Originally Posted by
dsevo
Tax free option is a federally mandated imputed income. It’s based on our November hourly pay rate (from the previous year, so especially beneficial to upgrading FOs), regardless of number of hours paid. So for the high earners and recent upgrades it’s a very good deal. I pay my marginal tax rate on ~$600/check for the tax free option. It’s the same every check, no matter the gross.
Detail on best of 5 previous calendar years (or previous 12 months, whichever is higher) is basically everything that earns pay. Excludes per diem (obviously). All the same things you mentioned including our second to none profit sharing, haha. Only (potential) downside is the 401k is paid as cash if you opt for the tax free option, because you have no taxable earnings to contribute to a 401k. But low tax rate brokerage cash is not the worst thing in our line of work, especially if you want to retire before 59.5.
Got ahead of myself with poor formatting. The $30k/mo would be including the 401k. I’ll edit for accuracy (nevermind, won’t let me edit).
Originally Posted by
dsevo
What’s DPMA?
Nevermind, just googled. Maybe Im missing something? 1 year max? 25% or $7500/mo max?
APA POD is 60 months and 40% of gross, max of $10k/mo. I pay $128/mo for that coverage.
Having the option to pay tax on the imputed income would be a huge win, IMO. I think I'll start working on that for our next-next contract (the next contract has already started, and the 'asks' are set...) We also have 'free' (aka company paid) life insurance that is "2500x the highest Capt Rate", and currently amounts to ~$1.2M, but have to pay imputed income on the 'premium' which makes the payout tax free - so they are at least familiar with that concept. I get ~$132 of imputed income per paycheck for that.
Our ALPA insurances vary, and there are several different ones (and several different 'levels' of payout on one). I take 2, one is a $50k lump sum, and the other is a monthly payout of $2400/mo (can go up to $6k/mo in $600 increments). Both are tax free payouts, and the premiums I pay for those 2 are about $100/month. It doesn't 'start' for a year, and goes to 5 years. It's really meant to bridge the gap after DPMA stops.
One other note about DPMA. 99.9% of DL pilots participate, and is an independent mutual aid entity. It's an awesome thing. While yes, it's 25% of your FAE, it's tax free and is really meant to fill what the "other half" of (our) taxable company benefit would be to make you "whole". Said another way, between the company LTD and DMPA, you effectively do not really lose any after-tax take home income for the first year after going on LTD. That's when the ALPA insurance kicks in to soften the 'stoppage' of DMPA if it goes that far. Hope that makes sense.
Sounds like at least AA and DL are ballpark similar, with some differences.