filipino honesty

[Pauldo]

Originally posted by peterdavid@Jul 9 2005, 02:42 PM
I think the tax to which Keith is so correctly referring is the extra, cash only "travel tax" levied at the Philippines airport ONLY to filipinos (not to foreigners) because the filipino lives abroad and therefore buys her plane ticket in the country in which she lives.

Quoted post

There is no tax to Filipinos flying into the Philippines. This 'travel tax' is paid by Filipinos LEAVING the Philippines, whether it be the first time or fiftieth. My wife paid it a few times when we first met, as we went to Thailand and SIngapore a few times on hols. After we eventually moved to the UK and returned to the PI later for a holiday she didn't have to pay because she had been overseas for more than a year. Something to do with not being a Philippines resident. They could still have asked for the money, but they checked her passport and told us we didn't need to pay. We would have been none the wiser if they had made her pay it

But, she did have to pay 100 pesos administration for them to tell her she didn't have to pay tax. Only 100 pesos, but half a days wages to the average unskilled Filipino :huh:
Cheers, Paul

[peterdavid]

Originally posted by Pauldo@Sep 4 2005, 06:56 PM
There is no tax to Filipinos flying into the Philippines. This 'travel tax' is paid by Filipinos LEAVING the Philippines, whether it be the first time or fiftieth. My wife paid it a few times when we first met, as we went to Thailand and SIngapore a few times on hols. After we eventually moved to the UK and returned to the PI later for a holiday she didn't have to pay because she had been overseas for more than a year. Something to do with not being a Philippines resident. They could still have asked for the money, but they checked her passport and told us we didn't need to pay. We would have been none the wiser if they had made her pay it

But, she did have to pay 100 pesos administration for them to tell her she didn't have to pay tax. Only 100 pesos, but half a days wages to the average unskilled Filipino :huh:
Cheers, Paul

Quoted post

Any time we went on holiday from the Philippines, we (necessarily) bought the tickets from the Philippines, and the travel tax was included in the travel agent ticket price. We both had to pay it. No problems with that, most countries charge some form of travel tax.

However, when you buy a ticket from the UK, for example on a return ticket to the philippines, you pay your tax at the point of purchase at the UK. All taxes paid. On leaving the philippines however, you carry on through, but the filipina gets stopped and forced to pay MORE tax, at the airport, to the Philippines, despite having a ticket expressly saying "inclusive of all taxes", and this extortionate rip off is done to her purely because she has a filipino passport and they want to rip off as much money from her as possible before leaving. She may have escaped the country, but for as long as she has a filipino passport, they'll take as much money from her as they can any way they can.

This is the rip off that people are talking about - where the filipino/a is forced to pay tax, a second time, to a country she doesn't live in, when she's already paid the tax on the ticket already.

Think about it - if you lived in the Philippines, made all your purchases there, paid your Philippine GST, paid your income tax, and then got a demand from the British government to pay the equivalent VAT on all your philippine purchases, on top of the philippine tax you'd already paid, just because you're british, would you be happy to pay it? I know where I'd tell them to go and shove their tax demand. But you can't do this when you're trying to escape the country and back to your own life, and the Philippines knows it, and that's why they do it. It quite literally is, by definition, extortion.

It's not the amount that irks (it's about £20 or so) - it's the principle.

[Pauldo]

This is the rip off that people are talking about - where the filipino/a is forced to pay tax, a second time, to a country she doesn't live in, when she's already paid the tax on the ticket already.

No she doesn't. If she actually lives overseas she is exempt from that tax, as I mentioned above. The tax is nothing to do with the ticket, as she would pay it if she were leaving by ship too.

It's not the amount that irks (it's about £20 or so) - it's the principle.

Try being an Indonesian, or working in Indonesia, and you'll be paying 'Fiscal Tax' when you leave. This version of travel tax is US$100 in that country. That's an awful lot of money to the average Indonesion, but they assume that because they are leaving the country they must be 'rich'.

[peterdavid]

Originally posted by Pauldo@Sep 7 2005, 07:06 AM
No she doesn't. If she actually lives overseas she is exempt from that tax, as I mentioned above. The tax is nothing to do with the ticket, as she would pay it if she were leaving by ship too.

It's a travel tax, so yes, it is payable by whatever means she wants to escape. But she still should not have to pay it - or the exempt fee - why should she have to pay any form of tax the government of a country in which she does not live? People of other nationalities don't have to pay it. A tax should be applied to all, or none - first basic rule of taxation is that if it's not equitable, people will resent it. It's just yet another unfair, corrupt, money grabbing crab mentality Philippines attitude, almost like they're giving you a final kick up the backside as you leave, because they're jealous you've managed to escape. They can't stop you going, but they'll cling on to you for every penny they can get before you go.

Try being an Indonesian, or working in Indonesia, and you'll be paying 'Fiscal Tax' when you leave. This version of travel tax is US$100 in that country. That's an awful lot of money to the average Indonesion, but they assume that because they are leaving the country they must be 'rich'.

Quoted post

I don't doubt it - I know the Philippines isn't alone (or even in the minority) of rip off and backward countries around the world, especially in Asia where the only true religion is Money. But when we all have an emotional connection to the Philippines (as opposed to any other country there), you sort of wish it would at least do something to start helping itself, rather than alienating every type of visitor it gets (and not many of them anyway comapred to its neighbours). At least have the brains to realise that not charging filipinas 100pesos on the way out, just to escape, means they don't leave the country feeling ripped off and exploited, and maybe then, not quite so many of them would be so desperate to rip up their philippine passports and forget about the hellhole they come from. But they don't even have the intelligence to think that the 100 pesos foregone today could lead to 100 times as much in return in the future. That measly £1 travel tax on the way out is, in itself, sufficient to stop us returning until her british passport comes through, whereas otherwise we would visit more. Think of how many thousands of pounds in tourist income they will lose because we don't visit, purely because of this rip off, whereas otherwise we would be over there, visiting and spending and helping their crumbling economy. It's not the amount of the tax, it's the principle.

[peterdavid]

Originally posted by Pauldo@Sep 4 2005, 06:56 PM
But, she did have to pay 100 pesos administration for them to tell her she didn't have to pay tax. Only 100 pesos, but half a days wages to the average unskilled Filipino :huh:
Cheers, Paul

Quoted post

Almost as ridiculous as the "express fees" you are forced to pay at the Bureau of Immigration as a foreigner leaving the Philippines. This express fee entitles you to wait several hours in the same "express queue" as everyone else. It's about as "express" as a ride in a Jeepney.