Originally Posted by
Pickuptruck
It’s pretty simple, crew who hold greencards have been lying about it to the company and the IRS. They avoid paying US tax but the company gets fined big time when the IRS finally connects the dots............as the IRS usually does.
They then get in strife with the company, who isn’t happy about paying the IRS big fines. The AOA gets involved, “they only lied, you only got fined, no harm done” etc.
Pilots and tax, this sh*t never gets old......
The issue here is for pilots who have
no connection to the USA, other than operating in and out, including layovers for duty time regulation purposes.
No passport, green card, address, business or even relatives there.
If all states did this, then pilots in international operations would typically have to file taxes for dozens of different tax jurisdictions.
Clearly, that is not possible.
Apart from the paid taxes, imagine the combined fees for tax advisors. There is only 100% of your salary available, and ideally, some of that salary goes to the flight crew in question, to pay their bills and maybe even ... have some fun with their earnings.
This is not about having fake addresses in mail boxes, avoiding tax by being off shore. Living and working in Hong Kong, paid in Hong Kong, paying tax in Hong Kong. Should US long haul pilots start paying tax in Hong Kong, China, Australia, UK, Germany, Holland or wherever they happen to be sent to by their employer?
I am just curious to know - has any other long haul pilot, working for a non-US carrier, being non-US-resident/green card/passport holder, been met with similar demands?