Calculating the Gas Tax
So we gathered together some of these weird people and decided: hey, let's tax ourselves for every gallon (dinosaur blood, a friend calls it). How much? Well, Europeans pay about $4.50 per gallon. But even we weren't ready for anything that steep. So we settled on $.50 a gallon (or frankly, whatever you care to pay.)
Most of us just keep the receipt slips when we fill up or keep a little ledger in the car and add up the gallons every quarter and multiply by $.50. Then we get together for quarterly or bi-annual gatherings with tea and cookies and pool or revenues. Can you imagine the kind of people who you're drinking tea with? Selfish, miserly, stingy folks are welcome but so far haven't shown up!
Here's how to calculate the tax:
- every time you put gasoline in you motor vehicle, keep the receipt
- at the end of each quarter, total up all the gallons of gasoline consumed
- multiply the number of gallons by $.50
or
- record the odometer reading on your car at the beginning of the quarter
- at the end of the quarter, record odometer reading
- multiply total miles driven by 1.5 to 2.5 cents per mile (according to average miles per gallon)