Virgin offers ‘tax-free’ flights to Cancun – Telegraph

Its “APD free” sale takes place this weekend and will save a family of four visiting the Mexican resort £324.

Sir Richard Branson, Virgin’s founder, described APD – which is paid by all passengers flying from a UK airport – as a “disgrace” and claimed that the Government will collect around £600 million from the tax during July and August – equivalent to £10 million per day.

“In an Olympic year, it is obscene for the Treasury to be taking £10 million every day from visitors and British holidaymakers alike,” he said. “This suffocating tax has rocketed way out of control. Years of above-inflation increases have hit passengers hard, are hitting the economy hard and are impeding our recovery from the recession.”

Following the most recent rise in the tax, an eight per cent hike made in April, a family of four travelling to Europe must pay £52 in APD, while those flying farther afield are hit even harder. The cost of APD for a family of four flying to the United States or Egypt, for example, is £260; for those travelling to the Caribbean or South Africa, it is £324; and a family visiting Argentina or Australia must pay £368. Those figures are doubled for those flying in premium-economy, business- or first-class cabins.

via Virgin offers ‘tax-free’ flights to Cancun – Telegraph.

Strange Random Tax Quote:

You must pay taxes. But there’s no law that says you gotta leave a tip. – Morgan Stanley advertisement

Related articles

• Virgin Atlantic celebrates new Cancun route with tax-free tickets (dailymail.co.uk)
• Virgin Atlantic planning Heathrow to Moscow flights (guardian.co.uk)
• Flight tax rise comes into effect (confused.com)
• Air Passenger Duty: flights from London could face higher tax (telegraph.co.uk)
• Sir Richard Branson Does A Rapid About Turn On All Things Green (toryaardvark.com)
• Pressure mounting to lower flight tax (express.co.uk)
• Taxpayers Alliance backs anti-APD campaign (abtn.co.uk)
• Taxpayer’s Alliance calls for end to APD ‘burden’ (telegraph.co.uk)

Pot Legalization Could Save U.S. $13.7 Billion Per Year, 300 Economists Say

Your plans to celebrate 4/20 this Friday could actually make the government some money, if only such activities were legal. That’s according to a bunch of economists, and some prominent ones too.

More than 300 economists, including three nobel laureates, have signed a petition calling attention to the findings of a paper by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron, which suggests that if the government legalized marijuana it would save $7.7 billion annually by not having to enforce the current prohibition on the drug. The report added that legalization would save an additional $6 billion per year if the government taxed marijuana at rates similar to alcohol and tobacco.

That’s as much as $13.7 billion per year, but it’s still minimal when compared to the federal deficit, which hit $1.5 trillion last year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

While the economists don’t directly call for pot legalization, the petition asks advocates on both sides to engage in an “open and honest debate” about the benefits of pot prohibition.

“At a minimum, this debate will force advocates of current policy to show that prohibition has benefits sufficient to justify the cost to taxpayers, foregone tax revenues, and numerous ancillary consequences that result from marijuana prohibition,” the petition states.

via Pot Legalization Could Save U.S. $13.7 Billion Per Year, 300 Economists Say.

Strange Random Marijuana Quote:

“I used to smoke marijuana. But I’ll tell you something: I would only smoke it in the late evening. Oh, occasionally the early evening, but usually the late evening – or the mid-evening. Just the early evening, mid-evening and late evening. Occasionally, early afternoon, early mid-afternoon, or perhaps the late-mid-afternoon. Oh, sometimes the early-mid-late-early morning. . . . …But never at dusk.” – Steve Martin

Related articles

• Marijuana laws: Up in smoke | The Economist (policyabcs.wordpress.com)
• How Much Could the Government Make Off Pot? (turbotax.intuit.com)
• Lawrence O’Donnell Is Delusional To Think President Obama Would End War On Drugs (mediaite.com)
• Colorado the new “ground zero” for debates over pot prohibitions and policies (sentencing.typepad.com)
• The Economics of Legalizing Pot (bigthink.com)
• Why Medical Marijuana Providers Are Opposing Legalization Efforts in Washington and Colorado (reason.com)
• Why Make Marijuana Legal? (jpr100w.wordpress.com)
• It’s Time to Repeal Marijuana Prohibition Laws (aleksandreia.com)
• Number of the Week: Legalize Pot to Make Roads Safer (blogs.wsj.com)