Gasoline taxes include federal, state, county, and municipal taxes imposed on gasoline motor vehicle fuel. In the United States, most of the federal tax is used to fund maintenance and improvements in such transportation infrastructures as interstate highways. As of mid-2002, the federal excise tax for gasoline stood at 18.4 cents per gallon, and state excise taxes ranged from 7.5 cents in Georgia to 29 cents in Rhode Island (making the weighted national average state tax 19.97 cents per gallon). In total, the U.S. national average gasoline tax (combining federal and state) was 38 cents per gallon.

Oregon became the first state to institute a tax on gasoline in 1919. By the time the federal government established its own 1 cent gas tax in 1932, every state had a gas tax. After several small increases in the 1930s and 1940s, the gas tax was raised to 3 cents to finance the Highway Trust Fund...