Originally Posted by
villox
So what, you think the IRS is going to come up with some formula, that varies for every single airline program in the world btw, that also takes account for who paid for each ticket (cause surely if I paid for the ticket I won't be taxed on this "rebate") and then start asking us to fill out income tax forms for them?
I think not.
Look, Amazon and other national online retailers are already required to collect and/or report sales taxes for 20 states. That's a lot of different tax rates/jurisdictions to keep track of. Yet, they do it easily. Eventually, they will be collecting tax/reporting sales for Use Tax collection to every state with a tax.
The airlines would be responsible for reporting the miles. Values could be determined like the hundreds of different per diem rates are right now. Not really that difficult so long as miles earned are tied directly to the cost of travel.