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'.
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.