Roughly 38 cents of every gallon you buy in Louisiana is tax: 20 cents to the state and 18.4 cents to the federal government. This calculator turns that into a real number for your tank and your year so you can see how much of your fuel spend is excise tax.
How it works
The combined excise is a fixed amount per gallon, so the math is straightforward:
combined rate = $0.20 (state) + $0.184 (federal) = $0.384 per gallon
per fill-up: gallons = tank size
tax = gallons × $0.384
per year: gallons = annual miles ÷ MPG
tax = gallons × $0.384
Because the tax is per gallon, your fuel economy matters: a more efficient vehicle burns fewer gallons over the same miles and therefore pays less total excise, even though the per-gallon rate is identical for everyone.
Example and notes
Driving 12,000 miles a year at 25 MPG burns 480 gallons, so you pay about $184 in combined fuel excise — $96 to Louisiana and $88 to the federal government. A single 15-gallon fill-up carries about $5.76 of excise tax. Diesel vehicles pay more because the federal diesel rate is 24.4 cents; switch your real-world numbers accordingly if you drive a diesel.