Gas Taxes by State, 2026
California levies the highest tax on gasoline at 73.6 cents per gallon (cpg), followed by Illinois at 70.4 cpg and Indiana at 63.1 cpg.
10 min readMississippi, which ranks near the middle of the pack on the Index, benefits from a low, flat individual income tax rate and a relatively low corporate income tax rate. However, Mississippi’s throwback rule exposes in-state firms to higher Mississippi tax liability when they sell tangible property into states with which they do not have nexus. Additionally, Mississippi maintains a graduated-rate corporate income tax despite moving to a single-rate individual income tax in 2023, a rate that has been reduced to 4.4 percent as of 2025, with the aim to reduce it further to 4 percent by 2026.
While Mississippi’s statewide sales tax rate is among the highest in the country, low reliance on local sales taxes yields a combined state and average local rate that sits near the middle of the pack.
Notably, as part of a series of recent pro-growth reforms, in 2023, Mississippi joined Oklahoma to become the second state in the country to enact permanent full expensing for machinery and equipment investments, thereby increasing the marginal attractiveness of Mississippi for firms that invest in large amounts of capital. Additionally, Mississippi’s capital stock tax is scheduled to phase out by 2028, which will further improve the state’s ability to attract business investment.
While Mississippi’s property taxes are relatively low, its taxation of tangible personal property, including business inventory, as well as intangible property, penalizes in-state investment and hurts the state’s property tax component score.
| Category | Rank | Rank Change | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 27 | 0 | 5.12 |
| Corporate Taxes | 6 | 0 | 5.76 |
| Individual Income Taxes | 32 | -1 | 5.06 |
| Sales Taxes | 23 | 2 | 4.83 |
| Property Taxes | 39 | -2 | 4.36 |
| Unemployment Insurance Taxes | 13 | 1 | 5.63 |
California levies the highest tax on gasoline at 73.6 cents per gallon (cpg), followed by Illinois at 70.4 cpg and Indiana at 63.1 cpg.
10 min read
Privacy concerns are a primary driver of opposition to vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax systems, but VMT taxes do not need to invade drivers’ privacy to efficiently fund the roads.
6 min read
As the market share of electric vehicles (EVs) on the road grows, the gas tax’s ability to fund road projects and decrease traffic congestion erodes. Both federal and state real tax revenue per vehicle mile traveled has been on a steady decline for decades, creating a fiscal gap for road expenditures even as the demand for road infrastructure improvements has grown.
6 min read