State Gasoline Taxes - Best Data

I was about to embark on a project to calculate true gasoline taxes for each state, when I realized the American Petroleum Institute (API) has done this, apparently recently. I don't recall seeing these state-by-state one pagers before.

Knowing your gasoline tax is complex because you have Fed+State+Regional+Local+Special Fees. The way API handles the local variations is by giving an apparently very accurate state average of taxes. So I wish we had more data on specific regions within states, but I am willing to accept an accurate state average as a place to start.

STATE-By-STATE One Page Summaries
http://www.api.org/~/media/files/statistics/statemotorfuel-onepagers-july-2015.pdf

USA MAP
Gasoline Tax

 

Well you did not read the fine print (on California). The fine print on Ca. says the state tax total as shown does not include the impact of AB32. AB32 is California's new carbon tax on gasoline. California decided to invoice the oil companies directly for this tax, so as to keep it hidden as a gasoline tax. So Pa. may not be king, but you're getting close. I try to fill up in MD now on my way to hometown Pgh.

Also Ca. I believe was up to about 72 cents, but they brought it back down...guess they had some temporary increases.

 

Yeah I do my Mom's Pa. taxes every year, and my kids when they went to college there. We almost moved back to your neck of the woods for the lower taxes but instead our kids moved down here from NJ a couple years back.

>>Where we can improve on the API data is if folks can elaborate on regional differences in their state (if any). I can handle Va. which is slightly complex. Might make a Wikipedia article like this.

VIRGINIA
The API data shows Va. average excise tax 19.8 cents/gal, but Virginia basically has two excise taxes. The base excise tax is 16.2 cents per gal, which is adjusted every 6 months (5.1% of wholesale with a floor at 16.2 cents). However, about half of the state pays an additional 2.1% retail price excise tax for mass transit (about 5 or 6 cents/gal extra). This includes northern Virginia and Hampton Roads (coastal Virginia). The extra 2.1% tax currently has no floor, so the actual amount of the tax can vary with pump price.

The other gasoline fees that Virginia adds seem to be equal over the state, resulting in an average state tax (per API) of about 22.3 cents/gal before the Federal tax is added in. So if you live in northern Va. or Hampton Roads, you're probably seeing about 25.3 cents/gal state tax at the pump, whereas the rest of Virginia (RoVA) is seeing more like 19.3 cents/gal state tax.

Coincidentally, the same basic regions with higher state gasoline tax (northern Virginia and Hampton Roads) also must use EPA reformulated gasoline which typically costs about 20-30 cents/gal more. Northern Va. typically pays about national average for gasoline, whereas as rural/southern Va. has some of the lowest gasoline prices in the entire USA.

(this is important tax info for consumers because many decades ago, Congress decided to forbid gasoline stations from showing the taxes on the receipt, so there is no way to know the state taxes except via estimates like this)