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Connie Paid a sales tax of 8 percent

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DennaMueller
 Post subject: Connie Paid a sales tax of 8 percent
 Post Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 6:48 pm 
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Course Students


Posts: 15
Connie Paid a sales tax of 8 percent on her purchase. If the sales tax had been only 5%, she would have paid $12 less in sales tax on her purchase. What was the total amount that Connie paid for her purchase including sales tax?
    368
    380
    400
    420
    432

I actually got this problem right by picking numbers, but I would like to know how to set up an equation.

The answer is 432
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tomslawsky
 Post subject: Re: Connie Paid a sales tax of 8 percent
 Post Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 10:44 pm 
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Students


Posts: 138
1) Solve for price:

P(.08)= (.05P)-12

P=400

2) add sales tax:

400(1.08) = 432
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Ben Ku
 Post subject: Re: Connie Paid a sales tax of 8 percent
 Post Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:34 pm 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 823
Tom, Good approach on this problem.

If we let x be the purchase price, then the tax at 8% is 0.08x, and the tax at 5% is 0.05x. That is how the first equation is set up:
0.08x = 0.05x + 12
So x = 400.

Now she paid a sales tax of 8%, which is 0.08*400 = 32, so her total price is $432.

Hope that helps!

_________________
Ben Ku
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT
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