NZFF

Hot on the tail of the news that Ryanair will charge for using toilets onboard its aircraft, now comes news that in the US, that Spirit Airlines will start charging up to US$45 for carry on bags, starting on 1st August.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63540720100406

How many other charges will the airlines introduce???? 'Free' flight but extra charge for pilot, fuel, seat, air, lighting, view........

smooth landings.

From what I heard on the radio there has been a government reaction to that.

Airlines collect all sorts of money, some of it is theirs (taxable income) and some of it is not (non-taxable non-income). In 'Merka 'money that has been collected for some unavoidable essential expense' (or something like that) is classed as non taxable income. It's done that way so that airlines can include things like airport charges in ticket prices - for our convenience of course - and only have to pay tax on the part of the ticket price that is actually income. And inevitably other things have been creeping into the non-taxable category as well.

Congress has signalled that carry-on luggage charges will absolutely be counted as taxable income, which apparently makes it a lot more awkward for the airlines to introduce.

Whatever happened to income - expenses = taxable profit ?