Re: Air Passenger Duty : Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:49 pm  

Flying is a luxury?

For those of us who live and work overseas it isn't. It is a bloody pain in the booty and often essential for earning our daily bread or seeing family.

Still, this is a rugby league website, where most people's idea of luxury long-haul travel is Leeds to Hull on the back of a 50 seater coach, with a stop off at Ferrybridge to fill their faces with KFC. The 'in flight' entertainment is interactive and takes the form of dodging bricks thrown by the locals as you approach your destination.

[DaveO]

Re: Air Passenger Duty : Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:37 pm  

The Video Ref wrote:

Flying is a luxury?

For those of us who live and work overseas it isn't. It is a bloody pain in the booty and often essential for earning our daily bread or seeing family.

Well if you chose to do that it kind it goes with the territory doesn't it. I drive to work but I don't expect my car or petrol to be VAT free because I do.

I am not sure why you think because you live and work abroad you should qualify for a tax break on your travel.

In any case wouldn't you be buying your tickets overseas in countries that don't level such high APD?

Re: Air Passenger Duty : Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:01 pm  

I have never said I should qualify for a tax break on my travel. I am simply pointing out that flying is not the luxury some people have made it out to be. For some of us it is essential.

Anyhow, I don't choose to work overseas, it just happened.

Yup, I literally woke up one morning to find my job being relocated half way across Europe and international travel being added to my job description.

Anyhow, Germany treats me well and I now despair at the state of things when I return to the UK. Hate to admit it, but the Germans have better food, better beer, better transport system, clean streets, the list is endless. It's basically a better quality of life.

Oh and the frau? The frau is absolutely awesome.

Re: Air Passenger Duty : Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:06 pm  

The Video Ref wrote:

Flying is a luxury?

For those of us who live and work overseas it isn't. It is a bloody pain in the booty and often essential for earning our daily bread or seeing family.

Still, this is a rugby league website, where most people's idea of luxury long-haul travel is Leeds to Hull on the back of a 50 seater coach, with a stop off at Ferrybridge to fill their faces with KFC. The 'in flight' entertainment is interactive and takes the form of dodging bricks thrown by the locals as you approach your destination.

You're even starting to whinge like an ex-pat now

You choose to live and work overseas, you have to accept that the further you travel when burning fossil fuels then the more it should cost you, it might seem like neccesity from where you are sitting in the cheap seats but ultimately you do it by choice in the same way that when I flew to Portugal in June for four days I did so for purely selfish reasons and coughed up my share of tax to do so.

Re: Air Passenger Duty : Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:02 pm  

Standee wrote: Fill in your postcode and send your MP a letter 1. We need to raise tax and so far as I am concerned this is one of the better ways. 2. We are told we have inadequate airport capacity. So, why not limit demand to match capacity? 3. Increasing the tax would be better for the envirnonment. 4. People going abroad for pleasure / holidays is detrimental to our economy. As to visitors coming here there will still be demand even if tax is raised as the whole of the rest of the world is the potential market and there are plently of wealthy people out there. So far as I am concerned it should be quadrupled.

Standee wrote: Fill in your postcode and send your MP a letter 1. We need to raise tax and so far as I am concerned this is one of the better ways. 2. We are told we have inadequate airport capacity. So, why not limit demand to match capacity? 3. Increasing the tax would be better for the envirnonment. 4. People going abroad for pleasure / holidays is detrimental to our economy. As to visitors coming here there will still be demand even if tax is raised as the whole of the rest of the world is the potential market and there are plently of wealthy people out there. So far as I am concerned it should be quadrupled.

Re: Air Passenger Duty : Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:10 pm  

Maybe a fairer way would be to tax individual travellers? So, one return journey per year could be taxed at a low rate and then each subsequent journey gets taxed at a higher rate. So the more you travel the more and more you pay.

Re: Air Passenger Duty : Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:51 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

One reason we pay such a huge amount in airport tax compared with other Eu countries (and beer duty, for example, where we pay 40% of the total beer duty paid in the whole EU) is obviously because most other countries don't see it as their job to play number two western world superpower and tour the world with our forces spending untold billions on running gigs in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

and not forgetting the millions handed out to the suposedly poor countries like India that dont even want our money

Re: Air Passenger Duty : Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:53 pm  

The Video Ref wrote:

I have never said I should qualify for a tax break on my travel. I am simply pointing out that flying is not the luxury some people have made it out to be. For some of us it is essential.

Anyhow, I don't choose to work overseas, it just happened.

Yup, I literally woke up one morning to find my job being relocated half way across Europe and international travel being added to my job description.

Anyhow, Germany treats me well and I now despair at the state of things when I return to the UK. Hate to admit it, but the Germans have better food, better beer, better transport system, clean streets, the list is endless. It's basically a better quality of life.

Oh and the frau? The frau is absolutely awesome.

do the frau still have sweaty armpits through not shaving?

Re: Air Passenger Duty : Fri Aug 31, 2012 6:46 am  

The Video Ref wrote:

I have never said I should qualify for a tax break on my travel. I am simply pointing out that flying is not the luxury some people have made it out to be. For some of us it is essential.

Anyhow, I don't choose to work overseas, it just happened.

Yup, I literally woke up one morning to find my job being relocated half way across Europe and international travel being added to my job description.

Anyhow, Germany treats me well and I now despair at the state of things when I return to the UK. Hate to admit it, but the Germans have better food, better beer, better transport system, clean streets, the list is endless. It's basically a better quality of life.

Oh and the frau? The frau is absolutely awesome.

Last time I looked, there was nothing preventing migration from the UK

Re: Air Passenger Duty : Fri Aug 31, 2012 6:49 am  

Standee wrote: Fill in your postcode and send your MP a letter Will you sign my petition to reduce tobacco duty, so that I don't have to go across to Belgium to stock up?

Standee wrote: Fill in your postcode and send your MP a letter Will you sign my petition to reduce tobacco duty, so that I don't have to go across to Belgium to stock up?