Even before it has fully commercialized to be availed by the public, California has one source of taxes and that is the space rockets industry. California is now drafting policies and laying down plans for the taxation of the industry that caters to space travelers.
According to Tech Times, the plan is simple and is similar to the taxation of all commercial vehicles in the country except that their taxes will be based on the distance and the frequency of the space travel. Elon Musk's SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, both based in California are supportive of the taxation scheme because it will solidify their tax status.
The State Franchise Tax Board has already released a draft of the proposed tax plan to only base the tax computation on mileage and departure. As provided for in the draft, the mileage factor will be determined by computing the miles traveled of each launch. The departure factor will be computed using the number of launches based on the contract as the numerator and the company's total number of launches everywhere. The Franchise Tax Board has invited the public to comment or suggest on the input until the middle of June this year.
Travel Pulse reported that this is good news to the rockets companies because the more mileage incurred, the less will be the tax. Although commercial space travels like the one on the business of Richard Branson's the Virgin Galactic has not yet fully operated, California is already preparing on how the rocket industry can become a viable tax source.
The space rocket industry is seen to be on full blast perhaps decades from now but eventually, it will happen. As what the great physicist Stephen Hawking has predicted, humans from Earth will eventually need to evacuate to other planets to avoid extinction.
