The regional Motor Vehicle Fuels sales tax is levied on fuels sold by a distributor to a retail dealer at the FY2024 rate of 8.7 cents per gallon for gasoline, 8.8 cents per gallon for diesel fuel, and 8.7 cents per gasoline gallon equivalent for alternative fuels.

In the NVTC region, $22.183 million of the gross tax collections is deposited in the Commonwealth’s Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Capital Fund (WMATA Capital Fund), and approximately $5 million is deposited in the Commonwealth’s Commuter Rail Operating and Capital Fund (CROC Fund), benefiting the Virginia Railway Express (VRE).  The net collections are distributed to NVTC for use by its member jurisdictions.  The initial NVTC WMATA compact members, which include the counties of Fairfax and Arlington, and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church, are required to use the tax for WMATA debt service or capital and operating subsidies.  Loudoun County may use the tax for any transportation purpose.

The Regional Motor Fuels sales tax was first levied in 1981 at the rate of 2 percent of retail sales.   Effective January 1, 2010, the tax was changed to a 2.1 percent tax on a wholesale basis. The increase in the rate was to account for the loss of dealer profit that was part of the two percent tax base when it was a retail tax.  Effective July 1, 2018 a floor price was established for the calculation of the tax, with the resulting increase in revenue directed to the CROC and WMATA Capital funds.  Effective July 1, 2020 the tax was changed to an excise tax at the rate of 7.6 cents per gallon for gasoline and 7.7 cents per gallon for diesel fuel, indexed to the CPI.  Also effective July 1, 2020 the amount deposited to the WMATA Capital Fund was set to a fixed $22.183 million per year, while the amount directed to the C-ROC fund continues to be based on the percentage of NVTC jurisdiction contributions to VRE.