Ground Transportation "In Domicile"
 

My entire time at FedEx, I've been told that I was unable to expense ground transportation "In Domicile".

First point: The "Domicile" is defined on page 14 of the contract as: An airport...designated by the company.

How does the english "in domicile" work? Assuming there is an actual exemption in the contract for using bank money for expensing ground travel....wouldn't be more correct to say that we are not allowed to expense ground transportation to and/or from our Domicile? The domicile is the airport (one would assume the airport boundaries apply).

Contacted FedEx ALPA legal to help me find the restriction in our contract limiting our ability to expense ground transportation in any way affiliated with the domicile or base (interchangeable terms). Like me....nothing was found.

Contacted the Company though InSite with a request to show me in the contract where expensing ground transportation in domicile is restricted. The response was:

"Ground transportation within three days of your trip...is an approved expense. If the expense is over $100, you must get mgmt. pre-approval for the value."

Anyone familiar with the contract able to shed any additional light on this subject? The only place I see a restriction is when I attempt to file the expense report....it says NO CAN DO. That might be an error. If there is no restriction - even if the company meant for there to be a restriction - then we should not be limited on this in any way.

I do not subscribe to the "its always been that way" line of thinking. If the contract allows for the expense, we should be spending. There is a specific list of restrictions in Chapter 8 and domicile issues are not addressed.

Thanks

I think this is an issue controlled by IRS rules rather than anything we might put in our contract.

The company gets a tax deduction on business travel expenses they pay on behalf of their employees. Business travel expenses by definition must be incurred away from domicile. Travel expenses that are considering commuting expenses don't allow the company the same tax benefit. According to the IRS, your FedEx domicile is your "tax home". Expenses incurred commuting from your "family home" to your "tax home" are not deductible for us and if FedEx pays them, we must treat them as income. That's why we check the box on deviation expenses to/from our domicile and those events are treated as taxable income because they are commuting expenses, not business expenses. Beyond that, local (tax home) expenses (i.e. within domicile) paid by the company are treated differently by the IRS and it's up to the employer if they want to pay those expenses on our behalf, whether we incur taxes or not. They choose not to.

LAX Domicile
 

Deviation Ground transportation expenses have always been allowed for the LAX domicile.

So you're saying as an LAX based pilot, you've used your travel bank to hire local ground transportation to take you from your LAX area home to the LAX ramp or vice-versa. You do this regularly and have never had any issues filing your expense reports?

San Diego to LAX or Ventura to LAX. Never been a problem

Strange. You're based at LAX?

I tried a taxi in ANC when I was based there and got rejected. Never bothered even trying in MEM.

Between Southern California airports is a lot different than home to LAX. If my office is at the Memphis airport I am pretty sure the IRS will let the company reimburse me for a trip to the world HQs.

Interesting. Here in CGN they are not letting us use bank money to get home from CGN or vice versa. Kind of a hot button issue here because very few families have a second car they can leave at the airport all week.

If this is a tax issue, then we should be able to use reimbursable Ground Transportation to a location just off the airport (avoids the domicile).

I do not let the driver pick me up or drop me off at my residence. I have them pick me up across the street (curbside) to avoid the taxes. A short walk fixes that problem.

Use of ground transportation at/on/or near the domicile appears to be permitted in the contract for everyone. The problem is the Expense Reporting System does not have the fidelity to list pickup and drop-off locations inside a city radius. The domicile is the actual airport property - and I cannot find a restriction for a ride to or from the domicile. I would will gladly use my funds for a 1.5 hour ride to a position close to the airport (hotel or off airport lot for example) and I will get myself the short distance remaining for tax purposes.

I will address this with the union to see why some are being restricted from expensing a legit use of bank funds.

Interesting interpretation. So, someone who lives in the Denver area buys an airline ticket from MEM to DEN to go home after recurrent training. Since their property isn't at the end of the jet bridge when they step off the airplane, you're saying they don't have to check the "yes" box on the expense report for commuting expense?