For Airline Flight Crews, What is the Standard Deduction?

As an airline pilot or flight attendant you might have heard the phrase “standard deduction” around tax time. Or maybe you’ve heard your tax preparer use the phrase as well, and didn’t know what it meant. The answer is simple.

The IRS sets a determined value each year that allows you as a taxpayer to “write off” on your taxes. This amount is calculated based on what the IRS determines to be fair, common, or reasonable expenses that individuals accrue throughout the year. These expenses are cost of living, work related, and other expenses that a normal person experiences in everyday life.

The amount each year varies, and depends on which category you as an airline pilot or flight attendant are assigned to. The three categories are

1. Single or married filing separately
2. Married filing jointly or qualifying widow
3. Head of household

In addition to the per diem deduction, EZPERDIEM.COM lists and helps pilots and flight attendants calculate their airline related employee business expenses.

How do airline pilots deduct per diem?

Whether you are a regional airline pilot or a major airline pilot, taking advantage of the IRS tax laws with regard to per diem can significantly increase your tax refund. Pilots don't deduct per diem per se. Rather, pilots deduct their meals and incidental expenses while on work related trips using the per diem rates established by the GSA (CONUS) and Department of Defense (OCONUS). The per diem rates are based on the locations that the pilot stays as well as the time the pilot stayed there. Before EZPERDIEM.COM linked the per diem rates to the airport codes all over the world, calculating the so called "per diem deduction" used to be difficult and take hours to accomplish. EZPERDIEM.COM makes it approximately a 15 minute process and generally results in several hundred dollars in extra tax refund if you itemize.

What Happened to the Car Donation Tax Deduction?

In 2005 the tax rules for a vehicle tax donation changed for the worse for may tax payers. In the years before the change, people who donated an automobile to charity were able to get a write off the estimated value of the vehicle based on the vehicle's condition, make, and model.

Things are different now. For a car donation tax deduction to be valid, it is necessary to get a receipt for the actual amount that the charity sold the car for. This is likely causing many people to keep their vehicles for trade in rather than donating the car for a tax benefit. It is unfortunate that charities and tax payers are unable to benefit from the car donation tax deduction like they once were, but just because the IRS reduced the vehicle tax deduction somewhat doesn't mean that tax payers don't have many simple tax saving strategies available to them if they are savvy.