Gas tax holiday could end up costing us even more

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

President Biden’s reasoning in asking Congress to grant a three-month gas tax holiday — and at the same time asking states to join in the respite — is understandable. At the start of the summer season, gas prices have topped $5 a gallon nationwide and are about $5.50 a gallon in Washington state. Diesel prices are even higher.

How many of us now fill up and dread looking up as the numbers flash by?

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The proposal to lift the federal tax on fuel — 18 cents a gallon for gasoline and 24 cents a gallon for diesel — while asking states to do the same with their typically higher taxes, sounds like it should save motorists a least a few dollars on a fill-up, offering some respite from the greater inflationary pain. Washington drivers, for instance — if both federal and states taxes were suspended — should expect to save a total of 57 cents a gallon. So, for a 15-gallon fill-up, that should mean a savings of $8.55 a tank, right? Notice, that’s a “should,” not a “would.”

-snip-

Motorists would likely see only a minimal drop in the price of gas. A study by experts at the Penn Wharton Budget Model found — estimating savings for a longer 10-month federal gas tax holiday — that between 42 percent and 80 percent of the suspended tax would be passed on to consumers, with the rest benefiting oil companies. Even at that rate of savings, the average motorist would save between $16 and $47 over that 10-month period, the study found.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-gas-tax-holiday-could-end-up-costing-us-even-more/

[Bluethroughu]

1. Nationalize the oil.

[MichMan]

2. Who actually collects and remits the tax revenue?

I know sales taxes are collected by retailers and paid to the state governments. If I shop at Kroger and buy a box of cereal, Kroger collects the sales tax and not Kellogs.

Are gas taxes collected the same way?

[Hestia]

4. Don't quote me, but I think the tax is paid when the fuel is loaded into the tanker, so

transportation is the remitter of the tax.

(I used to be a bookkeeper for a series of convenience stores that sold gas/diesel; this is what my memory hole is digging up. The fuel part of the monthly sales tax report was a grizzly...)

[3Hotdogs]

3. Kabuki theater.... Then count the potholes on state roads.