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Rep. Ted Poe

Mr. Speaker, for years the Federal Government keeps sneaking taxes into airline tickets. The airlines cannot put on the ticket all those hidden taxes because the law won't let them do so. For example, when you buy a product, normally you know how much the product is and then you know how much the taxes are, but not so with airlines.

Here's a typical ticket, Mr. Speaker. It starts out with $200 that's going to the airline, but the Federal Government sneaks in at least 11 taxes, raising the price to $374.95. Almost another half of the ticket is Federal taxes. That doesn't even count four more taxes they add on to the airlines.

The airline, when they make the ticket, all you see is the $374.95 because the law won't let the airlines tell the truth about the taxation of our government. When more taxes are added, the ticket price continues to go up. Congressman Graves from Georgia has introduced legislation to stop this nonsense.

Let's have transparency. Let's see how much those taxes are on an airline ticket. It's time we stop the hide-and-seek with taxpayer taxes.

And that's just the way it is.

Original Price of Ticket is $200.00 Plus Government Taxes: Passenger Flight-Segment Tax = $3.80 International Departure Tax (IDT) = $16.70 International Arrival Tax (IAT) = $16.70 Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) (maximum) = $4.50 September 11th Fee = $2.50 APHIS Passenger Fee = $5.00 APHIS Aircraft Fee = $70.75 Customs and Border Protection = $5.50 Immigration and Customs Enforcement User Fee = $7.00 Passenger Ticket (Excise) Tax = 7.5% ($15.00) Frequent-Flyer Tax (on sale of right to award miles) = 7.5%