Toman, rial and Iranian VAT
The rial is Iran's official currency and the unit an invoice and a tax return are stated in. The toman is not a separate currency — it is a customary unit worth ten rials, and it is what shop prices, menus and everyday conversation use. The percentage is the same either way, because a proportion does not care about units; what breaks is mixing them, and a figure read as toman when it was rial is out by a factor of ten before any tax is applied.
The same amount at each Iranian rate
| Standard | 10.00% | 1/11 | IRR 100.00 | IRR 10.00 | IRR 110.00 |
An estimate, not legal advice. Rules vary by jurisdiction and change over time. Check the current position with a qualified professional before relying on it.
One toman is ten rials. The tax rate is identical in both; only the magnitude of the numbers changes.
Work the whole calculation in one unit. Convert once, at the start, and never mid-way.
Invoices and returns are in rial even where the shelf price was in toman.
How it works
The formula
Adding VAT to a net amount:
vat = round(net x rate / 100)
gross = net + vat
Removing VAT from a gross amount:
vat = round(gross x rate / (100 + rate))
net = gross - vat
Iranian rates and their VAT fractions:
Standard from 1403 10% 1/11
Standard to 1402 9% 9/109
A rise that made the arithmetic easier, which is
rare. 9/109 reduces to nothing; 1/11 is exact.
One toman is ten rials. The rate is identical in
both; only the magnitude changes.
round = to the nearest minor unit, half up.
Only the VAT is rounded. The third figure is derived
from the other two, so net + vat = gross exactly.
What it assumes
- The standard rate is 10% and has applied since the start of the Iranian year 1403, on 20 March 2024. It was 9% before that, which is why the typed-rate field starts there rather than on nothing.
- Only the standard rate is offered as a band. The VAT Act sets specific rates for named goods — cigarettes, petrol, jet fuel — and the published figures for those disagree between sources, with no primary text available to settle them. A rate this tool cannot source is a rate it does not offer.
- One toman is ten rials. The tool applies a percentage and is therefore unit-agnostic; it formats through the rial because that is Iran's ISO currency, so a toman figure will carry a rial label. The number is right and the unit is whichever you typed.
- Rounding is half up with no option, as on every country tool here except UK VAT. Nothing Iranian is cited for an equivalent to the HMRC concession.
- Exempt supplies are outside the charge rather than taxed at nil, so their input tax is not recoverable. That distinction is not something this tool can compute.
- Iran's tax authority publishes mainly in Persian and English-language figures are largely secondary. Check anything here that a decision depends on.
Common questions
Does the VAT rate change between toman and rial?
No. Ten per cent of a price is ten per cent of that price whatever unit it is counted in, so the rate, the fraction and the arithmetic are identical. The only thing that changes is how many digits the answer has. The error people actually make is arithmetic on a mixture — a net in toman and a tax in rial — which produces a figure that is wrong by ten times and looks plausible.
Which unit should I type into this tool?
Either, as long as it is the same one throughout. The tool applies a percentage and reports the three figures in whatever you gave it. Because it formats through the rial as the country's ISO currency, a toman figure will be labelled as rial — the number is right and the label is the unit you chose, which is the usual compromise on any Iranian price display.
Sources
Method written and checked by Tessalor on Jul 31, 2026.
The full method, worked example and every assumption behind this figure are on Iranian VAT Calculator.