In the example, a shirt costing $34.99 with sales tax of $2.10 implies a sales tax rate of

• A. 4 percent
• B. 5 percent
• C. 7 percent
• D. 6 percent

Answer: (D)

This tests how to find the sales tax rate from the tax amount and the pre-tax price. The rate is the tax divided by the price before tax. So rate = 2.10 ÷ 34.99 ≈ 0.0600, which is about 6.0%. You can check by multiplying: 34.99 × 0.06 = 2.0994, which rounds to 2.10. Therefore, the tax rate is about 6 percent. The other percentages would produce different tax amounts (e.g., 4% would give about 1.40, 5% about 1.75, 7% about 2.45), so 6% fits best.