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!
Ahh pening. Hahaha I’ll just use calculator. 😛