How much tax does your state charge on gasoline? What makes up the price of a gallon? (2024)

FAQs

How much tax does your state charge on gasoline? What makes up the price of a gallon? ›

The State of Florida also levies 14.1 cents per gallon in Motor Fuel Taxes. Local governments levy anywhere from 9.6 cents per gallon in Franklin and Okaloosa Counties to 17.5 cents in several counties, creating a range of 42.1 cents in total fuel taxes and inspection fees to 52.29 cents.

The Energy Information Administration boiled it down to four general categories. Crude oil is the biggest piece of the pie making up about 57% of the price of a gallon of gas as of 2022. Then comes refining and profits at 17.7%, followed by distribution and marketing at 12.4%, then federal and state taxes at 12.8%.

The federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon (CPG) has not been increased since 1993 and at least eight states have gone longer.

The United States federal excise tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel fuel.

Fuel Cost = (Distance / Fuel Efficiency) * Fuel Price

Fuel Price is the cost of one gallon of fuel. To calculate the fuel cost, you divide the distance by the fuel efficiency to determine the total number of gallons of fuel consumed. Then, you multiply that by the fuel price to obtain the total fuel cost.

Drivers suffering from price whiplash might be asking, "Who controls gas prices?" The short answer is that no single person, company or government can really be said to set gas prices, the same way that no single entity controls the prices of the most common types of car insurance.

Petroleum prices are determined by market forces of supply and demand, not individual companies, and the price of crude oil is the primary determinant of the price we pay at the pump.

California has the highest tax rate on gasoline in the United States. As of July 2023, the gas tax in California amounted to 77.9 U.S. cents per gallon. California has long been known as the state with the highest tax rates – and consequently some of the highest fuel prices in the country.

Federal and state governments levy gas taxes to help pay for road infrastructure projects. The average state gas tax is about 32.26 cents a gallon, though they range from less than 9 cents to almost 78 cents a gallon.

Why are gas prices so variable? ›

“Not many other states use the same blend of fuel, which limits California's supply when there's an outage, when there's an issue at one of our refineries,” Anlleyn Venegas, a senior public affairs specialist at AAA, told CNBC. The isolated market means that any outages will lead to volatility in prices at the pump.

Cigarette Use Tax

149 mills per cigarette or $2.98 per package of 20 cigarettes. Note: A separate (sales) uses tax of 6.25 percent is also due on the purchase price.

Three-quarters of the refined gasoline delivered to Port Everglades comes from refineries in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi along the Gulf Coast. The rest comes from the Caribbean basin, South America, Europe and other oil exporting countries.

Take the distance, 1,000 miles, and divide it by your vehicle's MPG, 33 miles. The result, which is 30, is the number of gallons of gas you'll need to complete the road trip.

Like most commodities, the fundamental driver of oil's price is supply and demand in the market. The cost of extracting and producing oil is also an important factor. Oil markets are composed of speculators who are betting on price moves, and hedgers who are limiting risk in the production or consumption of oil.

Gasoline prices generally follow crude oil prices. Gasoline prices tend to increase when the available gasoline supply decreases relative to real or expected gasoline demand or consumption. Gasoline prices can change rapidly if something disrupts crude oil supplies, refinery operations, or gasoline pipeline deliveries.

The annual NACS SOI Factbook reported an average annual markup of 10.5% for gasoline. This 10.5% margin includes the retailer's profit and costs to sell fuel, including credit card fees, utilities, rent, and equipment.

Petroleum refineries in the United States produce about 19 to 20 gallons of motor gasoline and 11 to 12 gallons of ultra-low sulfur distillate fuel oil (most of which is sold as diesel fuel and in several states as heating oil) from one 42-gallon barrel of crude oil.

Gasoline price breakdown by cost composition in the U.S. 2020-2024. As of February 2024, crude oil accounted for a 57 percent share of the retail cost of gasoline in the United States. Crude oil costs are the greatest determining factor for petroleum product prices such as gasoline.

Underlying the higher costs of gas are routine factors including refinery maintenance, the switch to summer gasoline and rising demand. Domestic supply is also impacted as refineries take advantage of milder weather conditions to do necessary maintenance.