What a bizarre example. Gas in the US is priced about as transparently as it is possible to be. There isn't even the thing where you have to add sales taxes on to the posted price, like there is with most other things in the US. Every single station has the total price per gallon, inclusive of all taxes, on a giant sign. The amount you pay is literally the number of gallons you pumped multiplied by that number.

If you're going to make up stories, at least do five seconds of research first to make it vaguely plausible.