How much of a litre of petrol is tax?
calculated on the national median E10 as published
Where each penny goes
labels sit on the diagram · no legend
The tax is the ink and the signal together: 81.8p of a 172.9p litre. The teal remainder covers wholesale fuel, delivery and the retailer's margin.
At other pump prices
duty is flat, so the tax share falls as the pump price rises
| Pump | Duty | VAT | Tax % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 120.0p | 52.95p | 20.00p | 60.8% |
| 145.0p | 52.95p | 24.17p | 53.2% |
| 160.0p | 52.95p | 26.67p | 49.8% |
| 175.0p | 52.95p | 29.17p | 46.9% |
Round numbers chosen to show the shape, not prices anyone is paying. Today's actual median is above.
The arithmetic, in full
VAT is 20% of everything else — the pump price divided by six: 172.90 ÷ 6 = 28.82p. Duty is a flat 52.95p, petrol and diesel alike. The rest — 91.13p — is wholesale fuel, delivery and the retailer's margin, and cannot be split further.
Because duty is flat, a dearer diesel litre has a lower tax share, not a higher one.
Where the duty figure comes from
The duty figure is entered by hand. HMRC sets it and changes it at a Budget; nothing here would notice if it did. Checked against HMRC on .
52.95p is a cut, not the standing rate. That is 57.95p; a temporary 5p reduction has run since March 2022 and is due to end . HMRC has announced 55.95p from and 57.95p from , both subject to the Budget. Until then the figure above holds. If a Budget moves it earlier, this page is wrong until someone changes it, and we would like to be told.