AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Travel Departure tax

Departed Belize flying AA on February 28 of this year and did not have to pay the departure tax.

On our last trip our departure tax was included in the plane fare, but we met a lady whose departure tax was not included. She went to the ATM and took out money for the tax. However the cash provided was Belize $'s and they would only accept US $'s for the tax. There was only one person in front of her in line at the bank window, but between the time the teller took a break and the time it took the one person in front of her to complete a simple transaction and the time it took for her to fill out the forms, she missed the plane. That was even though she had about a half hour when she learned she owed a departure tax. I still don't know why you have to fill out forms to change $BZ to $US or why the authorities only take US $'s but I will follow Gela's advice and "tuck away" the departure tax.

Sometimes its owed and sometimes its not. Sounds like more than BZ gov't are getting departure tax.

I'm sure in many cases that the Belize government is collecting departure tax twice.

It also may depend on what kind of airline ticket you purchased. Frequent flyer tickets cost you miles plus the US airport fees - which there's a maximum amount that can be charged depending on the airports you fly from/connect through. If your taxes seemed a little light (adding in the $36.50 should be noticeable) as in my case for traveling this fall, I believe I should be prepared to pay the departure tax.

With other tickets, purchased directly through the airline website or through travel sites, it may be harder to tell if the fee was included because it may be included in the purchase price before US airport taxes are added in.

But then again, what makes sense, it's always true :rolleyes:

when you stay that long nothing extra is owed, you pay the regular dept. tax unless it is included in your air ticket. The "extra" fee would just be your monthly stamp in your passport to renew your stay past 30 days. $25 US.

My understanding is that American Airlines is no longer including the departure tax in its purchase price. I know it wasn't included in ours and we were in Belize the first 10 days of March.