Taxes - I am lost
 

Hello!

Quick background - early 20s, single, no kids, no mortgage, first year as airline pilot (9E, mention for retention bonus purposes).

I've been reading a bunch about itemizing per diem, but my understanding is it might not actually make much of a difference in my situation. Is it worth going through a aviation tax prep service and itemizing my per diem or just going about a 1040EZ and calling it done.

Sincerely,

Someone who really should understand taxes better and blames taking thirty English classes but nothing about how to function as an adult in high school.

If you don't itemize deductions (which it sounds like you wouldn't need to, given no kids/no mortgage), you won't benefit from the per diem deduction.

Just take the standard deduction and be done with your taxes in 20 minutes.

As a first year guy, the EZ deductions are probably more than you could come up with. Hopefully not for long.........

Feel free to see how much of a deduction you can get by visiting my site, free to use no gimmicks
www.onlineperdiem.com
Most crewmember can get a starting number of about 8-9 thousand dollars if they fly domestic. A pilot flying international can see a number around $18,000 or more flying to Europe or Asia.
With the starting number, you subtract the amount of money your company reimbursed you. Then as a transportation worker you subtract that number by 20%. The resulting amount plus any other deductions like union dues, etc must exceed 2.5% of your adjusted gross income.
If you have any other deductions like union dues, than it is worth the effort. When you start making the big bucks, your deductions start to go away because of the Alternative Minimum Tax.

$8000 - $5000(from company)
$3000 x 80% ( reduction) = $2400

$2400 + $500(union dues) +$500(uniform cleaning, equipment,etc)

$3400 total

AGI $60000 x 2.5% = $1500

3400-1500= 1900

The above example may or may not be accurate but just gives you an idea. The form IRS2106 guides you through the calculations, and turbo tax makes it easy. If you have a tax guy, they will love to have a per diem report so they do not have to add all the trips up.


If you do try my site, and like it, I can program any company's annual flight summary if they provide you one in CSV, XLS, or txt format. Otherwise you can use the manual input method. I am looking for some new summaries. Currently I have AA, Delta, ExJets programmed. I am a retired Captain and provide the report as a hobby.