TexanDriver

Take a look at the schedules on DLnet. You can generally tell who the commuters are since they have blocks of days on followed by blocks of days off. You may see a lot of doubles on there too. If you're a commuter you can massage your schedule quite a bit, but it takes time and energy and a lot of one-on-one texts to the local SLIs.

Only if you live in a no-income state. If you live in a state that taxes you, you pay those taxes.

If you're a commuter, you have to really enjoy instructing. But it's not 17 days minimum, it's 17 EVENTS. So if you massage your schedule, a commuter can manage to be in ATL from 12-15 days in blocks of 4-6 days. What can be tough is when you get an E period into a day off as a commuter, but that comes with the territory.

Big E 757

No problem, it’s like flying a red eye.

sailingfun

The tax portion of your post is not actually correct. State income tax is based on where the income is earned. If for example you live in New Jersey but work in NYC you pay NY state taxes on that income. This is creating a bit of a food fight between some states as people have been working from home during the pandemic and states are going after that income.
In our case however as transportation workers we have a exemption. The exemption says if as a transportation worker you don’t perform more than 51% of your work in one state you will be taxed based on your state of residence. If you work in the training department you are earning more than 51% of your income in GA and are legally taxed in GA. You would owe no taxes in your home state.
Many years ago the state of Georgia went after instructors in the training department who commuted in and they had to pay the taxes and penalties. Most lived in FL. Those instructors almost all put in for a immediate return to the line and the training department was going to take a massive hit. It was rumored the company paid the GA taxes for many of those individuals until replacements could be trained.
The state of California also at one time successfully nailed a bunch of United pilots living in Nevada and Washington for CA taxes as they were able to show that the pilots were doing over 50% of their flying in CA airspace. This was the Shuttle by United operation out of SFO.
The requirement to pay taxes where income is earned really creates issues for professional athletes as they have to pay state taxes in each state they play a game in. They often have to file a dozen or more state tax returns. If we did not have the exemption we would have to file returns in every state we flew over. Imagine that nightmare! This article talks more about it.

States with an income tax generally tax all income earned in the state by non-residents.

A visiting team of professional athletes can mean many thousands of dollars in state tax revenue for every day they spend in-state.

In a normal season, an average National Football League player will file between eight to 12 non-resident state tax returns, said Losi.

National Basketball Association players file 16 to 20 of these tax returns, while Major League Baseball players may submit 20 to 25.

TexanDriver

Whatever you say.

SabreDriver

If you instruct in the training department, you will pay GA state income tax (approx 6%) on you DAL income, period. Don’t be the guy/gal who try’s to evade it. It might work for a little while... you will get caught. It’s a felony, you will lose your job and your ATP. There’s solid case law history for this.

When you work in the training department, you just have to factor in the taxes as part of the cost of doing business.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

FL370esq

Me thinks that is a bad rumor. If Delta "paid the GA taxes," then Delta gave those pilots additional income which would require them to pay additional tax it is a vicious cycle first addressed in Old Colony Trust Co. v. Commissioner, 279 U.S. 716 (1929).

sailingfun

True to a extent but having your tax paid is no different than any other raise. It’s simply taxable income. A 7% tax stipend would cover most of the tax nicely.

FL370esq

Actually, it is a mathematical certainty. You said the rumor was that the Company paid their taxes. All I said is a company cannot pay your taxes because that tax $$ is income which generates more taxes.

Further, if your rumor was true, that would mean that the Company paid a certain group of pilots covered by and subject to the PWA additional income not negotiated in the PWA, with the consent of ALPA but done without a side-letter MOU/LOA. Those preferential payments would seem to have been a clear-cut DFR issue among the SLIs. Just don't see that having happened.

sailingfun

As I said it was a rumor. I do however know for a fact the company did something similar. During the Delta/Western merger pay scales were a issue. Delta maintained they did not have a B scale only a longevity based pay scale since all pilots years 1 to 5 were paid under one pay scale. This was possible because when the Bscale contract was signed Delta had no pilots on the property in years 2-5 so only one pay scale needed in the contract. With the merger with Western a substantial number of pilots at Western were on year 2 through 5 for pay purposes but hired prior to the Delta B scale contract. Delta recreated the old A scale to pay those pilots. This was not in any side letter or the contract. In addition Delta promised no Western Employee would take a pay cut. Western pilot pay was higher in year 2 than Delta pilot pay. At the end of year two former western pilots were plussed up from the Delta pay rate to the Western pay rate via a one time lump sum payment.
All of the above was kept extremely quiet as Delta did not want the Delta B scale pilots aware that Western pilots in the same pay step years were making substantially more money than they were. There were no LOA’s and nothing in the contract. Things were different back than and I doubt there would have been any issue paying a tax stipend.

Simonole1203

So if you can commute, does that mean they cover hotels during days you are actively instructing?