Originally Posted by
FlyingBeanCounter
The taxes pretty clearly have to be refunded. There is no statute or law that says the government can tax on intent to travel. Every single tax requires an actual act to incur the tax - in this case the tax wouldn't be due unless the person actually consumed the travel. That would be like sales tax being collected when a purchase is returned.
This depends on what the "taxable event" is. You're operating under assumption that actually flying is the taxable event. However, the taxable event also could be paying the airline to make a seat available for you on flight X, in which case purchasing the ticket is the taxable event. Looked at differently, you can't return the purchase. So it is like buying the "no returns" discount rack clothing. You could walk out of the store and toss them in the trash, but you couldn't get a refund on the tax.
Originally Posted by
scracer14
Interesting discussion for sure. The TSA fee had me thinking. Since 100% of tickets sold incur the fee, even miles tickets, but we know not 100% of tickets are actually flown, the TSA essentially gets a windfall anytime someone doesn't show or cancels thier flight.
It's not really a "windfall" if the fee contemplates some "users" won't use the service. If 95% of tickets are assumed used it's not different than raising the fee ~5% and refunding those who don't use TSA's "service" - it's just a question of who actually pays, but the net is the same.