Carbon Tax and Cruise Ships

[thied]

Thied, you are making my head spin by talking around and around in circles. ;)

 

The international departure tax is a federal tax and applies Australia wide while the New South Wales tax for cruise ship passengers using facilities in Sydney Harbour is a state tax.

 

Neither of these increases in related to the new carbon tax.

 

My response to your original question on whether people feel the carbon tax will increase prices for cruising - I don't feel it will directly, but there will probably be flow on costs to the cruiseline where items they require will increase in price. None of us can say whether the cruiselines can absorb any such increases of whether they will have to pass them on by increasing prices. If prices have to go up it won't be immediately, and can only be in the longer term when pricing structure is determined for future years' cruise schedules.

if it was an international departure tax is a federal tax, why does it only apply to one state NSW and as a federal tax would be nation wide or every port?

 

 

 

great some one with some sence (My response to your original question on whether people feel the carbon tax will increase prices for cruising - I don't feel it will directly, but there will probably be flow on costs to the cruiseline where items they require will increase in price. None of us can say whether the cruiselines can absorb any such increases of whether they will have to pass them on by increasing prices. If prices have to go up it won't be immediately, and can only be in the longer term when pricing structure is determined for future years' cruise schedules.)

[Aus Traveller]

if it was an international departure tax is a federal tax, why does it only apply to one state NSW and as a federal tax would be nation wide or every port?

 

 

great some one with some sence (My response to your original question on whether people feel the carbon tax will increase prices for cruising - I don't feel it will directly, but there will probably be flow on costs to the cruiseline where items they require will increase in price. None of us can say whether the cruiselines can absorb any such increases of whether they will have to pass them on by increasing prices. If prices have to go up it won't be immediately, and can only be in the longer term when pricing structure is determined for future years' cruise schedules.)

I am responding to the first sentence quoted.

 

There are two separate taxes. One is a Federal tax - an international departure tax. The other is a NSW State tax that relates to cruiseline passengers using the facilities in Sydney Harbour. Therefore if a passenger departs from Sydney Harbour on an international cruise, I dare say they would have to pay both taxes, but if they left from Brisbane on an international cruise, they would only pay the federal international departure tax.

 

Do you understand how it works now?:)

 

Of course, each state might have a tax for use of their port facilities, but I haven't bothered to research that. I have too much to do today and then tomorrow we have to get ready for a cruise.:):)

[thied]

I am responding to the first sentence quoted.

 

There are two separate taxes. One is a Federal tax - an international departure tax. The other is a NSW State tax that relates to cruiseline passengers using the facilities in Sydney Harbour. Therefore if a passenger departs from Sydney Harbour on an international cruise, I dare say they would have to pay both taxes, but if they left from Brisbane on an international cruise, they would only pay the federal international departure tax.

 

Do you understand how it works now?:)

 

Of course, each state might have a tax for use of their port facilities, but I haven't bothered to research that. I have too much to do today and then tomorrow we have to get ready for a cruise.:):)

so which tax is to which government?

and has this tax got anything to do with carbon tax?

[thied]

You asked for an answer, not an opinion. If you ask is a take-away hamburger covered by GST here, there's only one answer.

 

 

 

answer is yes as there is a service.

[The_Big_M]

so which tax is to which government?

 

and has this tax got anything to do with carbon tax?

 

 

You need to read what's written thied. The explanation has already been provided.

[thied]

You need to read what's written thied. The explanation has already been provided.

you are the only one that has posted about a hamburger tax.

[The_Big_M]

you are the only one that has posted about a hamburger tax.

 

You need to re-read things as that statement is not correct, and also doesn't relate to the question I replied to.

[maf101]

Tax, tax, tax :(

 

I got an email last Month from my travel agent about departure tax increases. I thought it was for International cruises but it includes local. I paid in full because the idea of paying more after booking annoys me.

Australian departure tax will increase by $8 per person on the 01st July 2012, all bookings with departures from Australia that have not been fully paid prior to this date will be affected by the tax increase. We have also noticed that some suppliers have been adding currency surcharges to un paid bookings due to the fluctuation in the Australian dollar.

 

Holland America and certain other cruise lines can still add fuel and tax surcharges to fully paid bookings however the majority of cruise lines will not increase taxes or surcharges once a booking is fully paid.

[Aus Traveller]

so which tax is to which government?

and has this tax got anything to do with carbon tax?

I have returned home so can now respond to this question.

 

Federal departure tax goes to the Australian Commonwealth Government :).

 

New South Wales tax goes to the New South Wales State Government :).

 

I do not believe that these taxes, or any increase in these taxes, are related to the carbon tax.

[MrYellowDuck]

It's unlikely that additional taxes not directly attributed to passengers will increases prices. The reason for this is that prices are already set at the maximum they can be to attract the optimum number of passengers. And, any increase the passenger does not accept as being "theirs alone to pay" won't drive a behavior change to make the passengers want/expect to pay more.

 

If there is scope to increase prices further at the moment then this will happen whether expenses have increased or not; this is how properly run business make money.

 

Prices might have to increase if increased expenses erode profits to the point that the minimum required return on capital invested can't be achieved. This won't be the reason for an increase in the Australian market any time soon since prices already have considerable margin over that achieved in other markets, and since capital is borrowed from the same places for all markets the required return is the same in all markets too. Under this type of scenario, assuming prices are already optimised, it might be better to stop offering cruises or to cut back. So again this is not a likely scenario for seeing increased prices.

 

Prices in Australia are high because Australian's will pay high prices; US customers on the same cruises pay less. Australians traveling to the US to cruise pay more than US residents etc.

 

The cruise operator may of course try to convince Australians that they should pay even more because of taxes (or any other reason they can dream up) and if successful they will put up the price. These types of price increases really have nothing to do with the price needing to increase - it's that passengers feel they should pay more and shareholders rub their hands together and say "give me more if you want to".

 

Cost plus pricing hasn't been common among big companies for nearly a century - this approach never ever produces the best level of profit and this is why it isn't used.

 

Remember that prices are always set to be optimal in terms of getting as much money out of passengers in aggregate versus the cost of doing so versus what ever strategy the provider is running.