UK VAT Calculator for Clothing: The Short Answer
A boutique owner holds a supplier invoice for £50 per hoodie before VAT and wants to know the price on the label. A founder looks at a competitor's £60 shelf price and wants to know what is left once VAT is removed. The UK VAT calculator for clothing handles both. At the standard rate of 20%, £50 before VAT becomes £60 including VAT, and £60 including VAT contains £10 of VAT, which is one sixth of the price. Choose the direction, enter the amount and read the answer.
Most clothing sold in the UK carries the standard rate, but some garments for young children can be zero-rated. Both cases are covered below, with the conditions in plain terms and a pointer to the official guidance, because the rate you charge is a legal question, not a pricing preference.
Use the UK VAT Calculator for Clothing
Select whether you want to add VAT to a price that excludes it or remove VAT from a price that includes it. Pick the rate, enter the amount and, if you are working from an invoice, the number of pieces. The UK VAT calculator for clothing returns the price before VAT, the VAT, the price including VAT and the share of the gross price that is VAT.
UK VAT calculator for clothing
Add or remove VAT
Shows VAT at the rate you choose. It does not decide whether a garment qualifies for a rate, and it does not cover VAT registration, reclaim or partial exemption.
The pieces box multiplies the answer, which helps when you are checking a whole order. The UK VAT calculator for clothing is deliberately simple, because the arithmetic is simple; the value is in applying it consistently. A quick check is to reverse the result: enter the gross price in remove mode and confirm that you get back the net price you started with. If the figures do not reconcile, one of the two numbers was on the wrong basis.
How to Add VAT to a Clothing Price
Adding VAT is a multiplication. At the standard rate of 20%, multiply the price before VAT by 1.2. The result is the price including VAT, and the difference is the VAT you will pass to HMRC. Retailers selling to consumers normally show prices including VAT, so the shelf price is the net price multiplied by 1.2, perhaps rounded to a price point.
Adding 20% VAT to common net prices
| Price before VAT | VAT at 20% | Price including VAT |
|---|---|---|
| £10 | £2.00 | £12.00 |
| £20 | £4.00 | £24.00 |
| £25 | £5.00 | £30.00 |
| £50 | £10.00 | £60.00 |
| £100 | £20.00 | £120.00 |
Calculated as net × 0.2 for the VAT and net × 1.2 for the gross price. Illustrative amounts.
The same multiplication applies to a whole invoice. A £2,000 order of garments sold on standard-rate terms carries £400 of VAT, and the buyer pays £2,400. If your customer is a VAT-registered business, they normally treat the VAT as input tax rather than a cost, which is why trade prices are quoted before VAT. For the step from a trade price to a shelf price, our wholesale to retail price calculator combines the markup and the VAT in one place.
How to Remove VAT From a Clothing Price
Removing VAT is a division, and it is where mistakes happen. At 20%, divide the price including VAT by 1.2. Do not take 20% off the gross price: 20% of £60 is £12, but the VAT in a £60 price is only £10, because the VAT was charged on the net price and not on the gross one. The VAT in a gross price at 20% is always one sixth of it.
Removing 20% VAT from common shelf prices
| Price including VAT | Price before VAT | VAT in the price |
|---|---|---|
| £24 | £20.00 | £4.00 |
| £36 | £30.00 | £6.00 |
| £48 | £40.00 | £8.00 |
| £60 | £50.00 | £10.00 |
| £90 | £75.00 | £15.00 |
Calculated as gross ÷ 1.2 for the net price and gross − net for the VAT. Illustrative amounts.
If you are benchmarking a competitor, remove the VAT first and compare net prices with your own wholesale and retail prices. If you are pricing for consumers, work from the net price you need and add VAT last. Doing the maths in the other order is the most common cause of a margin that looks fine on a spreadsheet but falls short in the bank.
Standard Rate and Zero Rate for Clothing
The standard rate of VAT in the UK is 20%, and it applies to most clothing and footwear. A zero rate applies to clothing designed for young children, if it meets HMRC's conditions. The conditions are specific, so a garment is not zero-rated just because it is small or sold in a children's department.
When young children's clothing can be zero-rated
| Condition | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| An article of clothing or footwear | Accessories such as hair slides and headbands are not clothing and are standard-rated |
| Designed for young children | HMRC uses size tables based on children up to the eve of their 14th birthday; larger sizes need HMRC's written agreement |
| Suitable only for young children | A single-size garment that would fit both a child and an adult cannot be zero-rated |
| Not made of fur | Items wholly or partly of fur skin are standard-rated; artificial fur can still qualify |
| Held out for sale as children's clothing | Labels, packaging, displays and listings must make the intended age clear |
A summary of HMRC's published conditions for orientation. The official notice is the authority; check it before you apply a zero rate.
If you are unsure whether a garment qualifies, read HMRC VAT Notice 714 on young children's clothing and footwear and ask HMRC or a tax adviser. Charging the wrong rate can mean paying VAT you did not collect. Current rates and rules are listed on GOV.UK VAT rates.
Which Price Should You Show: Net or Gross?
The right basis depends on the customer. Trade customers, such as shops and other brands, are normally quoted prices before VAT, because they account for VAT themselves. Consumers must be shown a price that includes VAT. Mixing the two on one price list or one website is a common source of confusion, so label every price clearly.
Illustrative split of a £30 shelf price including 20% VAT
- Retailer's garment cost41.7%
- Retailer's gross profit41.7%
- VAT16.7%
Illustrative. £12.50 garment cost, £12.50 gross profit and £5.00 VAT make up the £30.00 shelf price; shares are rounded to one decimal place.
The pie shows why prices including VAT overstate what the seller earns. A sixth of the shelf price is not revenue; it belongs to HMRC. When you compare your price with a competitor's or judge your margin, always use the price before VAT. Our clothing profit margin calculator expects net prices for exactly this reason.
VAT on Imported Clothing Is a Different Calculation
Adding VAT to your own selling price is simple. VAT on imports follows a different method, because it is charged at the border on a value that includes the goods, shipping and duty. If you buy clothing from overseas, the import VAT is a separate step from the VAT you charge your customers. Our import tax calculator for the UK works through duty and import VAT on a consignment, and the landed cost calculator shows how those taxes feed into your cost per piece.
VAT as a share of the VAT-inclusive price
Share of the gross price
Arithmetic from VAT ÷ (1 + rate). Shows how much of a gross price is VAT at each rate.
Whether you can reclaim the VAT you pay on imports depends on your own VAT position, so check with an adviser. What matters for pricing is that the VAT you charge customers and the VAT you pay at the border are separate flows, and only the first appears on your shelf price.
Common VAT Pricing Mistakes in Clothing
The same few errors turn up whenever a brand moves from a first order to regular trading. Most come from mixing net and gross figures, and all are easy to avoid once you know them.
VAT habits to copy and to drop
Good habits
- Keep a net price as your working price and add VAT last
- Label every price list as before or including VAT
- Remove VAT by dividing by 1.2, not by taking 20% off
- Check the zero-rate conditions before charging 0%
Habits to drop
- Comparing a gross competitor price with your net price
- Taking 20% off a VAT-inclusive price
- Assuming any children's garment is zero-rated
- Forgetting that import VAT and sales VAT are separate
General guidance, not tax advice. Your accountant or HMRC can confirm your position.
A UK VAT calculator for clothing is only as good as the basis of the number you enter. When you read a price, ask first whether VAT is in it, and write the answer next to the figure.
A Four-Step VAT Check for Every Price
Run this routine whenever you set or compare a price, and VAT stops being a source of surprises.
Checking VAT on a clothing price
- 1Identify the basisDecide whether the figure is before or including VAT.
- 2Confirm the rateStandard 20%, or zero only if the garment qualifies.
- 3ConvertMultiply by 1.2 to add VAT, divide by 1.2 to remove it.
- 4Compare like with likeUse net prices to judge margin and gross prices to judge shelf appeal.
Keep the check with your costing sheet, so the next person who reads a price can tell at a glance what it contains.
How Ruhrose Helps You Price Clearly
Ruhrose develops hoodies, fleece, jersey, denim and woven casualwear for UK buyers, with production in Bangladesh. We quote on a clear basis, explain what is and is not included in a price and sample before bulk, so your costing starts from numbers you understand. Our guide to pricing clothing for wholesale and retail carries the thinking further, and Ruhrose's clothing manufacturing pages show what we make.
Before you publish a price, ask yourself one question: would a stranger reading it know whether VAT is included?