Tax Questions - need help!

[kepjet]

I'm getting ready to file my federal income tax and have a few questions:


Per Diem: There are some places where the cost of meals and incidentals is more than my company will pay such as New York City, Miami, Tampa, etc. I know I am allowed to deduct the difference, but does anyone know what form to fill out for tax purposes? If I do a day trip, can I deduct the rate of my home city or would it be the city or cities I had "lunch" in? Any other tips on overnight deductions would be helpful.

Uniforms: I know I can do the uniform, but what about items which could be worn on a regular basis, ie: shoes?

Personal Computer: How much can I write off? My company makes me bid on-line or fax, and also get memos from there.

I'm not looking to cheat or anything, but just deduct what I'm entitled to.

If anyone can think of anything else, please post.

Thanks in advance!

 

[F16TJ]

Try...

www.pilotax.com

Out...

 

[Flash]

I just went on the link that F16TJ provided and in a round about way found federal publication 1542. It lists most major cities and the gov't per diem rate for each. I don't know if there is a form to fill out for the difference. I just total the difference up and submit it to my tax man.

 

[typhoonpilot]

Marty has been doing my taxes since 1996. I like him for two reasons; number 1 is that he is aggresive and number 2 is that he will back it up if the IRS questions the return. He is a tad expensive at $595 for the Federal, State, and computing the Pilot Travel Costs. If you want they will do just the Pilot Travel Cost for a fee. I generally get over $10,000 in deductions ( minus the company per diem of course ) for just the travel cost.

My only complaint is that he is getting too popular and the personal service touch is being lost.


Typhoonpilot

 

[Falconjet]

?

Who's Marty?

 

[typhoonpilot]

The guy from F16TJ's link.

 

[skiddriver]

Originally posted by kepjet
I'm getting ready to file my federal income tax and have a few questions:


Per Diem: There are some places where the cost of meals and incidentals is more than my company will pay such as New York City, Miami, Tampa, etc. I know I am allowed to deduct the difference, but does anyone know what form to fill out for tax purposes? If I do a day trip, can I deduct the rate of my home city or would it be the city or cities I had "lunch" in? Any other tips on overnight deductions would be helpful.

It goes on schedule A, but you have to also fill out form 2106. Count the day a trip ends and the day it begins as 3/4 of a day each, at the per diem rate for the city you overnighted. You can either use the standard rate, or the individual city rate, but you have to do it consistently. Find the rates at http://www.policyworks.gov/org/main/mt/homepage/mtt/perdiem/travel.htm

Note that the rates change with the fiscal year, so new rates apply for travel conducted in the 4th qtr of the calendar year. Also note that all business expense must exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income (as computed on schedule A) and that only 50% or 65% (see form 2106) of your unreimbursed per diem expense is deductible. See publications 463 and 529 for more info.

Uniforms: I know I can do the uniform, but what about items which could be worn on a regular basis, ie: shoes?

To withstand an audit, you need to show that the shoes either have some special quality required for your work (steel toed boots for construction types) or that they were purchased at your company uniform shop.

Personal Computer: How much can I write off? My company makes me bid on-line or fax, and also get memos from there.

I've been told to tread lightly here. Publication 529 discusses this, but you have to prove that owning the computer is a condition of your employment, that is, that if you didn't own it, you couldn't work at your present job. It also addresses apportioning percentage of use. It used to be that claiming home office expenses was the best way to trigger an audit, not sure if it still is so or not.

The other things I deducted were union dues, uniform expenses (minus company reimbursement), tools and equipment (sunglasses, kit bag etc.), cost of my FAA physical, professional organization and publication dues. My unreimbursed business expenses exceeded my 2% threshold by about $3000, and resulted in about a $450 reduction in my 2004 taxes. Well worth doing the math.

I'm pretty conservative on my taxes, as I don't want to worry about whether I can withstand an audit or not. Some guys deduct things that aren't allowable (crash pad expenses, airport car, etc.) and hope for the best. Only you know how much risk you can stomach.

 

[BigMotorToter]

Try this link. http://www.state.gov/m/a/als/prdm/ it will give you the international per diem rates for 2003. Click around and you can get the domestic rates.

To figure your per diem, just take what you were paid, and subtract it from the government rate. Total these up for every trip you flew in 2003. Then multiply the total by 65% and this is the number you can use as a deduction on form 2106 or 2106ez.

For example, I currently fly for Japan Airlines, and was in training in Toyko for 6 months last year. I was paid 78 dollars a day per diem, but the gov. rate was 132. So I was "shorted" 54 bucks. 54 x 30days of the month is 1620 dollars. Some months were 31 days and also the rate changed to 141 and then 144 bucks towards the end of the year, so for me the grand total was $10,947 dollars I was "shorted". $10,947 times 65% is $7,115.55 I was able to write off my taxes. This netted me about $1,100 bucks.

Of course international is alot more than domestic, but money is money. A couple of years ago I flew all domestic in the U.S. and my net was about $250 bucks.

Once you do it once its easy, plus I use turbo tax and it puts all the numbers on the proper forms anyway. I just have to figure out the difference between the per diem the co. gave me and the gov. rates.

Have fun.

 

[justApilot]

MK is a kook. Every time I stepped into his office he would talk smack about his previous appointment. And as far as personal service, there is non....the knuckleheads in the front office do all of his work. The last year I used him I thought my return was going to be bigger. I questioned him about it and he said to call back tomorrow. He aggresively padded my return with all sorts of stuff that I had no paperwork for. After seeing this I went back and looked through my previous 5 years of returns....this guy is a F'ing nut!