Pilot Taxes

[jetwash]

Hello,

Does anyone have any suggestions or info on what can be deducted on your taxes in regards to expences associated with flying for a fractional.

Thanks

 

[CRJ700 FO]

There are a bunch of webistes that have worksheets you can download. while they are designed for you to fill out and send in to their company, it will give an idea of what all can be deducted.

cpadaly.com
aviatortax.com
flightcrewtaxes.com

You will find that a lot of stuff is deductible. For example, if you use cable or sat. TV to check weather before you leave your home that can be deducted. The possibilites are endless.

 

[Airpiraterob]

having m,ine done right now...

try to find a tax guy thats also an airline pilot or corporate guy....theyre out there. im going through one this time around and theres a whole lot.

you can deduct a whole hell of a lot.

theres standardized per diem the government allows you to claim depending on what city youre in overnight. take this number and subtract anything the company gives you for perdiem.
-for me its $38 a night in buffalo, -$1.25/hr block time im away from my home base.

so if youre gone 5 nights that week like i was, thats $190 the government allows, -75 for the week from my company. i get to claim $125 a week for this. and thats like 40 weeks out of the year for me. almost 5k claimed....

and since my permanent address and residency is different from my base, i get to claim per diem for all days im in that place away from home....meaning i get to claim 330 days of the year as per diem somewhere since im only home for 30+ days of the year at my permanent address of residency that i maintain.....its alot to claim. nearing 10k at my last count. keep track of anything you spend at all on being a pilot and staying a pilot. you can claim every single bit of it. just be careful trying to deduct rent and food. it gets iffy there. i dont do that.

add it all up, if you can do the quick form and your per diem dosent add up to the 4k standard deduction....then go that route...dont itemize. long forms suck balls but whatever gets me my 10k deduction legally, ill do it.

cant wait for my tax return/beer money

 

[cgmason1]

Also go to www.pilot-tax.com
they will send you an informative planner that details allot of items you can deduct and might not have even realized it.

Fly Safe
Chuck

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

Since you're flying for a fractional, your trips begin and end all over the place. You may use your home of residence as your "tax home", and deduct a ton of stuff.

The basic IRS pub you need to look at is 463:
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/page/0,,id=11531,00.html

Also, perdiem rates can be accessed at:
http://www.policyworks.gov/org/main/mt/homepage/mtt/perdiem/perd03d.html

As airpiraterob stated, you can claim the difference between the standard gov allowed perdiem (see above) and the perdiem that your company pays you.

I use the specific perdiem rates for the cities I go to. In reading pub 463, transportation workers can also use a generic rate of $38/$40 (pre-Oct 1, 2002 and post Sep 31, 2001) for ALL cities if you wish to simplify it.

When you leave/arrive at your "tax home" from a perdiem city, you may use 75% of that perdiem rate for that day. When I move between two perdiem cities, I use 50% of the day at each one.

Example: Leave DTW on Fri and arrive home Fri. You can use 75% of the DTW perdiem rate (which is $50) for Fri, which gives you $37.50 in perdiem costs that day.

Leave DTW/arrive SDF on a Thursday. I use 50% of DTW and 50 % of SDF for that day. The perdiem rates are $50 and $42 (SDF), so I can use $25+$21=$46 of perdiem for that day.

I track my perdiem rates/cities/nights for a month, and then subtract what our company paid me that month for perdiem. At the end of the year, that is the amount you can deduct on Schd A, unreimbursed business expenses for perdiem.

You can also deduct uniforms, professional publications, equipment, cell phones, parking, mileage driven for work purposes, hotel charges (phone calls, laundry costs, fax charges, etc.), job search costs, office expenses, and the portion of computers/office equipment that you use for work.

Good luck, and PM me if U have more questions.

Cliff
GRB

PS-Thanks to all for posting the various sites mentioned previously. I will check them all out to see if there are more deductions I can take!

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

I wanted to warn people about some information on the
www.cpadaly.com site.

When you look at the pilot worksheet that the co. is asking you to fill out and send in, in the perdiem section (p. 6) it explains about using the "Averaging Method" and the "Revenue Procedure 2002-63", which allows you to claim $50 per day domestic and $75 per day international.

In the IRS Pub 463, it explains that you can use an average of $38/40 per day (before and after Oct 1, 2002) if you dont' want to lookup the differing cost at each city.

Obviously, using $50 a day is a much higher deduction rate, so I looked into it. I called the IRS, and had a specialist look up this Revenue Procedure and look for what the site mentioned above. She was not able to find anything in the document talking about any amount of average perdiem.

I finally found the Rev Proc myself on IRS.gov, and, as far as I could tell, it was for Companies, and had nothing to do with individual tax filing or perdiem, or anything like that.

Note: I am NOT a tax preparer or CPA, so I may not understand this Revenue Procedure 2002-63, but I definitely would not use a $50/$75 figure unless I had someone knowledgeable show me how the Rev Proc applied to perdiem and pilots.

Good luck!

Cliff
GRB

PS-I was reading USA Today, today, and they had a good article on illegal tax shelters and unethical people trying to be tax advisors to make money illegaly.

 

[Lear6T]

Is using a program such as Turbo Tax recommended?


Without getting into too much detail what are some items that one can and cannot deduct?

Thank you


[email protected]

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

Does anyone claim their crashpad or airport car? If you are in your domicile and not on a trip, you can claim full meals for that day, but what about lodging?

 

[slowto250]

I'm not a CPA or tax attorney, (hell I'm barely a pilot by some estimations) but I believe that crashpads are disallowed as deductions. This is because they are located near your place of work. This would be considered your tax base. Not sure about the car, but don't think it's expenses can be deducted either. Again, because it is used solely for commuting to and from work at your tax base.

 

[DisrespectedJ32]

Contact Marty Capp 800-728-1040 or his website www.pilotax.com

I use him for all of my taxes. He is expensive but he is one of the best in the business.

j32