Add making charges and tax to the gold value to estimate what a piece of jewellery should cost.
A jeweller's price is built from three parts. First is the value of the gold, which is the weight, times the karat divided by 24, times the price of pure gold. Second is the making charge, which pays for design, labour and wastage, and is quoted either as a percentage of the gold value or as a fixed amount per gram. Third is tax: VAT, GST or sales tax, which in many countries applies to the gold value plus the making charge. The calculator adds these in that order and shows each line, so you can see where the money goes.
Making charges differ a lot. Plain chains and bangles usually carry lower charges than intricate, handmade or branded pieces, and machine-made items are cheaper to produce than hand-finished ones. The same design can have different charges from one shop to the next, and some shops will negotiate or reduce the making charge for larger purchases. The default values in the calculator are placeholders: please replace them with the numbers your shop quotes. Tax rates also differ by country and by product, so enter the rate that applies where you are buying.
Ask the shop for the gold rate it is using, the making charge and the tax as separate lines. Then enter them here and compare the total with the quote. If the shop's gold rate is above the live rate for that karat, or the making charge is unusually high, you can ask why. Two shops with the same total may have different mixes of rate and making charge, and the cheapest quote is not always the best if the purity is not certified. Read how gold jewellery is priced for a full worked example.
