Originally Posted by
Lambourne
Seems like I recall something about taxes and flight crews for Colorado. In the old days you were officially based at DFN (flight ops new hire student pilot ) or some code like that until you were released to the line. Once you completed training you became based where ever your bid was located. This only affected new hires as transition pilots were not based at TK during training. Perhaps this is the state tax you pay while officially based on CO and you can file to get some of that returned if you live out of state.
My memory is fuzzy on this as I thought it was something that popped up in the late 90's. I recall there being ALPA updates regarding this back then but since it didn't affect me I didn't follow it too closely.
Your memory is correct. It works the same for Delta in GA. If you are based in CO and do your training there you owe income tax on that income to CO unless you can show you did 51% of the training out of state.
As a line pilot you are not taxed based on domicle because you don't do the majority of your work in one state. Federal law further clarifies that transportation workers will be taxed based on their residence unless it can be determined that 51% of their flying is in one state. I had a friend at UAL who had to pay CA income tax because at the time the United shuttle schedules had him doing a majority of his flying in the state despite the fact he lived in WA.
The same thing applies if you are a sim instructor. Delta had a bunch of instructors living in FLORIDA nailed for GA income tax because more then 51% of their work was being done in GA. State taxes are income taxes not residence taxes. Professional Atheletes have to file tax returns in every state they play in. We are fortunate to have the federal law that allows us to fall back on state of residence when flying the line.