going 16 to the dozen!! It's the way I've been using the calculator that's been the problem. Sooo, it's the figure, then divide, then plus, then 0.785, then equals. I think?!?!

[Buenchico]

AAAGH!!!

I posted a reply to your secondary question last night and it's vanished!!!

The 'plus' key' shouldn't come into it. The calculation is simply as follows:
Amount
�
0.785
=

BTW: Please shoot your old maths teacher ;-)
You seem to have been taught to increase or decrease amounts, by a given percentage, in two stages. You should have been taught to do it in one stage, because it's quicker and it makes 'undoing' the operation far simpler.

e.g. to add 17.5% onto something, simply multiply it by 1.175.
If you know the final (VAT inclusive) amount and you want to get back to the original (without VAT) amount, divide by 1.175

Similarly, to add 15% VAT onto a price, multiply it by 1.15.
To go the other way (from the VAT-inclusive price to the non-VAT price), divide by 1.15.

Chris

[chrissa1]

Thanks Chris. As ever, what a star!!!!!!!