I'm not sure what you are asking. Yes, if my company sends an employee somewhere, we deduct the full expense (if we are paying it) on our tax return. And yes,

I'm not sure what you are asking. Yes, if my company sends an employee somewhere, we deduct the full expense (if we are paying it) on our tax return. And yes, Delta in that example has a taxable income of $10BB. If the IRS ruled that the travel tax applied, then taxable income would be $7BB due to the additional $3BB in excise tax from $40BB of baggage fees (ignoring the question of whether the cost would be passed on.) The Hipmunk graphic suggested that, by your example, Delta would have $110BB of income, $100BB of expenses and a $40BB deduction (if baggage fees were not taxable.) This would be a $30BB loss for tax purposes. Even using real numbers this would be outrageous...but it is not the case.