Target is having a Back to School sale where all polo shirts are discounted by 20%. Joshua wants to buy five shirts: two cost $10.98 each, one costs $11.50, and two others cost $15.99 each. By law, sales tax is calculated on the discounted price of the shirts. Would the total cost of the shirts including the 6.5% sales tax be greater if the tax was applied before a 20% discount is taken, rather than after a 20% discount is taken?

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Mathematics

10 November, 13:26

Target is having a Back to School sale where all polo shirts are discounted by 20%. Joshua wants to buy five shirts: two cost $10.98 each, one costs $11.50, and two others cost $15.99 each. By law, sales tax is calculated on the discounted price of the shirts. Would the total cost of the shirts including the 6.5% sales tax be greater if the tax was applied before a 20% discount is taken, rather than after a 20% discount is taken?

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Julien English · Answer 1

Both cases will give the same price

Step-by-step explanation:

The total purchase that Joshua do will be:

2 * $10.98 + 1 * $11.50 + 2 * $15.99 = $65.44

Let's compare the price for both scenario

1. If the tax added before discount

taxed price $65.44 * (100+6.5) % = $69.6936

discounted price = $69.6936 * (100-20) % = $55.75488

2. If the tax added after the discount

discounted price = $65.44 * (100-20) % = $52.352

taxed price $52.352 * (100+6.5%) = 55.75488

Both prices will be the same since the operation in this calculation is only multiplication.