GST / Tax Calculator

Almost every country in APAC charges some kind of consumption tax on goods and services sold within its borders. The principle is the same — a percentage added to the sale price, collected by the seller, remitted to the government — but the name varies. Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and India call it Goods and Services Tax (GST). Indonesia calls it PPN (Pajak Pertambahan Nilai). Japan calls it Consumption Tax / JCT. South Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines call it Value-Added Tax (VAT). Malaysia uses two parallel systems: Sales Tax (SST) on goods and Service Tax on services. Hong Kong famously charges nothing — no consumption tax of any kind. Whatever the name, the math is identical: the tax sits on top of the net price for an "add tax" calculation, or sits inside the gross price for a "remove tax" calculation.

Why the "remove tax" mode matters

The mathematical relationship is not symmetric — and that trips up surprisingly many people. To add 10% tax: net × 1.10 = gross. To remove 10% tax: gross / 1.10 = net. Notice the result is NOT the same as gross × 0.90 — that would give a different (and wrong) number. With 10% tax, a S$110 gross actually decomposes to S$100 net + S$10 tax (not S$99 net + S$11 tax). The higher the tax rate, the bigger the asymmetric error if you reach for the wrong formula. Use the Remove tax mode every time you need to back out tax from a receipt or invoice — manual mental math is almost always wrong above 5%.

A 10% tax on top of S$100 = S$110 gross. But removing 10% tax from S$110 gross does NOT mean subtracting S$11. The correct net is S$100, not S$99.

The APAC tax-rate landscape — current as of 2026

The numbers change every few years and the trend is upward. Singapore raised GST from 7% (held since 2007) to 8% in 2023 and to 9% in 2024. Malaysia abolished its GST in 2018, brought back SST that year, and in March 2024 raised the Service Tax from 6% to 8% for most services (still 6% for some categories like F&B and telecoms). Indonesia raised PPN from 10% to 11% in 2022; a planned move to 12% has been pushed back multiple times. Philippines VAT has been 12% since 2006 — among the highest in APAC. Thailand's 7% VAT has actually been a "temporarily reduced" rate since 1997 — the statutory rate is 10% but the reduction has been renewed every year for 28 years. Vietnam's VAT is 10% with a temporarily reduced 8% for some sectors. India has four GST slabs (5/12/18/28) plus zero-rated and exempt categories — picking the right slab depends on HSN code, not country. Japan's JCT was raised from 8% to 10% in 2019, with a reduced 8% rate kept for food and newspapers. South Korea's VAT has been 10% since 1977 — the longest unchanged consumption tax in APAC. China has multiple VAT brackets (most goods 13%, services 6%, agricultural 9%); Taiwan's VAT is 5%; Hong Kong charges no sales tax of any kind; Australia has held GST at 10% since 2000; New Zealand has held GST at 15% since 2010 (one of the few "broad-based" tax systems with very few exemptions, often used as a global model).

What this calculator can't tell you

It can't tell you whether a specific sale is taxable. Most jurisdictions exempt or zero-rate certain categories — Singapore exempts financial services and residential property sales; Malaysia has a long list of SST-exempt goods; India's HSN code system determines which of 4 slabs (or zero-rate) applies per item. It can't tell you whether you should be charging tax — that depends on your business's tax-registration status (most countries require registration only above an annual turnover threshold; Singapore is S$1m, Malaysia is RM500k, India is ₹40 lakh in most states). It can't replace tax advice — for anything beyond a quick calculation, talk to an accountant familiar with your jurisdiction.