Most of us are aware that the price of gasoline is much cheaper in the U.S.A. than in most other countries. One of the key reasons that our gas is so much cheaper is that we have lower tax rates on gasoline than many countries.
I found the following graphic that shows the gasoline and diesel tax rates per gallon for various nations.
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| Click on the image to see the full size version. |
The data is from the Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center website.
I found the direct XLS link via a google search. The document says the data is current as of 1/1/2010 so its about 2 years old at this point. I'm sure that at least one of the nations has changed its tax rate since then so this is undoubtedly not all accurate. But its an accurate snapshot of fairly recent tax rates.
Here is a table of the values as well :
| Gasoline | Diesel | |
| Mexico | -$0.41 | -$0.28 |
| US | $0.49 | $0.59 |
| Canada | $0.96 | $0.77 |
| New Zlnd. | $1.20 | $0.00 |
| Chile | $1.31 | $0.44 |
| Australia | $1.34 | $1.34 |
| Iceland | $2.28 | $2.03 |
| Poland | $2.40 | $1.85 |
| Japan | $2.59 | $1.55 |
| Korea | $2.64 | $1.87 |
| Estonia | $2.65 | $2.46 |
| Spain | $2.66 | $2.08 |
| Hungary | $2.68 | $2.17 |
| Austria | $2.77 | $2.18 |
| Luxembrg | $2.90 | $1.94 |
| Czech Rep. | $3.04 | $2.59 |
| Slovenia | $3.07 | $2.03 |
| Switzerland | $3.09 | $3.15 |
| Slovak Rep. | $3.23 | $2.31 |
| Israel | $3.23 | $2.87 |
| Sweden | $3.24 | $2.56 |
| Ireland | $3.41 | $2.82 |
| Italy | $3.54 | $2.65 |
| Belgium | $3.58 | $2.10 |
| Denmark | $3.58 | $2.68 |
| Portugal | $3.65 | $2.28 |
| France | $3.80 | $2.69 |
| Greece | $3.82 | $2.39 |
| Norway | $3.87 | $2.97 |
| Finland | $3.93 | $2.28 |
| UK | $3.95 | $3.95 |
| Germany | $4.10 | $2.95 |
| Netherlands | $4.19 | $2.29 |
| Turkey | $5.52 | $3.81 |
You can see that the U.S. is the second cheapest listed only higher than Mexico. Oddly enough it looks like Mexico pays a negative tax, but that is most likely a reflection of a subsidy for gas prices there.
Most of the nations listed have gasoline taxes of $2 to $4 per gallon.
Figures Do NOT include VAT
The data sheet says that that figures do not include VAT. Its my understanding that many countries also charge a VAT or sales tax on top of the gasoline taxes. That means you could spend another 20% on top of the fuel taxes given.
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