In a message dated 98-03-20 12:01:23 EST, sbart7kb@WWW.MWC.EDU writes:

> 38) California:  18.00

I don't know about other states, but CA also charges sales tax on gasoline in
addition to the gasoline tax.  Additionally, the sales tax is not only applied
to the gasoline sales price but also to the CA and federal gas tax.  If a
retailer wanted to give away gas free (perhaps to Vanagon owners), they'd
still need to collect the taxes.  Each gallon of free gas would cost:

Fed Gas Tax:  0.18      (est)
CA  Gas Tax:  0.18
-----------------------------
Gast Tax Ttl:   0.36
Sales Tax:       0.03  8.25% applied to gas taxes (Yes, taxes on taxes!)
----------------------------
Free gas:       $ 0.39 per gallon!

Regards,
Jim Davis