GMAT Practice Question: Of the total amount that Jill spent on a shopping trip, excluding taxes, she spent 50 percent on...
Question
Of the total amount that Jill spent on a shopping trip, excluding taxes, she spent 50 percent on clothing, 20 percent on food, and 30 percent on other items. If Jill paid a 4 percent tax on the clothing, no tax on the food, and an 8 percent tax on all other items, then the total tax that she paid was what percent of the total amount that she spent, excluding taxes?
- 2.8 %
- 3.6 %
- 4.4 %
- 5.2 %
- 6.0 %
Topics: word problems, percentages, translations
Solution
Step 1
We first create a variable for the total pre-tax spending, letting T represent this amount.
T=total pre-tax spending
Step 2
We translate the spending percentages from the question into decimal expressions: "50 percent", "20 percent", and "30 percent" of T.
Clothing=50/100T=0.5T Food=20/100T=0.2T Other=30/100T=0.3T
Step 3
We translate the tax rates from the question into decimal multipliers: "4 percent tax on the clothing", "no tax on the food", and "8 percent tax on all other items".
Tax on clothing=0.040.5T=0.02T Tax on food=00.2T=0 Tax on other=0.080.3T=0.024T
Step 4
We add the taxes and convert to a percentage of T.
Total tax=0.02T+0.024T=0.044T Total taxT100%=0.044100%=4.4%
Answer
4.4%
