VAT question - urgent!!!

[debster]

I'm sorry to be so boring but I'm currently at work and no-one here can answer my question. If you have a gross figure how can you easily calculate the net? Is there a formula you can use or a simple number you just multiply the gross figure by? I have a gross amount of £68.10 (including the VAT) but need to know what the figure before VAT was added would be. Any finance genii out there?

[SoupDragon]

You just divide by 1.175!

68.10 gross is 57.95745 excl VAT. Obviously you need to play about with the rounding.

[SoupDragon]

... that is you divide the GROSS figure by 1.175

[debster]

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't believe I've been so stupid! I knew that if you multiplied the net figure by 1.175 you got the gross amount but for some reaspon had a complete mental block about doing it the other way round. You have saved my sanity SoupDragon

[SoupDragon]

I've had to work it out myself recently. It's nice to know my brain still works, even though I can't remember where I've left my children half the time... (joke! )

[SueW]

You can also multiply the gross amount by 7/47 to find the amount of VAT (or 40/47 to find the net amount).

Gross 68.10 Net 57.96 VAT 10.14

[chinchilla]

OR divide the gross figure by 117.5 and multiply by 100!!

[debster]

Wow isn't Mumsnet amazing

[salalex]

So that's us VAT inspectors redundant then!!!
(No cheering now)!

[SueW]

salalex. We need you for the really hard bits like whether something is VATable and at what %. And to give us a definitive answer instead of our ploughing through mountains of leaflets sent out. Oh, and to be there when the leaflets are out of print!

[salalex]

Ah thanks SueW, I feel all warm inside now - or is it the whisky! I didn't fly to the Midlands BTW, just 7 hours on the train with 2 DDs!!