oldcarpilot

Anyone know what are we allowed to calculate this year? Is it different for first and last days?

Thanks in advance....

jaded

You're supposed to calculate the difference between the IRS allowance for that city and what your company paid you. The standard calculation for the first and last day of the trip is typically pro-rated at 75%. There are websites out there like perdiem.aero that does different pro-rates based on your show time... like 100% if you show before 6am on your first day etc... I use them because you can check if you're going to save money before you pay and I can easily upload my crewtrac schedule.

ShyGuy

How much do places like SFO and LAX allow as far as the government is concerned? If company pays ~ $48 per 24 hrs, is there a large difference? I have always qualified only for the standard deduction and this per diem stuff never mattered because I never got above the threshold. But this year I own my place so between property taxes and things like that I think this year I'll actually go over the standard deduction and be better off with an itemized (long form) deduction method.

RockyBoy

If you itemize it will be worth it. Flying domestic narrowbody trips at Delta and I usually get at least an additional $2500-$3000 in write-offs if I do the calculations.

Some cities allow up to $130 a night and others are fairly close to $50. If you go international, some of those will get you close to $200.

Twin Wasp

Rates are set by fiscal year. In FY 2015 both SFO and LAX were $71 a day. In FY 2016 SFO went up to $74 but LAX drops to $64.

Per Diem Rates

northdakota

In past years to make a difference it must exceed 2% of your gross annual income. This deduction is usually only for the lower earners unless you fly almost exclusively international overnights.

bruhaha

You get to do it two ways...

Either the standard rate, or calculate the rate for each city you overnight in.

You can't mix and match. If you choose the standard rate then all of your overnights are calculated using the standard rate, if not then you will need to look up the rate for each city and use that rate.

Generally if you're a regional airline pilot staying in Podunk cities all the time, it will be better to use the standard rate. If you're staying in cities with high federal per diem rates, it's better to look up the rates for all the cities you're overnighting in.



The more you make, that 2% threshold gets larger and reduces the amount of your deduction. Having high company per diem rates also reduces this deduction, so although pilots gripe about their per diem rates, the higher the per diem rates, the difference between the federal per diem and the airline per diem rate gets smaller making the deduction smaller.

BillyBaroo

To add on to jaded....at the end, you can only deduct 80% of the total as well. I did a spreadsheet with per diem calculations for one page and deduction items on another (dry cleaning, haircut, uniform purchase, etc). Your welcome to a copy, just pm me.

sandrich

Curious. For long-haul flights, does your per diem rate for your over-seas city kick in upon block in or block out.

Say I'm departing City A in the US at 0600z and land in City B overseas at 2000z. Do I calculate City B's per diem rate starting at 0600z or 2000z?

In short, does my origin city perdiem rate stay in effect until I land in a new city?

Also, anyone know where to get foreign perdiem rates? I found a list on the DoD website where it says "meals and incidentals." Would these be accurate, or is there something else I could use. IRS website only has US cities AFAIK.

jaded

Correct. Also don't forget to subtract 2% of your Adjusted Gross Income.