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We are going to analyze in this installment the different rates e taxes that are charged to the air tickets paid by air transport users in Latin America.
Given some comments that have circulated on social networks or that you readers have sent me, es momento aclarar lo que llamaré «la responsabilidad de una tasa o impuesto», meaning this to say which government or private entity is responsible for this charge or value.
In the face of this confusion I've seen, in this post that I hope will be short, I will clarify this topic, but we must start with the basics:
what is a tax?
It's kind of a tribute, que son generados exclusivamente por lo que se conoce como «potestad tributaria del Estado» con el objetivo de que este genere ingresos a su favor para financiar sus gastos públicos.
what is a rate?
The rate or tribute is defined as the value that an individual must pay for the use or exploitation of a space or for receiving a service..
With these two concepts quickly clarified and with past posts where we have analyzed why are tickets expensive, what can be done to lower costs O why a full flight is not profitable, we must begin to review what are the values that users pay for fees and taxes.
In the graph above we can see an example flight between Quito and Lima, where the total of taxes and fees will always be the same in all airlines, unless the airline charges an additional fee for web use or supplement.
Every time you buy a ticket, the airline must show you the breakdown of each of the values that are additional to the rate that it charges, in the case above, we will identify each value to which entity it corresponds:
- Government transport tax: in this case it is VAT, therefore it is a TAX of the government.
- international tourism charge: It corresponds to EcoDelta that charges Ecuador, so it's a TAX of the government.
- airport tax: although it says tax, this corresponds to the BOWL of boarding of the Airport in Ecuador.
- Tax on auxiliary airport facilities: corresponds to a TAX of the government.
- security charge: corresponds to another TAX, but in this case Municipal.
- tourism tax: charge to tourism as TAX of the Government of Peru.
- Airport Tax: you too, despite saying that it is tax, really is the BOWL of boarding of the Airport in Peru.
If we analyze this case study, we can see that not all the charges that users pay correspond only to fees for use of the airport, but mostly correspond to taxes generated by state authorities, being so five TAXES with a total of $103.72 dollars and two RATES with a value of $87.08 Dollars.
In this way we can know clearly, for the next time we make claims for the cost of tickets on social networks, that not all the extra values to the costs of a ticket, correspond to what the airports charge us for fees for the use of the facilities or the airlines for their services, but also that in many cases, mostly correspond to taxes generated by governments.
It's the theme, from the 2015 IATA has been promoting the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean to reform their tax policies, since these suppose crippling costs for the industry, that are contrary to international agreements that guarantee that all citizens benefit from global aviation connectivity.
