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What is a tax home for pilots and flight attendants?
Usually a flight crewmember's tax home is where they work (i.e. their domicile). The concept of a tax home is addressed in IRS Publication 463. It is important to know where a flight crewmember's tax home is located in order to properly calculate his or her M&IE expenses and other travel expenses.
Because a pilot or flight attendant's tax home is usually their place of work and not where they live, crewmembers who commute often discover that a lot of their commuting expenses are NOT deductible. Expenses incurred while attempting to get to and from work cannot be written off. That means pilots and flight attendants cannot deduct their crashpad, trip passes, bus fees, or any other expenses that are incurred while trying to get from their home to their job, or vice versa.
There is an exception. If a flight crewmember's work is categorized as a temporary assignment then they may be able deduct those costs. A temporary assignment is defined as the following:
Temporary Assignment or Job
If your assignment or job away from your main place of work is temporary, your tax home does not change. You are considered to be away from home for the whole period you are away from your main place of work. You can deduct your travel expenses while there. An assignment or job in a single location is considered indefinite if it is realistically expected to last for more than one year, whether or not it actually lasts for more than one year.
When trying to get most tax write-offs, temporary is good, and indefinite is bad. Crewmembers may want to consider this when bidding for their domiciles. That means that if they can bid their domiciles in a manner that lets them fall under the above definition of a temporary assignment, in the event they are displaced, it may be to their benefit at tax time. From this point of view it may make sense to have the secondary bid choice set to a base that you do not want to be long term so you can deduct those costs associated with getting to your new temporary base.
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