iarapilot

That is not correct. The money you pay out of your pocket can be deducted, up to certain amounts. Each city has a different rate, per day, that is allowed. At least thats how turbo tax does it.

FDXLAG

I will trust turbo tax, but I had wondered why none of you subic guys claimed it or talked about it.

Here is why I thought the way I did:

Foreign Housing Exclusion and Deduction

In addition to the foreign earned income exclusion, you can also claim an exclusion or a deduction from gross income for your housing amount if your tax home is in a foreign country and you qualify under either the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test.

The housing exclusion applies only to amounts considered paid for with employer-provided amounts. The housing deduction applies only to amounts paid for with self-employment earnings.

Source: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p54/ch04.html#d0e4221

It would be nice if some one on the MEC Gave a Sh!t and provided some answers or at least asked the question.

Regardless (irregardless?) Fred will not pay US taxes on any money provided for housing. Makes you wonder why we sold ourselves so cheap.

Underdog

Great, I won't bring in the $32,400. We pay for our for the foreign taxes, yet the company can state they pay for them. Mighty big of them!

Also LAG, would you agree that with LOA, pilot doesn't get exclusion? Pilot must pay taxes, as if living in states, right? In your analysis what would those two figures equate to? Under tax equalization, will that pilot receive any reimbursement for those monies, under any circumstance?

Laker

I don't use TurboTax so I don't know about that, but I read this the same way you do. It seems to be saying that money given to you for housing is deductible up to a certain limit. One that this LOA will not come close to for HKG.

In the end this could increase your US tax though. You have to add the 32,400 to your earnings for the year. You will get to use the exclusion to reduce your income, but you have to enter the tax tables as if the exclusion was not taken. This will probably push some people into a higher tax bracket.

The other cost here is that the 32,400 is taxable in Hong Kong. While we are talking about taxable in Hong Kong, all of our per diem is taxable as well.

I know that people have come up with different numbers about these taxes, but it seems to me that the equalization works in our favor, if you take the "enhanced option."

My numbers actually say that it always works in our favor, but I am still researching the minutia.

FDXLAG

I don't have enough info to answer those questions. I did pass accounting but I think that may have been one of the finals that made the frat house the night before.

Wish we had some samples to compare.

Not enough diligence (Is that better sleepy?) vote No

TonyC

I tried to explain Tax Equalization to a couple of pilots in the AOC last night. Apparently, somebody videotaped the conversation and posted it here for your viewing:










.

angry tanker

was that Willard Scott?

iarapilot

If you try that link in PVG, you get this....

Thanks for your interest in Google Video.
Currently, the playback feature of Google Video isn't available in your country.
We hope to make this feature available more widely in the future, and we really appreciate your patience.




When I have this problem, I use http://anonymouse.org. But that wont even work. Gotta love them Chinese commie web blockers!

iarapilot

Well, at least youtube hasnt sold out to the Chinese. I hope the internet works in CAN!

iarapilot

And, by the way Tony, good sense of humor!