With the price of fuel..........

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Doesn't the price on the pump here tell you how much is tax and how much is fuel? I know they used to. I dont' look anymore, it's too painful.

It cost Matt $125 to fill the tank yesterday for about 32 gallons of gas. We hold 35 gallons.

I remember when truckers used to bitch that paying $125 to fill their tanks was exorbitant!

[Rhubarb]

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So at $2.27/L it would calculate to: $2.27 x 3.7854 = $8.59/gallon.
Realize though that your fuel prices reflect an ASSLOAD of taxes where ours is a drop in the bucket relatively speaking.

'Value Added Tax' VAT went up to 20% in January on everything except essential food stuff and children's shoes. Some stuff is only 5% (condoms, tampons, some food stuffs like snacks).
Alcohol is Vat'd and taxed again as is petrol and diesel.

The price is the price you pay. We get confused when we come to the States and see one price then have to pay a totally different price at the till. Poor Jeff decided he had to buy a MacDonald's when we took him in 2009. Over here a 99p burger is just that 99p.
He got his dollar out to get a 99 cents burger ('Don't do it' we cry) and looked gobsmacked when they asked him for a dollar and 6 or 7 cents on top. We spent all the holiday having to remind him about the taxes.

[Phast Phinger Phil]

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Yeh, 4.55 of our "European litres" equal what we used to call a gallon. At an average of £1.40/litre that's £6.37/gallon. Of that, per litre, approx .58p is "petrol duty" and a further .22p is VAT. Since they're both "taxes" in the broad sense, that's .80p per litre in tax! That's about 57% of the total price we pay.

Sellers here are obliged to state the total price payable for most things, including fuel. The government claims it's fairer, but the reality is that the average person doesn't realise quite how badly they're being ripped... they like it that way.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Phil, I was thinking that same thing when I was reading Rhubarb's post.

Putting the tax included into the price of something is convenient but it does not alert the consumer to exactly what he's paying in taxes. On the receipt, it's broken down here and at tax time, that adds up to either nothing or a deduction to be added in for a bigger refund. It all depends on the product purchased and what it was purchased for.

Each state here also has different taxes. Here in NJ it's 7% on the dollar for sales tax but 3.5% for services (unless they changed that now to full taxes too), none for food or clothes, and in NY the taxes are 8.25% across the board for everything but food.

At the gas stations, taxes are included in the price, so what you see is what you pay.
Also, many places do and can include the tax in the prices and they must put a notation somewhere that price includes tax.

[LKTraz]

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I just found this chart which was current as of March 2011.

UK fuel pricing for unleaded was: Pump price 132.7p broken down 57.95p was fuel duty and 22.12p for VAT.
This equals 80.07p leaving the raw fuel price at 52.63p. The tax made up 60% of the price.

Fuel taxes in the US are different in each state and there is also a federal tax on each gallon as well.
For the same time period in Pennsylvania: Statewide average was $3.999/gal $.312 state tax and $.00184 federal excise tax. a total of $.31384 ($.32) in tax/gallon for a raw fuel price of $3.679. The taxes are only 7.8% of the price.

Converting UK pricing to US standards......UK residents were paying a raw price of $4.929/gallon while in PA it was $3.679 a difference of $1.25/gallon.

As I said before, the raw fuel prices aren't that much different but take the taxes into consideration and the difference is staggering.

A question for our British friends. I'm pretty sure there are other "fees" attached to your prices but what are they and at what rates?

[Phast Phinger Phil]

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Regarding the breakdown on fuel prices, there isn't much to choose between your info and mine. The figures are accurate, but there are obviously some variations depending where you live. I live in the south and we're told it's the more "affluent" part of England, which is pretty much a bullshit excuse for charging that little bit extra for a whole shedload of stuff.

Other "fees" - well there's the VAT (Value added tax) of 20% added to almost everything now. If you get a quote for most services they'll say it's gonna cost X - "plus the VAT sir". So if X is £500, the final bill will be £600. Conversly, items in stores have to show the price including tax. The system is like, just enough info for you to work it out, but confusing enough that you don't want to

As with most countries, whacking up taxes and fuel prices has a knock-on effect. Transporting goods costs more, so base prices are going up too.

Oh yeah, and cars. Buy a new car worth £20k ($32,000) and pay £24k ($38,400) for it, plus another £200 ($324) average per year in "road fund licensing". We even have to buy a licence to use a TV set! FFS, all the money goes to the BBC so they can remain "objective" or some such crap. Yup, buy a TV here and pay a further £145 a year for the privilege of plugging it in. It doesn't matter what you watch or who you subscribe to, ya gotta have a licence!

Some goods - particularly tobacco, alchohol & fuel also have a "duty" applied, together with the VAT... so we get taxed on the tax so to speak. The whole setup here is kinda like having someone piss on your head, then tell you it's only raining.

Our tax system sucks, but then, we do have an excellent history of smuggling... LOL

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Obama was toying with the idea of a VAT here and it did not fly at all.

I know about your TV tax / license from my friend Gail. I couldn't believe it. And as for the south of England being more affluent and thus taxed more, that's the same "spread the wealth" bullshit we're arguing about here. Obama and the left think if you make more money, you must contribute more to society.

I think a flat rate of tax no matter your income level will make it fair across the board and the rich pay more without someone telling them it's not fair they are rich while there are poor people in the country.

[Phast Phinger Phil]

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We don't actually pay a higher rate of tax because we live in the south. Percentages are the same across the country. It's just that the overall prices are higher down here than they are in the north. Property too. The average price of a 3 bedroom house in somewhere like Sunderland is around £135,000. A similar property down here would be at least £50,000 more, despite the fact that jobs are drying up and all but the exceedingly brilliant & highly qualified end up in a "service industry" working for the minimum wage.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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The prices are the same here. Nicer homes warrant higher prices and even similar homes you'll see in a "lesser" neighborhood will go for double in the affluent areas. Property and desirability drive the prices - like they say, "location, location, location" holds true everywhere.

[Phast Phinger Phil]

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Yeh, I do get the obvious... lol

Comparing property prices doesn't give much insight into the sheer preposterous bollocks of our tax system anyways. It is a dark quagmire of convoluted complexity that consumes everything in it's path. Lets just say, if you chucked in a nail it'd spit you out a corkscrew.