GunshipGuy

I thought I heard this somewhere (I thought from an Atlas Pilot), but would like to confirm.

When a company buys a pilot a confirmed ticket to get to work is that considered imputed income?

My airline buys life insurance for its pilots (if we elect to carry the coverage). The market value shows up on my pay statement as income. Does that happen with companies that purchase a ticket for a NetJets or Atlas pilots?

sandrich

AFAIK, if they buy you a ticket on your day off to get to base and give you a hotel, you have to pay the taxes on that. If they buy you a ticket somewhere for, say, a deadhead to somewhere else, on a day on, it's not imputed income.

Raptor

https://www.irs.gov/Government-Entit...Life-Insurance

A taxable fringe benefit arises if coverage exceeds $50,000 and the policy is considered carried directly or indirectly by the employer. A policy is considered carried directly or indirectly by the employer if:
The employer pays any cost of the life insurance, or
The employer arranges for the premium payments and the premiums paid by at least one employee subsidize those paid by at least one other employee (the “straddle” rule).
The determination of whether the premium charges straddle the costs is based on the IRS Premium Table rates, not the actual cost. You can view the Premium Table in the group-term life insurance discussion in Publication 15-B.
Because the employer is affecting the premium cost through its subsidizing and/or redistributing role, there is a benefit to employees. This benefit is taxable even if the employees are paying the full cost they are charged. You must calculate the taxable portion of the premiums for coverage that exceeds $50,000.

If the employee pays the full cost of coverage, and the tests above don't apply, then it wouldn't be taxable.

For tax-ability of airline tickets and hotels, Commuting expenses are covered in IRS documents too. If your airline has a traditional domicile system, like ATL for Delta, SDF for UPS, etc, then company paid transportation to your domicile and hotels in domicile are generally taxable. If you have the traditional domicile system and you start a trip away from domicile, that ticket and hotel is generally not taxable. For pilots who are home-based, I really don't know how it works, but there is already discussion on the past on these areas. The IRS publications are your source if you want detailed information. Just google commuting expenses.

Here's a summary: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p46...315423875.html

captainv

Correct, except that at Atlas, enforcement is hit or miss. In some bases, you get hit for imputed every time you touch base. In others, you never do.