# Are highway tolls a form of double taxation? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 15, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308 "2016-04-15T22:26:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/1 "2016-04-15T22:26:21Z")
Toll booths create traffic jams, which means drivers have to use more gas to get to their destination than if they weren’t there. They have to pay taxes on that gas. Does this mean that unless someone is driving an electric, the toll booth is taxing them twice? ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/2 "2016-04-15T22:54:27Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Toll booths create traffic jams, which means drivers have to use more gas to get to their destination than if they weren’t there. They have to pay taxes on that gas. Does this mean that unless someone is driving an electric, the toll booth is taxing them twice? First of all, not all highway tolls involve toll booths. It’s very common these days to have a simple point that either deducts money from a preconfigured account, which is identified by detecting a transmitter you keep in your car, or if it detects no such transmitter, it photographs your license plate and bills you later. This operates at full, highway speeds. Secondly, “double taxation” isn’t exactly a rigorously defined term, so, maybe? But, I’d argue no: a toll is not a tax. But who cares? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/3 "2016-04-15T23:14:00Z")
Double taxation is a phrase that has no policy significance. It’s like debating whether clouds contain “original water.” ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/4 "2016-04-15T23:16:56Z")
Don’t forget that the taxes you’re already paying also go to pay for those roads… ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/5 "2016-04-15T23:24:32Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Don’t forget that the taxes you’re already paying also go to pay for those roads… Possibly, but unlikely. How many toll roads are actually financed from a state’s General Fund _vs_ how many toll roads were built by selling bonds to raise the money separate from the General Fund with the tolls being used to repay the bonds and then to continue maintenance once the bonds have been repaid? ETA: This also answers the OP’s question in the negative. It might be regarded as excessive taxation, (since the gas tax is typically used to fund non-toll highways), but it would not be double taxation because the tolls are paid to the managers of the roads rather than to the state, _per se_. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/6 "2016-04-15T23:38:15Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Don’t forget that the taxes you’re already paying also go to pay for those roads… Hell I wouldn’t even _be_ on those roads unless if I wasn’t going to work where I make income that is taxed _again_. And the part that I take home gets sales tax taken when I spend it! Lots of taxation is tangentially connected to that toll booth. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/7 "2016-04-16T00:28:23Z")
Since privately owned roads are a strange inefficient anomaly at this point, I wonder why we haven’t Imminent Domained them all already. Either private roads make sense or a socialistic enterprise like nationally subsidized roads make sense. The mix does not make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/8 "2016-04-16T00:44:28Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Since privately owned roads are a strange inefficient anomaly at this point, I wonder why we haven’t Imminent Domained them all already. Either private roads make sense or a socialistic enterprise like nationally subsidized roads make sense. The mix does not make sense. Hell, for the most part, privately owned toll roads started as public toll roads that the government sold. The Chicago Skyway, Dulles Toll Road and Indiana Turnpike were all privatized. There may be an original privately funded, built, owned and operated road that is part of the public road system somewhere in the U.S., but I can’t think of one. By the way, it’s “eminent” not “imminent.” ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/9 "2016-04-16T00:59:46Z")
This has got to be the weakest double taxation link I’ve heard proposed. The gas consumed in a traffic jam is not being taxed by the toll booth in any way. If you’re going to interpret double taxation that loosely, then it’s like quadruple taxation because you paid income tax on the money used to buy the car, on which you paid sales tax to acquire and licensing taxes to register… Anyway, most toll roads nowadays are billed electronically, either by RF tags or optical recognition. In my area (Seattle-ish), even people who don’t register for the tolls are billed when optical scanners pick up your license plate. They mail you a bill based on your registered address (with a surcharge for not having pre-registered - that’s quintuple taxation!). When I visited Texas last year, they were doing the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/10 "2016-04-16T02:35:20Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Toll booths create traffic jams, which means drivers have to use more gas to get to their destination than if they weren’t there. They have to pay taxes on that gas. Does this mean that unless someone is driving an electric, the toll booth is taxing them twice? Do you have lower tax on something else road/highway related than states with no tollbooths. I mean, if I don’t use the tollways, than I’m happy to not pay for them while the people that use them help to fund the repairs for maintenance required on them. Even if you pay the same thing (for, say, your license plates), it still makes sense that the people who use them the most pay for them the most and the people who don’t use them pay for them (or pay the least for them). Think of some public service that you don’t use at all. Let’s just say, for argument’s sake, Post Office. Would you rather you paid more each year in taxes and the mail was free or you paid what you’re currently paying and (as it is right now) the people who use it pay for it and the people that don’t…don’t? Of course, this analogy sort of falls apart when it comes to things like schools and police. We all pay for that, but it makes things better for everyone. It can be argued that everyone should pay for the freeway since it makes life better for everyone. Double taxation is paying tax, twice, on the same income. That’s NOT what’s happening here. You’re paying tax on gas, you choose to put gas in your car and choosing to drive on the tollway and paying a fee (often times to a private entity) to do that. It’s not double taxation anymore than it’s double taxation to pay a fee to go to a public park. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/11 "2016-04-16T02:47:16Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Hell, for the most part, privately owned toll roads started as public toll roads that the government sold. The Chicago Skyway, Dulles Toll Road So far as I know, the Dulles Toll Road is not private. The Dulles Greenway is a privately-built and privately-owned toll road. They meet at the airport. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/12 "2016-04-16T04:48:14Z")
Some states tax hot food but not groceries, and if your trip takes longer you’re more likely to eat out. :eek: Now it’s triple taxation! ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/13 "2016-04-16T06:23:13Z")
Double “taxation” is when you pay a toll to get _on_ the road, and then have to pay a toll again to get _off_ the road. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/14 "2016-04-16T13:07:44Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Some states tax hot food but not groceries, and if your trip takes longer you’re more likely to eat out. :eek: Now it’s triple taxation! [an aside but not quite a hijack] In California (SF, at least) if you ask for your sandwich at Subway to be toasted you pay tax on your sandwich. If you don’t get it toasted, you don’t pay tax. [/an aside but not quite a hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/15 "2016-04-16T13:16:59Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > In California (SF, at least) if you ask for your sandwich at Subway to be toasted you pay tax on your sandwich. If you don’t get it toasted, you don’t pay tax. I will be double-dog-damned. I always thought the only difference was that eat-in orders are taxable and to-go orders are not, but I see now that the law does require tax on items sold “in a heated condition.” ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/16 "2016-04-16T19:03:44Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Hell, for the most part, privately owned toll roads started as public toll roads that the government sold. The Chicago Skyway, Dulles Toll Road and Indiana Turnpike were all privatized. There may be an original privately funded, built, owned and operated road that is part of the public road system somewhere in the U.S., but I can’t think of one. If the roads are privately owned how does the state have the authority to set/enforce traffic laws on them? How are the toll booth workers state employees? Why does the public pay state & federal gasoline tax for roads to be build and maintained, just not those roads? I don’t care if you call it a fee, a toll, or a chicken flavored air conditioner. Anytime you have to give money to a government entity it is a tax regardless of what it’s called. Tolls are double taxation. But Americans are double taxed all the time. Buy a case of beer and there is a built in state & federal tax incorporated into the price, then you pay sales tax. It sucks but AFAIK there is no law or constitutional prohibition against double taxation. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/17 "2016-04-16T19:22:32Z")
Road tolls are a fair use tax. People that use them, pay for the privilege. People that don’t use them, don’t have to pay. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/18 "2016-04-16T21:27:06Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > If the roads are privately owned how does the state have the authority to set/enforce traffic laws on them? How are the toll booth workers state employees? > Why does the public pay state & federal gasoline tax for roads to be build and maintained, just not those roads? > > I don’t care if you call it a fee, a toll, or a chicken flavored air conditioner. Anytime you have to give money to a government entity it is a tax regardless of what it’s called. Tolls are double taxation. But Americans are double taxed all the time. Buy a case of beer and there is a built in state & federal tax incorporated into the price, then you pay sales tax. > > It sucks but AFAIK there is no law or constitutional prohibition against double taxation. In Indiana at least, the toll road owners [pay the state for traffic enforcement](http://taxfoundation.org/blog/lessons-indiana-toll-road) and the toll booth workers (as well as other workers) are [employees of the toll road operator, not the state.](https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ezpassin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FToll-Collection-Job-Posting-3-17-2016.pdf) As for why we pay taxes to build and maintain roads, leaving it to private interests has historically [not worked out well.](http://eh.net/encyclopedia/turnpikes-and-toll-roads-in-nineteenth-century-america/) Just like railroads, airlines and mass transit seldom generate a profit unless they have monopoly status or receive heavy public subsidies. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/19 "2016-04-16T23:54:39Z")
Used to be that when folks traveled, people would waylay them and take their money. Now they just wait for you to drive up and give it to them. Who says there’s no such thing as progress? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308/20 "2016-04-17T00:50:57Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > If the roads are privately owned how does the state have the authority to set/enforce traffic laws on them? It passes a law saying it has the authority. As far as I know there is no fundamental legal principle that states can only regulate conduct on public property. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-highway-tolls-a-form-of-double-taxation/752308.md?page=2)