ALPA sent out an email yesterday at around 5pm eastern time saying the payout would be made on January 31st.

For anyone trying to calculate the net payout, I’ll offer up what I’ve come up with after a little Google-foo.

The IRS Federal tax withholding will be 22%. This is the rate for what the IRS calls supplemental income. Social security and FICA should be 7.65%. ALPA will take 1.95%. After that, you’ll need to add whatever your specific state tax withholding is. Colorado is 4.63%.

Using these numbers, I come up with 36.23% withheld for a Colorado resident. Your actual tax burden when all the dust settles and you’re preparing your 2019 tax return sometime around 2020 might be more or less than is withheld on the January 31st payout. I.e. you may have to pay more money to the Feds or to your state, or you may get a refund.

I’m not an accountant, so don’t rely on this as gospel. I’m just sharing what I’ve found to save someone else from looking. Of course it goes without saying to feel free to correct me if I’m off base.

Thanks Openclimb.

I forgot about the SS tax.

I was just looking at the 22% supplement rate, the 1.9% Alpa and the 5% colorado state income tax.

Bummer

Bonus payments for 2019 are 25 percent. Alpa dues are 1.9 percent. Otherwise the rest is correct.

The Percentage Method: The IRS specifies a flat “supplemental rate” of 25%, meaning that any supplemental wages (including bonuses) should be taxed in that amount. If you receive a $5,000 bonus, under this rule, $1,250 (25% of $5,000) goes straight to the IRS. Using this approach, the amount of your bonus, whatever it is, is “singled out” from the rest of your income and taxed directly. Employers frequently choose the percentage method because it’s easier to tax the entire bonus at a uniform rate. In most cases, this is ideal from your standpoint as the bonus receiver and taxpayer, too. The aggregate method (described below), in addition to being more time-consuming and laborious for employers, can take a bigger tax bite out of your bonus payments.

IRS Tax Publication 15 for 2019 lists 22% for supplemental wages.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p15...link1000202352

The Federal Tax withholding rate for supplemental wages is just that, a withholding rate. When you report income on your 1040 for 2019, it isn't treated any differently than any other income. It's just treated differently for withholding purposes.

IRS Publication 15 (Circular E) for 2019 states "withhold a flat 22% (no other percentages allowed" for bonuses and supplemental income less than $1,000,000 that are separate payments (excluded from a regular paycheck).

Edited: xdashdriver beat me to it.

So, from an interested outsider, looking in, what is an average Captain or Fo expecting from this bonus? Congratulations on the new contract. I know it didn’t satisfy everyone. It did provide substantial pay raises across the board. It will make your families lives better.

And I haven’t seen any posts from Butthert or Todd Chavez, so I’m guessing I was correct in assuming they were recruited from somewhere to treat the negative posters like idiots.

They’ve moved on to other more important matters like making sure the bathrooms at the company headquarters are stocked with enough toilet paper.

Captains who were topped out for all of the 3 years of negotiations got about $96,000.

5 year captains got in the 70s
5 year FOs got in the 40s
2 year FOs got in the 20s.

This was supposed to make up for both pay raises owed to us from a return to profitability following bankruptcy concessions and the 3 years to negotiate this deal.

This bonus is for more than just the negotiating delays. The LOA that was signed during bankruptcy promised that the company would negotiate pay raises after Frontier returned to profitability. They never really made good on that. This 75 million dollar bonus is supposed to make good on both issues.

Hopefully I explained that well...?

I stand corrected. 22 percent it is. I guess I was looking at the old 25 percent information on the internet from before Trumps tax cuts.

FYI notified by HR Director/benefits today that the RA bonus is “not eligible” for contribution in our 401(k), either to true up 2018 or 2019, contrary to 1/10/2019 FFTMEC email...........

Wah wah wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........