How Much Do You Pay In Gas Taxes?

Do you have any idea how much money you're paying to the government each time you fill up your gas tank? We're not just talking about the federal government. State and local governments across the U.S. are also getting in on that action!

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It's a question that's taken on more significance in recent weeks, with politicians up for re-election this year reacting to sharply inflating fuel prices by proposing a federal gas tax holiday. That could save you up to 18.4 cents a gallon, but how much would you save at the pump over the course of a full year?

We've a tool to help estimate how much you'll pay in vehicle fuel taxes this year and to answer questions like that.

For the default data, we find that 20.7% of what was paid for fuel at the pump for this single vehicle went to the federal, state, and local government. $66.91 of that was for federal fuel taxes, which is a little under 4.8% of what was paid for fuel in the default example. The more that fuel prices rise, the smaller the benefit you might get from having the federal fuel tax suspended would be in terms of your annual fuel bill.

The default data in the tool is based on the applicable fuel excise taxes, sales taxes, and government-mandated fees that applied to fuel sales in Erie County in New York in January 2022. We've simplified the local sales tax calculation to make the math more generally applicable to other jurisdictions, so it won't perfectly match the more precise sales tax math that specifically applies in Erie County.

While these state and local taxes are high, they're not the worse in the U.S. For that scenario, replace the default data with California's fuel taxes and fees. For the numbers that would matter most to you, update the tool with the fuel tax data that applies for your state.