Recently in the SF Chronicle there was information as follows:

"Associated Press

CONSUMER NEWS / Airlines might refund 'nonrefundable' fees
A nonrefundable ticket might not mean losing all your money if you can't make the flight. You might be able to get back the government fees that are built into the price.

An attorney involved in a class action suit in Massachusetts has discovered that a number of airlines will refund fees for airport maintenance, security, landing rights and the like -- if asked. The suit against 13 airlines complains that they did not inform consumers of this option. Unrefunded fees from unused tickets add up to at least $50 million a year, according to plaintiff's attorney Evans Carter.

Carter isn't going after the 8 percent ticket tax because, while an IRS rule says the airlines can choose to refund taxes on refundable tickets, the taxes on nonrefundable tickets still must be sent along to the IRS, thank you very much.)

In another taxes-by-another-name issue: Airlines and some members of Congress are fighting President Bush's proposal to increase the airline ticket security fee from $2.50 per leg to $5.50 in order to raise $1.5 billion. The airlines say it will make it harder for them to raise fares and will discourage people from flying."

I found this very interesting. Wonder if any Fodorite ever received any such a refund?

Sounds to me like another class action suit in which the lead plaintiff gets $10,000, the lawyer get $10,000,000 and the rest of us get a notice that in future we can ask for a refund.

Better than what we got before the lawsuit was filed and made the news.

I just read last week (cannot remember which website) that the IRS claims they have the right to tax non US airline employees salaries for the portion of the time they are working in the US sky.

The article stated the EU was having a fit and a half. No big surprise about that. The article then went on to say that if the IRS can and does start to do this then other countries would insist that US employees salaries be taxed when flying in their sky.

I can't see this happening. The accounting nightmare goes beyond belief. But stranger things have happened.

If that is true about the IRS, they are really insane. Following that logic, they could start taxing any employee of a foreign corporation for the days they are on business trips in the United States. I thought taxes were related to residency and the location of the company you were working for, not where you happened to be on a trip working for a foreign company.

I don't know how the IRS could get away with this anyway, but I don't know much of anything about how those things work. How can the US tax service just arbitrarily decide to tax employees and residents of other countries? What authority can they claim to even get them to pay them?

"In another taxes-by-another-name issue: Airlines and some members of Congress are fighting President Bush's proposal to increase the airline ticket security fee from $2.50 per leg to $5.50 in order to raise $1.5 billion. The airlines say it will make it harder for them to raise fares and will discourage people from flying."


So true. I was planning a trip myself and had most of the details worked out but when I saw my $3800 three week trip was going to cost $3803.00 I decided to cancel. I just couldn't figure where I'd get that $3 from, so now I'll have to stay home.

Well, we didn't cancel, but that extra $3 means we will have to fly economy instead of business class.

RufusTFirefly,

Better off? Where do you think the money to pay the lawyer comes from? Any time we find or tax a corporation, we are actually hurting the consumer, as the corporation will just raise prices to cover the increased costs, or go out of business.

As to taxing foreign employees who do business in the US, it is already done with professional athletes. Every time the Giants, for example, play in Cleveland, they are subjected to Ohio and Cleveland income taxes. Its apparently worth pursuing in the case of highly paid athletes; I'm not sure it would be worth pursuing a flight attendant, for example, but the states are strapped for money now, and it wouldn't surprise me if they were looking at this.

Clevelandbrown, I honestly thought you were making that up! There appears to be no limit to the ridiculous IRS rules. Got this from one site: "Agents and others, though, say many marginal players, who may have careers lasting only a few years and paychecks far smaller than A-Rod's, can see a significant portion of their earnings drained away by the jock tax. The tax also applies to coaches, trainers, equipment managers and others who travel with the team, though many of them make fairly modest salaries." Another site pointed out that New Jersey is now taxing visiting lawyers.

Logically, the players then cannot be taxed by their home state for the portion that is taxed by another state. Is that true?

Yes. For an athlete with a 16 game schedule (8 home and 8 away), his home jurisdictions will tax him on half his income (8/16), and each away jurisdiction will tax him (or her, if we must be PC) on 1/16 of the income.

Is it any surprise that Cleveland loves to host the Yankees?

You would need to ask your congressmen about these taxes. The IRS does NOT write the tax code..Congress does..the IRS is the enforcement agency. Our government is so revenue hungry right now, I would believe almost anything, no matter how rediculous it sounds. On the other hand, the airlines whining that an additional 2.50 charge on an airline ticket will stop people from flying is just ...well beyond stupid.