For example in this problem:
The student council ordered 350 flowers to sell at school. The carnations cost $0.75 each and the roses cost $1.25 each. There are four times as many carnations as there are roses. If the sales tax rate is 7.75%, how much money did the student council collect.
Ok so in that do I add the sales tax to the total or subtract it away?
the sales tax is added to the total, since it was collected
If you need to calculate the sales tax, multiply 7.75% by the sum of 350/4 * 1.25 + 350 – 350/4.
If the math problem does not ask you to calculate the sales tax, I wouldn’t as they don’t get to keep that tax….