I'll add an endorsement of pro-diem. It is possible to plow through your last year's travel/pay records, cross reference the federal per diem rates, and compute the same number that pro-diem gets. However, anyone who makes enough to itemize their deductions has time that is too valuable to do this work on their own.

This expense, and other tax preparation costs, are deductible on next year's return.

WW

Anyone used Airline Crew Taxes?? Not looking for advertisements. Just want to know the cost of them vs the amount of return ratio.

I'm single, no kids and no mortgage. I plan on itemizing as well. Should I just stick with a per-diem calculator and turbotax given my situation or would using a professional tax person be beneficial? I'm not very good with this stuff.

Thanks!!

Are you even going to be itemizing in the first place with no kids and no mortgage? If not, then you don't have to worry about per diem.

You might even be on a 1040EZ if you end up not itemizing. Just do it by hand or online for free.

I will be due to other expenses I racked up last year.

I'll probably do it both ways (standard and itemizing) to see how they compare.

To answer your question a couple of posts ago, I would suggest trying to do your taxes on your own. Buy a good tax program like H&R Block at Home or TaxCut and go through the interview. Form 2106 can be a little confusing because of the per diem calculations, but you could probably just post here when you get stuck and have an answer pretty quickly.

Sounds great! Thanks guys!

And again the $59.00 you pay to prodiem.com will more than pay for itself. They will also tell you how to fill out the 2106.

Sweet! Thanks!

I used Pro diem last year. It comes down to $59 vs. doing it yourself. I didn't have the big difference that others have reported, but it was very easy to pay the $59. FYI, with AIMS, it only took about 3 hrs max to do mine manually. I'll be using Pro Diem again this year.

Wondering if you guys think the 59 bucks is worth a whirl for me. I worked about a half year at my airline mostly sitting reserve with 2 months of training in April and May. I've never itemized before, wasn't planning on it until reading this thread. I wasn't paid per diem in training, actually recieving my first per diem payment in June after commencing IOE. How would that work with Pro Diem? It it even worth it for a guy like me?