New York’s extended gas tax holiday starts June 1, 2022

New York is suspending taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel. From June 1 through December 31, 2022, neither excise tax, prepaid sales tax, nor the state sales tax will apply to diesel motor fuel and motor fuel sold in the Empire State.

Gas tax rates vary by location, as does the price of fuel itself. At 46.19 cents per gallon, New York has the ninth highest gas taxes in the country. The average price of gas in New York state was $4.255 per gallon on April 28, 2022.

The Empire State isn’t the first to institute a gas tax holiday “to tackle the high cost of gasoline” that’s developed as a result of Russia’s war on Ukraine. However, New York’s gas tax holiday is the longest yet announced:

• Connecticut’s gas holiday runs April 1 through June 30, 2022
• Georgia’s gas tax holiday runs March 18 through May 31, 2022
• Maryland’s gas tax holiday ran March 18 through April 16, 2022.

Gas tax holiday proposals in several other states failed to win the necessary support. For example, the governor of California called for a one-year pause in the sales tax on diesel fuel, but the California Assembly killed the proposal. The governor of Michigan vetoed a bill that would have suspended the state’s gas tax for six months. And Governor Jared Polis of Colorado asked the Colorado General Assembly to delay a 2-cent per gallon gas tax hike he signed into law last year. With that unlikely to happen, he’s now promising Colorado taxpayers a $400 income tax rebate.

Yet gas tax holiday proposals are still alive in several other states, including:

• Delaware
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina

More details about the forthcoming New York gas tax holiday are available in Part RR of the budget. The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has promised to issue guidance but hasn’t as of this writing.

If any other gas tax holidays are enacted, we’ll report on them at the Avalara Tax Desk.