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GMATinsight
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Kesha paid a sales tax of x percent on her purchase. If the sales tax 08 Mar 2026, 00:33
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She paid x%
if Sales tax were (2)%

Saving = $27

i.e. (x-2)% of Sales = 27
i.e. (x-2/100)*a = 27----(1)

Also, Sales + x% of sales = 486

i.e. a*(1+x/100) = 486----(2)

Dividing (1) by (2)

(x-2)/(100+x) = 1/18
i.e. 18x - 36 = 100+x
i.e. x = 136/17 = 8

Answer: Option A



MrWhite
Kesha paid a sales tax of x percent on her purchase. If the sales tax had only been 2 percent, she would have paid $27 less in sales tax on her purchase. What was the value of x if the total amount Kesha paid for her purchase, including sales tax, was $486?

(A) 8
(B) 7
(C) 6
(D) 5
(E) 4­
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Vineetguptarath
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Kesha paid a sales tax of x percent on her purchase. If the sales tax 19 Mar 2026, 11:49
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let amount excluding tax be 100y

100y + x % of 100 y = 486

100y + 2 % of 100 y = 486 -27 = 459

y = 4.5


amount excluding tax = 450

x % of 450 = 486 - 450

x/100 * 450 = 36

x = 36/4.5 = 8

x = 8
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Kesha paid a sales tax of x percent on her purchase. If the sales tax 05 Jun 2026, 03:05
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One of the quick solutions would be
we have (x-2) % = 27
and (x+100) % = 486
Remove percentage and cross multiply
(x-2) x 486 = (x+100) x 27
Solving this we would easily get x = 8 Which is option A
MrWhite
Kesha paid a sales tax of x percent on her purchase. If the sales tax had only been 2 percent, she would have paid $27 less in sales tax on her purchase. What was the value of x if the total amount Kesha paid for her purchase, including sales tax, was $486?

(A) 8
(B) 7
(C) 6
(D) 5
(E) 4­
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HarshavardhanR
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Kesha paid a sales tax of x percent on her purchase. If the sales tax 05 Jun 2026, 20:28
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Kesha paid a sales tax of x percent on her purchase. If the sales tax 14 Jun 2026, 13:43
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initial amount before tax = P
sales tax = x%
tax amount = px/100

now if tax had been 2%, amount paid on tax would have been 27$
tax amount on 2% = 2p/100

2p/100 = px/100 - 27

upon solving this, we get p = 2700/x-2

now with x% sales tax, she paid total 486.

p+ px/100 = 486

put value of p.
(2700/x-2) (100+x/100) = 486

upon solving this we get,
x= 8

choice A

MrWhite
Kesha paid a sales tax of x percent on her purchase. If the sales tax had only been 2 percent, she would have paid $27 less in sales tax on her purchase. What was the value of x if the total amount Kesha paid for her purchase, including sales tax, was $486?

(A) 8
(B) 7
(C) 6
(D) 5
(E) 4­
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Kesha paid a sales tax of x percent on her purchase. If the sales tax 11 Jul 2026, 11:36
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You definitely want to write an equation that includes the dollar amount you're given, in this case $486. And you should always know that the price you pay "at the cash register", so to speak, is the initial price, let's say p, times (1 + sales tax rate).

So we should write:

p(1 + x/100) = 486

That's your first equation.

Now we'll make use of the rest of the information to write a second equation. If the sales tax were 2%, the price you pay at the cash register, p(1.02), would be $486 MINUS $27.

So p(1.02) = 459

We can solve for p:

p = 459 / 1.02

Multiply the right-hand side by 100/100 to eliminate the decimals:

p = 45,900 / 102

With a little long division, we'll see that p = 450. The initial price of the item Kesha purchased was $450.

Now that we know the price of the item, we can do one of two things to find x.

First approach -

Ask, "486 is how much bigger than 450?" It turns out that 486 divided by 450 = 1.08, so the sales tax is 8%. x = 8.

Second approach -

Focus on the DIFFERENCE between x% and 2%, something that high-scoring students would focus on when they see that the DIFFERENCE in the sales tax paid was $27.

The sales taxes we have here are x/100 and 2/100. Therefore

(x - 2)/100 * 450 = 27

Now you can begin "backsolving", i.e., plugging answer choices into that equation to see which answer leads to a result of $27.

If we test 8:

(8 - 2)/100 * 450 = 6/100 * 450 = 27

The answer is A.
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