I don't see how a newhire will deduct more than the standard deduction so it's not going to do you any better to have it as a tax writeoff. While I am not a cpa my understanding is that if you spend 1000 and your in the 15% tax bracket even if you deduct it you'll only reduce your taxes by 150$ so it's at best a 850 dollar tool you can't afford

That is outside my realm of knowledge. At the regional level, I always used the ships headsets. The equipment I fly now is a bit louder, and harder to understand all the different accents. Thats a good point about first year FO's. I was viewing the question from my perspective.

Own a home? Have kids? It's not that hard to get past the standard deduction.

Are you serious? Being a new hire, you can rake in deductions. Aside from deducting the difference in paid per diem and locality or standard, there are tons of deductions that apply when starting a new job. Did you move? Did you go to conferences? Did you pay for an interview hotel? Did you buy any other supplies (uniforms, supplies, etc). Was your training accomplished outside of your assigned domicile? You can deduct a percentage of your cell phone and internet. It isn't JUST a headset.

Pretty bad advice, especially for those not familiar with tax laws.

Yes, you can deduct per diem difference. But without a mortgage, it is unlikely that a married person will ever beat the $12,600 standard. Heck, even WITH a mortgage in July, I could not itemize this year. That was with moving expenses, per diem difference, and uniforms.

Your training location IS your assigned domicile, since you don't go to your base until IOE; not sure where you are going with that one.

Cell phone and internet? That's a slippery slope. One that I personally would never try to stay upright on. One would have to be able to justify the percentages claimed for work, and even at that, a cell phone and a computer (internet) technically are not required. Caveat emptor. You could get away with it for years, until the audit. Again, for me, not worth the $27 I would save on my taxes doing it the non-questionable way.

This applies to 99% of tax advice (especially from other pilots).

My CPA disagrees with some of the things you are saying. Internet isn't REQUIRED, but if I choose to bid on my computer and use my internet, it is a qualified business expense. If I choose to pick up flying out or domicile, all expenses to include parking and hotels are tax deductible. Just because the company doesn't mandate it doesn't mean it isn't a business expense.

As far as your comment regarding training, yes you are partially correct. If you show up to indoc in Denver or Salt Lake or Atlanta and they ship you to Cincy or St Louis or France to do systems and sims because very few regionals own their sims, that is a temporary assignment and M&IE expenses are tax deductible.

The trouble with the phone and internet thing is that they are business expenses. Do you own your business? Most here do not. So you need to dig a little deeper and follow the travel expense rules. Not saying you can't justify it well, and your CPA seems to think it can be done. For me, I don't want to try and claim the percentage I actually use my phone or internet for work, A) because said percentage is so darn low, and 2) it's not a required part of my personal business. At the end of the day, even if I were to be able to justify $100 worth of use per year (I could not), that would garner me about $9 back on my tax return. I could pick one turn and make a lot more than that, and never have to worry about the IRS placing the burden of proof on my shoulders.

Remember, your CPA doesn't have to pay the IRS if he/she gives you incorrect advice.

If you travel to your home base, and then you travel to your "out of base" location to begin work, then yes, you can claim that as additional travel (you can even deduct mileage driven in that case). However, I have never seen a situation where I had to do that where the company didn't pick up the expense. Your situation may be different. (You cannot deduct expenses incurred for travel from your home of record to your home base.)

Instead of reading IRS PUB 334, written for business owners, take a look at 463, travel. Again, one can claim anything they want. And often get away with doing things wrong due to the vast amount of filings every year since only a small percentage ever get audited. But for me, it's not worth the risk for the few extra duckies per year.

I'm required by the company to have my tablet charged ad updated prior to reporting for duty. I'm also required to perform company assigned ecampus learning that I cannot do on company time, since I don't have time while being on duty. Thus, I am by proxy required to have a data connection, which I use both the house internet and my cellular data.

You can try to make that claim, and you may well get away with it. However, the company provides you internet with which to update your EFB, just as they provided your Jepps paper updates in your admin office.

As for LMS, I always do mine at work, since I am being paid to do so. (Don't have time at work? Give me a break. Our days are FULL of wasted time.) Why would one ever do it at home, unless they are really bored, and APC is down? :)

Hey, do what your conscience dictates. Like I said, it's not worth it to me, for the handful of dollars I might get back on my tax return. What are you going to do next, claim a percentage of your electric bill for charging your phone and EFB?

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/2...post12163.html