Hidden taxes: Eight you are paying every day

Ken and Daria Dolan are widely known as America's First Family of Personal Finance.

This time of year, we are all well aware of how much we pay Uncle Sam in income taxes. And we all can clearly see the sales tax we pay when we go shopping or enjoy a nice dinner out. We're not happy about them. But at least we know that we're paying those taxes.

But most of us have no idea just how many hidden taxes we pay every day that take a serious bite out of our wallets. We pay little known-taxes on everything from travel to peanut butter (Ken's favorite), to life insurance to liquor. Often, we don't know, specifically, what federal tax we are paying on goods and services because that tax (such as excise tax on imports or 'sin' taxes on liquor), is built right into the price, and doesn't appear anywhere on the sales slip as a tax.

And boy, does it add up! We consumers pay hundreds of billions of dollars in "hidden" taxes each year. It's estimated that our federal income tax represents less than half of the taxes we pay each year. So let's expose eight hidden taxes you probably didn't even know you were paying...

1. Gasoline tax. Next time you fork over big bucks at the gas pump, remember that you are paying nearly 46 cents per gallon in federal, state and local taxes. That's nearly 15% of the cost of a gallon of gas!