Question

The new bill is $\$ 60$, but the sales tax is $5\% $ of the bill. How much is sales tax?

Answer 1

Hint:Start by converting the sales tax from percentage to decimal. Then we will set up the value of the bill as $x$. Then we will solve for the value of $x$. Then round off the value of $x$ to the nearest cent to make the calculations easier to understand.

Complete step by step answer:
First we will start off by assuming that the sales tax of $5\% $ is applied after the $\$ 60$ bill.
Now first we will first convert the percentage to a decimal $5\% = 0.5$.
We know that the total bill is $\$ 60$.
Then we will set the bill before the tax equal to $x$.
$x + 0.5x = \$ 60$
Now, we will solve for the value of $x$.
$
x + 0.5x = \$ 60 \\
1.05x = \$ 60 \\
x = \$ 57.14 \\
$
Here, we have rounded it to the nearest cent.
Now if we subtract the price before the sales tax from the price after sales tax from the price after sales tax to find the sales tax.
$
= \$ 60 - \$ 57.14 \\
= \$ 2.86 \\
$
Hence, the sales tax is $\$ 2.86$.
Additional information:
The sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase.
The formula for the sales tax is:
Total sales tax = Cost of item $ \times $ Sales tax rate.

Note: While mentioning the definition, make sure to mention the terms properly. While forming any equation, read the statements twice to avoid any mistakes. Make different and separate equations for different equations. Do not use the same variable again and again.