How Not To Save Detroit

In article >,
jim > wrote:
>
>Well no actually you don't. You may be paying some state taxes at the retail
>pump, but the federal tax is nowhere near 75 cents and doesn't work at all like
>a retail sales tax.

The Federal gasoline excise tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and works
just like a retail sales tax.

>drivers is a fantasy. If you fantasize that you are paying that federal fuel
>excise tax when you fill up your tank,

....then you're well grounded in reality.
--
It's times like these which make me glad my bank is Dial-a-Mattress

Matthew Russotto wrote:
>
> In article >,
> jim > wrote:
> >
> >Well no actually you don't. You may be paying some state taxes at the retail
> >pump, but the federal tax is nowhere near 75 cents and doesn't work at all like
> >a retail sales tax.
>
> The Federal gasoline excise tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and works
> just like a retail sales tax.

Not true. Your statement suggests that you really don't know how it
works. The excise tax on motor fuel is levied as it leaves the refinery
or when it enters the country. That tax is paid directly to the IRS. The
tax is not intended to be a sales tax or even a use tax. It is an excise
tax that is based on the hypothesis that there needs to be a close
relationship between the amount of gasoline produced and the amount of
federal expenditures on transportation. There has never been a direct
tie to sales.

A retail sales tax would be based directly on retail sales. With a
sales tax there is a precise relationship between how much tax is paid
and how much is purchased at retail (assuming no one has managed to
cheat). If gasoline was taxed as a retail sale then the driver would
know exactly the magnitude of that tax was for the fuel pumped into his
or her gas tank. But in most places in the US it is impossible for the
driver to know exactly how much federal tax was paid because there are a
slew of possible deductions could have been applied and the driver has
no access to that information as it relates to the gas that is being
purchased at any particular point in time or place.

So no you are wrong - the net federal tax that was paid on every
gallon of gas in your gas tank is more than likely not 18.4 cents.

-jim

>
> >drivers is a fantasy. If you fantasize that you are paying that federal fuel
> >excise tax when you fill up your tank,
>
> ...then you're well grounded in reality.
> --
> It's times like these which make me glad my bank is Dial-a-Mattress