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Over the past week, CNN has aired a number of special programs about the cruise industry, revealing a number of things that the industry would prefer you not know.
The segment below focuses on the cruise lines’ efforts to avoid U.S taxes,
By registering their cruise ships in foreign countries, cruise lines avoid most U.S.
Carnival held its annual meeting this morning at a hotel on Miami Beach. But today was different from the usually dull, self-serving pontificating by cruise line executives when a group demanding that Carnival pay its fair share of taxes appeared on the scene.
An organization called "1Miami" challenged Carnival and its CEO Micky
This week the United States Coast Guard rescued two cruise passengers – one ill young man from the NCL Gem cruise ship sailing off the coast of North Carolina and a second young woman from the Explorer cruise ship who was suffering from an appendicitis attack near Key West Florida.
When we report on these type of rescues
An interesting editorial appears today in the Jamaica Gleaner about a proposal to increase the head tax on visitors who arrive via air to Jamaica from $10 to $20. The writer characterizes this proposed increase as unfair considering the head tax on cruise passengers is only $2 per person. These taxes help pay the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) which funds projects
A reader of Cruise Law News (CLN) brought an excellent opinion piece from the New York Times regarding the shipping industry’s use of "flags of convenience" to my attention. Entitled "Flying the Flag, Fleeing the State" and written by Rose George, the article explains how unscrupulous ship owners evade responsibility for environmental damage, exploitative labor and unsafe work conditions, and criminal
Today the Move On organization published an article entitled "Pay Your Taxes? These Ten Companies Didn’t." The article points out that while most of us U.S. taxpayers struggle to pay our fair share of taxes, there are certain corporations which have tax avoidance down to an art.
The list is complied by Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from the state
One of the little know facts about the cruise industry is that it pays virtually no U.S. taxes.
The cruise lines take advantage of an obscure provision in the U.S. tax code which permits shipping companies to evade taxes by incorporating overseas and flying the flags of foreign countries. That’s why Carnival is incorporated in
Royal Caribbean is threatening the tiny town of Rockland, Maine after it decided to increase its cruise ship fee to $6 per passenger. Royal Caribbean wants the fee to stay at $1.
The AP is reporting that Rockland (population 7,000) increased its head tax to help reasonsbly compensate the community for the substantial costs imposed on town’s infrastructure by cruise
The Juneau Empire reports that Alaska just weakened its wastewater regulations at the cruise industry’s request. Cruise ships are now permitted to dump greater amount of ammonia (from fecal matter), copper, nickel and zinc in Alaska’s pristine waters.
The newspaper reports that the cruise industry is "pleased" and and "appreciates" the new wastewater discharge rules.
The cruise
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Earlier this week, I attended the "Cruise Shipping Miami" convention here in Miami and reported on the threats against Alaska’s Governor Parnell leveled by Holland American Lines’ CEO Stein Kruse to pull HAL cruise ships from Alaska. (photo courtesy Travel Agent Central)
As we all know, HAL is wholly owned by Carnival and Kruse reports directly to Carnival CEO and multi-billionaire Mickey
The cruise industry has picked a fight with Alaska over the $50 tax designed to protect the state. The lawsuit, which is posted online, indicates that the lawsuit was filed by a trade organization called, interesting enough, the "Alaska Cruise Association."
"Alaskan Cruise Association" – Made in Miami, Florida
There is nothing remotely "Alaskan" about the "Alaska Cruise Association" (ACA). The ACA is
KTUU Channel 2 in Anchorage Alaska reports that the cruise industry has filed suit to avoid paying Alaska’s head count tax. In an article entitled "Sources: Cruise Ship Industry Files Suit Over Head Tax," Channel 2 reports that cruise lines are trying to avoid the $46 infrastructure tax levied at Alaska ports which the cruise ships use. The cruise industry
