03.14.2013
California Taxes on Gas Doubled Since 2010
original article written by Net Advisor™
SACRAMENTO, California. Recently I noticed that a local gas station had new sticker placed on their pumps. Apparently these stickers were supposed to be updated back in 2010. I had no idea the State of California has DOUBLED the state Excise tax on gasoline since 2010.
After looking through a half-dozen websites, many seemingly to be authority on taxes and more specifically gas taxes, they all had outdated or just incorrect info. So after some digging into the California’s official government website did I uncovered the true horror.
California Gas Tax up 100% in Two Years
From at least 1999 to June 28, 2010 California charged .18 cents per gallon for a state “excise tax” (PDF– – highlight added).
The state excise (extra gas) tax jumped to .35 cents a gallon or 94.44% tax increase on or about July 5, 2010 (PDF – highlight added).
Then the state bumped this tax up again by another penny or 2.86% on or about July 4, 2011 (PDF – highlight added). The result of this was a 100% tax increase on consumers at the gas pump in just 2 years.
California Sales Tax Hike November 2012
If this doubling of the excise tax was not enough, the state’s sales tax also increased (report). The sales tax In California went up after the November 2012 election by another 1/4% (report). California taxpayers pay roughly 7.5% to 10% sales tax per gallon of gas or on taxable retail purchases depending where they live.
Calculating Total Gas Taxes
If you live in my area where gas is usually high currently about $4.49 gallon (regular), then at the low end we are looking at say 16 gallons gas for $71.84 including current local sales tax. Taxes are included in the total price of gas, and in my view to not shock people how much money they are really paying in gas taxes per gallon.
If we reverse engineer the taxes to see how much we are actually paying the numbers look like this:
- $5.76 (CA excise tax of .36 cents per gallon x 16 gallons)
- $2.94 (Federal excise tax, 18.4 cents per gallon x 16 gallons)
- $5.75 (Local sales tax, 8.00% based on $71.84 gas purchase)
Total local, state, and federal gas taxes work out to be $14.45 or 25.18% gas tax.
The Math: $71.84 (total cost of gas) – $5.76 (CA excise tax) -$2.94 (Federal excise tax) -$5.75 (local tax) = $57.39 (price of gas before all taxes). Then, $14.45 (total taxes paid) divided into $57.39 (price of gas before all taxes) = 25.18% cost we are paying in total gas taxes.
Now, if you have a car that requires premium gas, that’s usually 20 cents per gallon over regular gas. The state claims the average price for regular gas is currently about $4.174 (PDF). I’m not sure where one can get $4.17 a gallon, but it’s certainly nowhere I have ever seen based on direct observation.
Other States Looking at Increasing Gas Taxes Too
Wyoming gas taxes shot up this year (2013) to .24 cents a gallon from .14 cents – a 71.43% increase. Five others states which include Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Vermont are all considering raising gas taxes.
President Obama’s $700 Billion+ “Stimulus program” to repair “roads and bridges”
didn’t exactly seem to repair the repair roads or bridges when the states are having to rack up massive new taxes from its own citizens. President Obama admitted in June 2011 that his stimulus program wasn’t exactly “shovel ready” as he promised.
“Shovel-ready was not as … uh .. shovel-ready as we expected.”
— Barack Obama, at President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, 06-13-2011 (Video – mid-page)
California and other state voters seem to be complacent and allow their governments to tax and spend, and they get elected to office. Is there something wrong with this picture? See you at the voting booth.
Short link to this article: https://www.netadvisor.org/?p=16627
Photo gas pump sticker Credit: NetAdvisor.org Staff; 2006/2012 gas prices image original source unknown or public domain.
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