Today is tax day in the United States, as Wednesday, April 15, 2026 is winding down — and I thought that we could look back at some articles that were published at The Gate With Brian Cohen with which taxes were part of the topic.
Do Not Forget That Today is Tax Day in the United States.
Without further ado, here are some of those articles.
- Workers are able to deduct up to $25,000.00 in tips and gratuities per year from their taxable income as the result of a controversial bill that was passed into law in July of 2025; and gratuities will be taxed by the federal government after that — which at a tax rate of 15 percent, another $3,750.00 is added to the pockets of those workers. If a worker earns greater than $150,000.00 per year, the income that they earn on gratuities will be taxed. I outline the reasons why I still believe that this is a bad idea.
- Three cities and one county in the state of Georgia filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Rome on Friday, January 31, 2020 which claims that Airbnb, Incorporated failed to collect taxes and not paying its fair share of them to local authorities.
- Speaking of lodging taxes in the state of Georgia, a hotel tax of five dollars per night for guests became effective as of Wednesday, July 1, 2015. A provision was added at the last minute to fund the HB 170 Transportation Funding Act of 2015 with a price tag of greater than $900 million, as voted on in the final version of the law by members of the Georgia General Assembly. This tax is still in effect today; so if you plan on staying at a hotel or resort property in Georgia, figure on spending an extra five dollars per night.
- A hotel property initially charged me for the use of the safe in the room — which I never used — plus tax. However, they disclaimed themselves from being responsible for any valuables that were left in that safe. How is that possible — or even fair?
- Was this flat sales tax that was charged by a hotel property really a mandatory resort fee in disguise?
- The gasoline tax in New Jersey increased by a whopping 23 cents per gallon on Tuesday, November 1, 2016
- Tax changes that affected travelers in countries over the years include:
- Sweden abolished its air travel tax in 2025
- The tourist tax in New Zealand tripled in 2024
- A new departure tax went into effect as of January of 2022
- A value-added tax in United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia became effective as of Monday, January 1, 2018
- Malaysia started charging a tourism tax effective as of Tuesday, August 1, 2017
The only travel company that I could find which was offering some kind of promotion for Tax Day in 2026 is Allegiant Air with this tepid offer to earn an “EZ 1040 bonus points” — get it? — if you book an itinerary through tomorrow, Thursday, April 16, 2026 for travel dates between Friday, May 15, 2026 and Monday, September 7, 2026.
Final Boarding Call
Don’t even get me started on where our tax money is going and how it is being used or wasted — or about mandatory fees and visa fees in general.
Benjamin Franklin is quoted as having stated the following sentence in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy — who was a physicist in France — in 1789:
Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
The last half of that quote still holds true today, doesn’t it?
If you have not yet filed your taxes, you still have a few hours from the time this article was published to get your completed tax forms sent to the Internal Revenue Service of the United States without penalty…
…and hopefully, you will receive a sizable refund of what you already paid in taxes.
Photograph ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
