Calculate 6% GST Without Calculator

 

We’ll probably be doing a lot of calculations for GST pretty soon.

A quick way to calculate 6% GST is to just see how many multiples of 6 you have.

There’s RM 6 of GST for every RM 100 of goods/services, or 6 sen for every 1 ringgit.

 

Example 1

The purchase price is a nice round number like RM 750. That would be 7.5 X 6.

Usually I’d just calculate (8 X 6) – 3 which comes to 45.

So GST for RM 750 is RM 45.

750 / 100 = 7.5
7.5 X 6 = (8 X 6) - 3 = 45

Example 2

The purchase price is a weird number like RM 279.50.

The GST is going to be RM12 + whatever is 6% of 79.50.

79.50 divided by 100 is around 0.8. So 0.8 X 6 comes to 4.8.

Minus off the 50 sen GST (which is simple, 0.5 X 6 sen =  3 sen).

So you have 4.77.

Add the 12 from earlier and you get 16.77.

I guess you could also do 2.8 X 6 and then minus 3 sen. But doing 2.8 X 6 in my head is harder.

279.50 = 200 + 79.50
79.50 = 80 - 0.50
80 / 100 = 0.8
0.8 X 6 = 4.80
GST on 50 sen = 0.5 X 6 sen = 3 sen
GST = 12 + 4.8 - 0.03 = 16.77

 

Here’s some pre-calculated GST values compared with our Malaysian currency denominations:

5 sen = GST 0.3 sen

10 sen = GST 0.6 sen

20 sen = GST 1.2 sen

50 sen = GST 3 sen

RM 1 = GST 6 sen

RM 5 = GST 30 sen

RM 10 = GST 60 sen

RM 20 = GST RM 1.20

RM 50 = GST RM 3

RM 100 = GST RM 6

 

Note that rounding amount to nearest 5 sen may apply.

Let’s say your bill is RM11.50 before GST & RM12.19 after GST. You may have to pay RM12.20 in the end.

 

 

Your tax invoice should display the total amount before and after tax.

But what if you see a price tag showing as RM 488 (incl. GST). How would you calculate the GST (and therefore the original price)?

You need to use a calculator to divide by 1.06.

488 / 1.06 = 460.38

 

Let me know in the comments below if you have any shortcut to share!