Question

Melissa plans to purchase a pair of jeans for $39.95. She wants to bring enough money to pay for the jeans plus the sales tax, which is 8.25%. What is her total, including sales tax?

Answer 1

You have to calculate the 8.25% of $39.95, then add the numbers together. 
So: 8.25% of 39.95 = 3.3 (approximately)
The total is 39.95 + 3.3 = 43.25

Another method is to simply calculate the 108.25% of 39.95, you can get this by multiplying 39.95 with 1.0825.