The departure tax is a fee a passenger must pay to leave the country. It’s not exactly a popular fee, and until last year you could avoid paying it by flying out of certain airports.
The government has now put an end to that loophole, making it even harder for the majority of us to leave the country. Even if you don’t travel abroad very often, the departure tax might have an effect on your day-to-day life. Here are four reasons why you should care about this unfair tax:
1.It is one of the highest taxes in the world
The UK has one of the highest departure taxes in the world – at least that’s what The Air Departure Tax (Abolition) Bill claims. According to the bill, England’s departure tax is second only to Mexico, which charges passengers around £35 per flight. Germany charges just £4 and France £3. Other countries such as Japan and Singapore don’t charge a departure tax at all!
Unlike most other taxes, there is no way around this fee – so it’s only fair that we know where our money goes! After all, we are already paying for a great many public services through our contributions to income tax and VAT.
I’ve been writing about the so-called “departure tax” for years, and it remains one of my favorite topics. Why? Because I’m passionate about this issue. And because I don’t think travelers understand what’s at stake.
The departure tax is technically a fee that airlines pay to the government, even though passengers ultimately bear the burden. But if you’re not paying attention, you’d never know that it’s optional: The tax is usually rolled into the price of your airline ticket, and airlines don’t want you to know how much more you’re paying for it. It’s a hidden cost that needs to be exposed.
But there’s another compelling reason why we need to focus on the departure tax: It’s important to the economy.
More than any other country in the world, America relies on aviation for economic development. Our airports aren’t just gateways; they are critical transportation hubs connecting our cities with each other and with foreign markets. They are also engines of local job creation and economic growth. And yet there’s a bipartisan consensus in Washington that wants to raise them even higher—or eliminate them altogether—in an effort to reduce budget deficits.
It’s a terrible idea that could have disastrous consequences for our nation’s competitiveness and
“Airline Departure Tax” is the name of a tax imposed by the Philippine government on all airline passengers departing from airports in the Philippines. This tax is computed at PHP 550 (about USD 11) per passenger, irrespective of destination or class of travel. The tax is payable upon check-in to the airport of departure.
The Airline Departure Tax was first introduced in the late 1990s to fund the construction and operation of Terminal 3 at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). It was originally intended to be a temporary measure that would expire when Terminal 3 opened.
Fast forward to today, and we now have an ever-expanding Airline Departure Tax that has generated billions of pesos in revenue for the Philippine government, despite our national flag carrier, Philippine Airlines, having long since moved its operations from NAIA 1 (where it previously shared facilities with other carriers) to the newer, more modern Terminal 2.
The Airline Departure Tax has even survived the opening of Terminal 3 in July 2008 (six years after its original intended expiration date), which had been more than enough time for PAL and NAIA’s other international carriers to fully settle into their new facilities.
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In today’s economy, the cost of air travel is at an all time high. I have been going through my records from last year and a lot of my personal expenses go to air travel. The cost for airline tickets has become a significant burden on my finances. I have to fly every week for business and it is costing me a fortune in terms of both time and money.
The reason why I am going through my records is because it is that time of the year again when government wants to add on more taxes and fees to our already expensive air travel. They want to increase the departure tax on all international flights departing out of Canada at an average increase of $12 per ticket. This means that if you are flying in Economy Class, you would be paying $35 more per flight, and if you are traveling in Business Class, you would be paying $50 more per flight.
So how much exactly are we paying? Let’s look at this example:
For every international flight departing out of Canada, you would be paying an Air Transportation Tax of $25 (if departing from a Canadian airport other than Toronto). But if you are departing from Toronto, then it would be $30 (because the Air Transportation Tax applies only to flights departing from
Whilst the summer holiday season is now drawing to a close in much of Europe and North America, this is just the beginning of the holiday season for millions of travellers in South East Asia.
The end of Ramadan means that Indonesian families are starting to plan their annual holidays, many of whom will be looking for destinations within 8 hours flying time from Jakarta.
Unfortunately Indonesia’s departure tax has just increased from IDR 150,000 to IDR 200,000 (a 33% increase) making it amongst the highest departure taxes in Asia – only Singapore (SGD 32 – about IDR 250,000), Brunei (BND 25 – about IDR 230,000) and Hong Kong (HKD 120 – about IDR 230,000) have higher departure taxes.
Indonesia’s departure tax is more than double that of Malaysia and Thailand (both IDR 80,000) and almost triple that of Australia (AUD 55 – about IDR 500,000).
Passengers who are off to the airport have to make sure they have enough cash to pay for the tax. In some countries, this is included in the price of an air ticket so passengers don’t have to worry about it. In others – including the UK – it isn’t.
“Passengers won’t be allowed to board a plane if they can’t pay the tax,” said an official at the country’s main gateway, Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport.
Airlines will have to make sure their staff know what’s happening and explain it to passengers.
It seems like a lot of money for a short flight, but it is not unusual for the Indonesian authorities to impose extra charges on travellers.
There are many websites that are out to help consumers. Among the most popular are consumer protection sites. The problem is that there are also many fraudsters posing as consumer protection specialists.
The Consumer Affairs Ministry is aware of this problem, but it does not have enough resources to monitor every consumer site in Australia.
So what can you do?
First, check if the consumer site has a legitimate address. This is usually easy to do. Just go to their website and see if they have their original business address on their home page. If it is a fake address, then the consumer protection site is probably a fraud too.
Second, check if the consumer site has any testimonials from consumers who have used the site and were satisfied with the service they received. If there are no testimonials at all, then you should avoid using that site.
Third, check if the consumer site uses words like “free” or “guaranteed”. These words suggest that they may be making money from you by selling your personal information to third parties without your knowledge or consent.
This type of scam is very common in Australia, especially among new businesses and companies who want to promote their products and services online through social media websites like Facebook and Twitter.
Finally,