TurboTax Guide for
EZPerDiem Airline Crew Tax Software
What is the TurboTax Guide?
This guide is intended to be used by airline pilots, corporate pilots, fractional pilots, and flight attendants who pay U.S. Income Taxes and use TurboTax for their tax returns and EZPerDiem for their flight crewmember tax deductions. This guide is not intended to be used by armed forces members because the method in which armed forces members enter their tax information is somewhat different than it is for civilian employees. If you are a pilot who flew part time as a reservist and also flew professionally as a civilian airline pilot, you need to separate your expenses from those two jobs and only use this guide for the civilian pilot component. To enter the military expenses into TurboTax, we recommend that you use the guidance supplied by TurboTax, applicable IRS Publications, or seek a qualified aviation tax preparation service like EZCrewTax. Also, TurboTax is not affiliated with EZPerDiem. EZPerDiem simply provides this guide as an unofficial feature that might help flight crewmembers enter their data from EZPerDiem into TurboTax. The fact that this guide is unofficial means that any instructions contained within it should not be taken as tax advice or substituted for IRS publications or the knowledge of a professional tax preparer.
This guide is intended to help EZPerDiem users enter the flight crew tax data generated by the EZPerDiem website into TurboTax 2009. As you may already know, EZPerDiem is a simple, fast website that quickly helps pilots and flight attendants compute their employee business expenses and the lucrative per diem deduction. EZPerDiem has two very useful tools that help flight crews quickly organize their taxes:
- The Per Diem Calculator
- The Expense Processor
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Did you know? You no longer have to go to the store to buy TurboTax. TurboTax Online saves you the trouble of installing software on your computer and it also saves you the time of going out and buying software. Because most of TurboTax is self-explanatory and beyond the scope of this guide, we are going to skim through generic tax topics until we get to the focus of this guide, which is Employee Business Expenses. |
The EZPerDiem Numbers...How do I use them in TurboTax?
This guide contains a lot of information, much of it general. You may only want to know where the EZPerDiem numbers go into TurboTax, and do not need all of the information contained within this guide. The EZPerDiem Numbers that we are referring to are:
- The M&IE Calculation (This is the total that displays on the bottom of your Calculations Page in EZPerDiem after all of your layovers for a given tax year are finished)
- The Employee Business Expense Numbers (These are the totals from the printer-friendly version of the Expense Processor)
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Did you know? You should probably begin with the free version of TurboTax. This is for more basic tax returns, but it may suffice for some pilots and flight attendants. If you end up needing a more powerful version of TurboTax, you can easily upgrade when it is necessary. |
Employee Expenses
In this guide we are going to skip straight to the section that applies to flight crews. This section is called Job-Related Expenses or Employee Expenses. These are the expenses that you use EZPerDiem to calculate. Think of the combined employee expenses is one big itemized tax deduction. Flight crewmembers cannot take advantage of any of the employee expenses without itemizing. If you do not own a house and pay a mortage, there is a good chance that you will not be itemizing because your itemized tax deductions might not exceed the standard deduction.
TurboTax ScreenShot Showing First Page for Job-Related Expenses
Note that in the above screenshot, you will click ADD AN EXPENSE so you can begin entering the data from EZPerDiem.
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Add Expenses
Here you will enter your occupation (i.e. Pilot or Flight Attendant).
TurboTax ScreenShot Showing Occupation Entry
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Did you know? Your employee expenses include a lot more than the per diem deduction. Union dues, van driver tips, and even part of your internet and cell phone bill can be included as employee expenses if done properly. |
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Information About Your Job
The important box to check here is the one that says you are in the transportation industry. This is one of the options that tells TurboTax that the EZPerDiem M&IE calculations get multiplied by a higher rate than other people.
TurboTax ScreenShot Showing Clicking Job Details
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Home Office Deductions
The likely section here is NO.
TurboTax ScreenShot Showing Home Office Options
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Vehicle Expenses
Pilots and flight attendants will typically have few, if any, expenses in this category to enter.
TurboTax ScreenShot Describing Vehicle Expenses.
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Did you know? A couple of examples where pilots or flight attendants might be able to write off vehicle expenses would be 1) if they are union representives and incur vehicle expenses related to airline union work, and 2) pilots having to drive to get a required aviation medica. Either of these example are likely deductible vehicle expenses for flight crewmembers. It is important to note that commuting expenses from home to work and work to home is not deductible, whether you commute by car across town or in a plane across the country. |
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Equipment Expenses
Most pilots and flight attendants do not have equipment expenses that fall in this category. Computers are almost never deductible for a flight crewmember. To write off a computer, the employer must specifically require you to buy one.
Equipment Expenses
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Other Expenses
The likely expenses on this page are 1) Travel Expenses and 2) Meal Expenses Covered by Department of Transportation Rules. Travel expenses are the expenses you incur while you are away from your tax home on work-related travel. The meal expenses is the M&IE calculation that is calculated from EZPerDiem.com.
Meals and Entertainment Entry
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Did you know? Your EZPerDiem calculation that is calculated from entering all of those layover is your meals. In other words, instead of keeping all of those receipts for every meal you have while on work-related overnight travel, you can simply spend about 30 minutes entering your overnights into EZPerDiem and not have to keep a single meal receipt. You also generally get a much higher deduction this way, too. |
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Other Expenses
Education expenses that are incurred to enhance your skills in your present occupation may be deductible. Also, professional publications that pertain to your occupation may also be deductible.
Meals and Entertainment Entry
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Other Employee Expenses
The so called per diem deductions is only part of your combined employee expenses that go on IRS Form 2106. You are also eligible to write off many other flight-related expenses. To write off a work-related expense, it must:
You can learn more in the following article:
How to Write Off Flight Crew Expenses from Pilot or Flight Attendant Tax Returns
Other Expenses
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Did you know? Some of the most common mistakes that flight crewmembers make when wrting off their employee expenses are wrting off expenses they are not supposed to and missing expenses they are allowed to write off. Some surprising expenses that pilots and flight attendants cannot deduct include commuting expenses and crashpads, haircuts, socks, getting nails done, and wristwatches. Some of the commonly missed expenses for flight crewmembers that can be deducted include the business portion of a cell phone bill, the business portion of a crewmember's internet costs, van driver tips, job searching expenses even if you did not get the aviation job, and shoe shines |
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Reimbursements
The non-taxable per diem that a flight crewmember is paid from an employer is a reimbursement for meals, therefor you should likely answer YES to this section.
Screenshot Reimbursements
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Employer Reimbursements
Flight crewmembers are often reimbursed for some of their aviation-related expenses. The most common reimbursement that almost all flight crewmembers receive is per diem (non-taxable per diem to be specific). Non-taxable per diem should be on you W-2 under box 12, code L. Other reimbursements might include uniform reimbursements, taxi cab reimbursements, and the like. Most airline employees should answer YES to this question.
Employer Reimbursements
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Did you know? There is a big difference between taxable per diem and non-taxable per diem. Taxable per diem is income and should be included on the W-2 form under Box 1 as part of a pilot or flight attendant's salary. Nontaxable per diem is not income. Non taxable per diem is a reimbursment for the money that a flight crewmember spends on meals and incidentals (M&IE). Only the nontaxable per diem needs to be entered here. |
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Reimbursements for Meals
What gets entered next to Employer Reimbursed Meals is the number on your W-2, Box 12, Code L. This is your non-taxable per diem.
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Did you know? The number in Box 12, Code L should be the amount of money you were given in the form of per diem from your employer on trips that had layovers. For day-trips, you do not have layovers, which means you do not get to write off the meals for the day and you do not get reimbursed per diem. This might cause a lot of flight crewmembers to question this because most flight crewmember contracts do pay per diem when working, whether it involves overnight travel or not. The per diem you receive on a day-trip should be paid as taxable per diem and should be lumped into the number in Box 1 of a flight crewmember's W-2. |
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