Positive space to work?
08-14-2018, 10:28 AM
#61
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2016
Posts: 1,948
Originally Posted by rickair7777
There's a difference between deadhead/home-basing travel (company moving you for THEIR convenience and business purposes to varied locations) vs. positive space to/from home and your USUAL place of work.
The later is not generally tax exempt, since regular 9-5 workers cannot tax deduct their daily drive to work (or flight to work, for those few who might commute by air). Employees who get a company car as a perk get taxed on that (no tax if they need the car to do business, ie outside sales).
There's a special carve-out for airline employee space available nonrev travel, but you can get taxed for your buddy travel and if it's positive space you're just like any other poor schlep going to work.
There's plenty of confusion because of the nonrev carve-out, and if you went to court you might even be able to establish a precedent that positive space nonrev is the same as space available nonrev. Withholding is applied inconsistently, but if the IRS notices a bunch of folks getting free full-fare tickets to work they might come looking for back-taxes. I agree there's enough confusion that jail would be highly unlikely.
But just because you guys don't like it, and the rules are complex, doesn't mean it's not so...
The later is not generally tax exempt, since regular 9-5 workers cannot tax deduct their daily drive to work (or flight to work, for those few who might commute by air). Employees who get a company car as a perk get taxed on that (no tax if they need the car to do business, ie outside sales).
There's a special carve-out for airline employee space available nonrev travel, but you can get taxed for your buddy travel and if it's positive space you're just like any other poor schlep going to work.
There's plenty of confusion because of the nonrev carve-out, and if you went to court you might even be able to establish a precedent that positive space nonrev is the same as space available nonrev. Withholding is applied inconsistently, but if the IRS notices a bunch of folks getting free full-fare tickets to work they might come looking for back-taxes. I agree there's enough confusion that jail would be highly unlikely.
But just because you guys don't like it, and the rules are complex, doesn't mean it's not so...
08-14-2018, 04:41 PM
#62
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Aug 2016
Posts: 667
Has anyone even considered that airlines regularly change bases and one does not get to pick where they work. Imagine going to your local Walmart for a job and then on the first day learn that you will have to work in another state. Then once you pick up and move there they opened a new Walmart somewhere else and since you are junior you are forced to move again. Working for an airline you don’t get to pick where you work, it’s not like I can say I only want to work in Chicago so I can work at “a b or c” I could go to A then in class they announce that no one is going to Chicago and all new hires get Houston.
I have said I will never commute. I have also said I refuse to live in California or NY. This still leaves where I actually end up working in limbo. I have the ability to move to whereever I’m based but realize that where I’m based can change at the whim of the airline or if I upgrade I will most likely have to change bases. I don’t see what the issue is if someone doesn’t want constantly move at the whim of an airline which is why positive space should be given to those that commute. Unless an airline guarantees you a base at hire, pays based on experience not seniority, and offers a moving package for base changes, positive space should be given to those that don’t wish to chase base moves around the country.
I have said I will never commute. I have also said I refuse to live in California or NY. This still leaves where I actually end up working in limbo. I have the ability to move to whereever I’m based but realize that where I’m based can change at the whim of the airline or if I upgrade I will most likely have to change bases. I don’t see what the issue is if someone doesn’t want constantly move at the whim of an airline which is why positive space should be given to those that commute. Unless an airline guarantees you a base at hire, pays based on experience not seniority, and offers a moving package for base changes, positive space should be given to those that don’t wish to chase base moves around the country.
08-14-2018, 05:09 PM
#63
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2016
Posts: 1,948
Originally Posted by tonsterboy5
Has anyone even considered that airlines regularly change bases and one does not get to pick where they work. Imagine going to your local Walmart for a job and then on the first day learn that you will have to work in another state. Then once you pick up and move there they opened a new Walmart somewhere else and since you are junior you are forced to move again. Working for an airline you don’t get to pick where you work, it’s not like I can say I only want to work in Chicago so I can work at “a b or c” I could go to A then in class they announce that no one is going to Chicago and all new hires get Houston.
I have said I will never commute. I have also said I refuse to live in California or NY. This still leaves where I actually end up working in limbo. I have the ability to move to whereever I’m based but realize that where I’m based can change at the whim of the airline or if I upgrade I will most likely have to change bases. I don’t see what the issue is if someone doesn’t want constantly move at the whim of an airline which is why positive space should be given to those that commute. Unless an airline guarantees you a base at hire, pays based on experience not seniority, and offers a moving package for base changes, positive space should be given to those that don’t wish to chase base moves around the country.
I have said I will never commute. I have also said I refuse to live in California or NY. This still leaves where I actually end up working in limbo. I have the ability to move to whereever I’m based but realize that where I’m based can change at the whim of the airline or if I upgrade I will most likely have to change bases. I don’t see what the issue is if someone doesn’t want constantly move at the whim of an airline which is why positive space should be given to those that commute. Unless an airline guarantees you a base at hire, pays based on experience not seniority, and offers a moving package for base changes, positive space should be given to those that don’t wish to chase base moves around the country.
08-15-2018, 08:28 AM
#64
Happy at PDT
Joined APC: Jan 2014
Position: EMB-145 CA
Posts: 983
Originally Posted by DarkSideMoon
It’s amazing how pilots, who have to navigate incredibly complex federal regulations on a daily basis, choose to remain willfully ignorant of tax law because it’s inconvenient.
08-15-2018, 10:00 AM
#65
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2016
Posts: 1,948
Originally Posted by Lvlng4Spd
I'm willfully and blissfully ignorant. I don't care. I've received PS from the company more than 30 times this year and the same or more last year...mostly to help cover their asses and make some extra cash. I'm already paying higher taxes on the extra money I have pulled in, so let the IRS pound sand I say. They get my half-arsed Turbotax version of events every year, so let them dig it up if they want to...😉
08-15-2018, 12:33 PM
#66
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2017
Posts: 200
Originally Posted by DarkSideMoon
That’s fine. Take your chances. We all do in one way or another. I’m talking about the people advising others on what’s legal and what’s not.
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