The price of gas varies across the United States, but whether you’re paying $4.85 for a gallon in California or $3.06 in Mississippi you’ll find drivers have the same complaint: taxes on motor fuel in America are too dang high.
Except they’re not, not really. Not compared with the taxes levied on gasoline and diesel in other Western countries, which are eye-watering in comparison. In the most extreme case, gas in one European country has more than 10 times the amount of tax applied to it versus gas in the U.S.!
The data comes from the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and is around 18 months old. But it’s unlikely to have changed radically in the intervening months, and certainly not enough to prevent American gas looking like an absolute bargain in comparison to fuel in other Western countries.
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A bar graph shows that the cross-country weighted average of U.S. state and federal taxes as $0.49 for a gallon of gasoline and $0.57 for diesel – it’s interesting to note that in the majority of the countries in the chart, diesel is taxed at a much lower rate. Japan is listed as having the second lightest fuel taxes, but even it applies $2.40 to each gallon of gasoline, and $1.56 to a gallon of diesel.
The other countries – Belgium, Germany, France, the U.K., Italy and the Netherlands – are all from Europe and all tax fuel at a broadly similar level. Of those states, Belgium applies the least tax ($3.76) to a gallon of gas, while the Dutch tax strategy is the most brutal. It levies $4.96 on a gallon of gas, more than 10 times the amount of tax the U.S. applies, although its $3.44 tax on diesel is lower than every other European country bar Germany.
So the next time you fill your V8 Dodge Challenger up at an American gas station and started to feel bitter about the cash you’ve handed over, spare a thought for European drivers who are probably paying just as much to drive a Toyota Prius.
Motor Fuel Tax Rates for Selected Countries as of December 2021