Disclaimer

TaxesLedger publishes free sales tax, VAT and GST/HST calculators and the reference pages that explain them. This page sets out, in one place, what those tools can and cannot tell you. The binding legal terms — no warranty, and the limit of our liability — are in the Terms of Service; this page explains how they apply in practice.

1. General information, not advice

Every calculator result, worked example, rate table, FAQ answer and guide on this site is general information. None of it is tax, accounting, legal or financial advice, and using the site does not create an adviser–client relationship or any other professional relationship.

The site is built and maintained by M. Imtinan Farooq, a data engineer who works on financial data systems — not a CPA, enrolled agent, chartered accountant or tax attorney. Nothing here should be read as coming from one. The editorial policy explains who writes the site and how its figures are checked.

2. Calculator results are estimates

A calculator multiplies a stored rate by the numbers you enter. It cannot know whether your particular item or service is taxable, exempt, zero-rated or reduced-rated; whether you or your customer holds an exemption or resale certificate; which jurisdiction has the right to tax the sale; whether shipping, discounts, trade-ins or bundled items change the taxable amount; or whether you are required to register at all. Those questions decide most real tax outcomes, and none of them can be answered from a rate.

Results are also rounded for display. Point-of-sale systems and tax returns round in different ways — per line, per invoice or per period — so a real receipt can differ from a calculator by a cent or more.

3. Rates change, and a page can lag

Rates are compiled from the revenue authorities listed on the tax data sources page and re-checked on the schedule described there. They still move: a legislature can set a new rate years in advance, a council can change a municipal levy with a few weeks' notice, and a special taxing district can begin or end part-way through a year. When a change is already law and we know about it, the affected pages say so in advance and give the date it takes effect. When we have not caught a change yet, the page is wrong until we do.

Before you rely on a rate for a return, an invoice or a price, confirm it with the authority that sets it — a state Department of Revenue, the Canada Revenue Agency or a provincial ministry, HMRC, or the tax authority of the country concerned.

4. ZIP code and postal code pages are approximations

US ZIP codes and Canadian postal codes are mail-delivery routes, not tax boundaries. One ZIP code can cross city, county and special-district lines, so two addresses in the same ZIP can owe different combined rates. The site's ZIP, city and postal-code pages give the rate that applies across most of the area and note the exceptions we know of. For the exact rate at one address, use the revenue authority's own address lookup — how to find the sales tax rate for an address walks through it, and why ZIP code lookups get the rate wrong explains where the gaps come from.

5. VAT and GST/HST pages

The VAT and GST/HST calculators apply the standard and reduced rates published by each country's tax authority or the European Commission. They do not decide the place of supply, whether the reverse charge applies, whether a supply is exempt, or whether a seller must register — questions that often settle the outcome of a cross-border sale. Pages published in other languages use the same rate data as the English pages.

6. No government affiliation

TaxesLedger is independent. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the IRS, any US state or District of Columbia revenue department, the Canada Revenue Agency, Revenu Québec, HMRC, the European Commission, or any other government body. The site links to those authorities so that you can check our figures against the source.

7. Advertising and independence

The site is free to use and supported by advertising served through Google AdSense. Google selects the advertisements automatically; we do not choose individual ads, and an advertisement beside a calculator is not an endorsement of the advertiser. Advertisers have no say in our rates, rankings, guides or which tools exist. The site carries no sponsored pages, paid placements or affiliate links. How advertising cookies work, and how to opt out of personalised advertising, is covered in the privacy policy.

8. Links to other websites

The site links out to statutes, revenue-authority pages and municipal by-laws, because a claim about tax is only as good as its source. Those sites are not ours: we do not control their content, accuracy, availability or privacy practices, and a link is not an endorsement. Official pages move, so a citation can break before we notice — if you find one, please tell us.

9. Calculators embedded on other sites

A calculator embedded elsewhere through the widget produces the same estimates as the calculators here, under the same limits. A site that embeds one does not become our agent, and we are not responsible for the content around it.

10. Errors and corrections

If a figure looks wrong, report it through the contact page with the page address and, if you have it, a link to the official source. The editorial and corrections policy sets out how reports are verified: we aim to acknowledge a report within 2 business days and to resolve a confirmed rate error within 5.

11. Where the legal terms are

Section 9 of the Terms of Service contains the no-warranty and limitation-of-liability terms that govern use of the site. This page summarises how they apply; where the two differ, the Terms of Service govern.