The Gas Tax
The American Petroleum Institute’s Gasoline Tax interactive map allows users to check out each state and the United States average state excise tax, other state taxes/fees, total state taxes/fees and total state and federal taxes.
Some of the states with the highest federal and state gasoline tax include:
- New York — 68.90 cents
- California — 68.18 cents
- Connecticut — 67.70 cents
- Hawaii — 66.85 cents
Some of the states with the lowest federal and state gasoline tax include:
- New Jersey — 32.90 cents
- South Carolina — 35.15 cents
- Oklahoma — 35.40 cents
- Virginia — 35.68 cents
- Missouri — 35.70 cents
The federal government adds 18.40 cents per gallon in each state. That federal tax is higher than the total state taxes for the states of New Jersey, South Carolina, Virginia, Oklahoma and Missouri.
High gasoline taxes from the states and federal government have a huge impact on gas prices at the pump. This is a heavy burden that the consumers are having to bear the brunt. The federal government and many states feel that the increased revenue from the gas tax is beneficial and that it will encourage less gasoline consumption and more alternative fuels/transportation. However, these excessive and usually unnecessary taxes directly hurt American consumers and damage the United States economy. This tax should be a really low flat tax across the nation creating a fairer and less burdensome tax, while still generating revenue for the states and/or federal government.
Please don’t disregard the fact that there are numerous other taxes, income taxes, payroll taxes, property taxes, excise taxes, etc, etc, etc, that are being paid using money that is received from consumers in exchange for the petroleum products that they recieve. It is likely that there are 30 or more seperately named and seperately functioning taxes and fees that are paid to numerous governments with the cost being embedded in the prices that we, as consumers, pay for petroleum products. My best W. A. G. at the total: At least 65% of the prices that we pay are actually the indirect costs of governments that are being dumped into the supply chains rather than being the direct cost of the products which we are purchasing.
But then there is little unique about energy prices: Regardless of what we are buying, the prices we pay likely consists of more cost of government than direct cost of the item(s).
Lloyd,
Please consider going a little further on this topic to discover and then report by state and federal level how much of the fuel taxes(diesel and gas) is used for funding things not related to vehicular traffic.
What I mean is how much of the fuel taxes are put into general fund or such.
Thank you Tom and Charles. Wanted to highlight the unique interactive map I found. I might expand this topic further. Thank you for your suggestions.
Let’s not get too hung up on what we call any tax: The name that a particular tax payment is given is based on the way the amount of the tax is calculated, not on the way the tax is paid. All taxes, regardless of what they have been named, are paid using money that has been received as income: Effectively, all taxes of all kinds are income taxes. It is the aggregate total that counts and when our nation has about 27,000 governments, local, state and federal combined all of whom levy various taxes the names of taxes become meaningless except as obfuscation.