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DALLAS (AP) — The IRS is asking airlines to refund taxes to people who bought tickets before last weekend but are just now taking their trips.
Those travelers might be owed a refund because Congress let the taxes expire.
The Internal Revenue Service said on its website Wednesday that airlines can refund the taxes, just as they do when exchanging a refundable ticket that wasn't used.
But the airlines aren't required to issue the refund, and some are directing customers to the IRS, which is still working on a procedure for handling refunds.
American, United, Continental and Southwest were directing customers to the IRS. JetBlue invited customers to email refund requests to the airline. Other airlines didn't immediately comment.
The IRS said it asked the airlines to provide refunds when customers ask, but it stopped short of requiring them to do so.
Passengers who can't get a refund from the airline eventually will be able to submit a claim to the IRS along with proof of taxes paid and travel dates, the agency said.
Several federal taxes include a 7.5 percent excise tax on tickets expired, but others are still being collected, including fees for passenger security and local airport construction projects.
The expiration of some taxes is turning into a windfall for airlines, most of which raised prices enough to replace the taxes. That way, customers pay as much as before, but airlines keep some of the money that used to go to the government.
Delta Air Lines said Wednesday it's getting an extra $4 million to $5 million a day — great news for Delta investors.
"Sure, this probably won't go on forever," said J.P. Morgan analyst Jamie Baker, but similar tax holidays lasted nine months in 1996 and three months in 1997, "and in both cases revenue improvement was clearly evident."
So what are these taxes and fees? For domestic flights, there are 4 standard taxes on airfare – a passenger ticket tax (7.5 percent of the base fare); a flight segment tax ($3.70 a flight); a passenger facility charge (up to $4.50 a segment, max of $18); and a federal security fee, also called the Sept. 11 fee ($2.50 a segment).
While most people are aware that non stop flights are cheaper for airfare, it’s also cheaper for taxes. For each stop that a flight makes, you may be charged a passenger facility charge (maximum of $18) and a security fee for each segment (maximum $5 one way, $10 round trip). Also, a federal excise tax of 7.5% is applied to the airline base fare and $8.10 each way is applied for travel to Hawaii or Alaska. Immigration and Naturalization fee is $7.
For other charges, airlines differ on what they will charge you. On Delta, International surcharges for carriers may be as much as $260 while international transportation taxes and fees may be as much as $299. A US International Transportation Tax is $16.10 for certain flights. On United, there is a security surcharge of $55 for each transatlantic flight while arrival ($14.10) and departure ($14.80) taxes also apply. United charges $21.36 for departures out of Belgium and $2.48 out of Luxembourg. For Continental, travel from Canada or Mexico is subject to US inspection fees of $12. International fees may be as much as $160.
The problem is the airlines don't have your money - the IRS does. And they want the airlines to refund the money that they no longer have. Complete BS. Not to mention, I guarantee that when the FAA bill is signed the carriers will have to pay back taxes on all the passengers who booked but paid no taxes during that time. Which is why the airlines raised their prices IMO.
The IRS can 'refund' the money back to the airline to refund. The airlines can credit the credit cards in a few seconds. The Airline computer have all that data. Its just the IRS know most people will never file for the refund, so they get to keep the money.
Three years ago, My electric company gave a refund for 'return of capital' Extra profit from operations, State Sales tax was collected on that amount, and would need to be re-funded. The Electric company can only return sales tax from refunds that are collected with in the last 12 months, So each of the 200,000 customores would need to file with the state to get there sales tax refund. The Electric company asked the state to give them the 'refunded' sales tax dollars and they would just include it in the credits that give as refunds on next bill, or cut checks for the people who do not have accounts anymore. The state said no, each person has to file. So the electric company (who has a proxy for this sort of thing). Generated 200,000 printed refund request forms for each of the 200,000 effected, and wheeled them all into the state treasurers office. All of a sudden the state treasure wanted the electric company to send out the refunds.
Spirit Airlines has been refunding those taxes. And that is the airline that so many of those in this forum complain about.
I think you're forgetting that people on this forum complain about spirit along with every single other airline :P
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