Aviation Fuel Taxes

JohnAJohnson

JohnAJohnson

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Automobile gasoline is taxed at an average 42 cents in the US, with .19 going to the Feds and the remainder to the state. 100LL is taxed at I think 15 cents. I can't find any mention of how much tax is included in a gallon of Mogas. Looking at AirNav, Mogas isn't a whole lot cheaper than Avgas. When I buy red dye diesel, it's considerably cheaper than on-road diesel. It seems to me that Mogas should be a lot cheaper than automobile gas (because of the lack of road tax), but this does not seem to be the case. Am I missing something?
 
I presume that red dye diesel is just not approved for use in on-road vehicles because of tax issues, right?

Can the various diesel aviation engines (Thielert, etc.) burn this sort of diesel safely, or are they limited to Jet-A?
 
gprellwitz said:
I presume that red dye diesel is just not approved for use in on-road vehicles because of tax issues, right?

Can the various diesel aviation engines (Thielert, etc.) burn this sort of diesel safely, or are they limited to Jet-A?
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Yes, the red dye is off road use only because the tax is not added to the price. The red dye is used to catch cheaters. Big fine if caught driving down the road powered by this stuff. Don't know if it would be a problem burning automobile diesel in one of the new aviation diesels. I am not up on them at all. I only know my Kubota and generator diesel engines. Seems like it wouldn't be a problem though. Matter of fact it would seem to me that they should be happier buring any diesel vs kerosene.
 
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SCCutler said:
It's (1) small market, (2) minimal competition for refining, and (3) increased QC requirements.
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Actually, mogas is a big market. Regular automobile gas. So with that in mind and with the road tax not added, it should be at least as cheap as the local automobile gas station, with a healthy profit to boot.
 
JohnAJohnson said:
Actually, mogas is a big market. Regular automobile gas. So with that in mind and with the road tax not added, it should be at least as cheap as the local automobile gas station, with a healthy profit to boot.
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Actually, I completely and absolutely missed the point of the thread!

I was issuing stock apology for AvGas, which is (of course) utterly inapplicable to MoGas sold for aviation use.

Sorry... :hairraise:
 
Federal tax on avgas is 19.4 cents/gallon. Jet A is 24 cents/gallon. The FAA financing plans have these increasing. We (Arkansas) also have a state "environmental impact" tax. I think it is something like 0.3 cents/ gallon. Depending on where the fuel is shipped from, we also get hit by taxes from other states. Tennessee has an export tax. Only amounts to a few dollars on a 8000 gal. truck load but it is still there. Louisiana has something like a "quality assurance" tax.
 
I've heard the average combined tax on auto gas is about 65 cents per gallon. In Jawjuh, there's a 15.6 cent excise tax per gallon plus another 4% inclusive tax. To make it worse, the 4% is also applied to the tax paid to the feds. I've not been able to find it but last I heard the federal fuel tax was about 22 cents a gallon.

There was a lot of talk about fuel taxes after Katrina when fuel prices jumped drastically. Jawjuh suspended state fuel taxes for a few months to reduce the cost of fuel. Oddly, I didn't see a reduction in price.

On the off-road diesel, it's my understanding it's not filtered nearly as well as #2 diesel. That could cause problems with filters in whatever vehicle burns it, particularly if it's higher flow. The diesel Jetta I drove, if the filter got dirty enough it would suffer horribly from fuel starvation.
 
gprellwitz said:
Can the various diesel aviation engines (Thielert, etc.) burn this sort of diesel safely, or are they limited to Jet-A?
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Nope. :( The Thielert 1.7's are certified to burn diesel in Europe, but the diesel used in North America doesn't cut it, they're only certified for Jet-A here.

IIRC, this is due to the tendency for regular diesel to gel when it gets cold (ie higher altitudes). I've heard it's relatively safe to put regular diesel in the main tanks on something like a DA42 because enough of the fuel is being circulated through the engine to keep it warm provided it's not super-cold out, whereas the aux tanks would need Jet-A. However, it's a tad risky anyway and certainly not approved. :no:

KennyFlys said:
On the off-road diesel, it's my understanding it's not filtered nearly as well as #2 diesel. That could cause problems with filters in whatever vehicle burns it, particularly if it's higher flow. The diesel Jetta I drove, if the filter got dirty enough it would suffer horribly from fuel starvation.
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Actually, it's exactly the same, except for the red dye. John's got it right:

JohnAJohnson said:
Yes, the red dye is off road use only because the tax is not added to the price. The red dye is used to catch cheaters.
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As for your tax money, if you were to use fuel taxed for highway use in your airplane, I think you can get your money back by using IRS form 4136 or form 8849 schedule 1. I'm not an accountant so don't ask me what the heck the difference is between the two! :no: I'm sure there's another form you have to turn in to report your aviation use of the fuel and pay your share of the FAA's budget as well.

FWIW, not too many places sell red diesel, but I saw it in Grand Island, NE the other day at $2.759/gal.
 
KennyFlys said:
There was a lot of talk about fuel taxes after Katrina when fuel prices jumped drastically. Jawjuh suspended state fuel taxes for a few months to reduce the cost of fuel. Oddly, I didn't see a reduction in price.
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Funny how that works isn't it...

As far as the OP's question, mogas is taxed the same as car gas at the pump. I'm pretty sure the avgas tax doesn't apply. I believe in most states, you can file a form to get the road taxes refunded if you don't use the gasoline purchased in a vehicle used on public roadways.

The reason there isn't a price difference at the airport pump... is because it's at the airport, everything is more expensive at the airport.
 
Sleek, all, thanks. I think the refund method is the way to go but to have the tax work done, a person would have to buy a lot of mogas to justify the hassle and/or cost. Too bad they just don't leave the taxes off like they do red diesel.

Here's auto fuel tax by state, with Alaska the lowest and NY the highest.

http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/blog/notes/gasoline-state.html
 
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