VB/JQ Endorsement costs. Tax refund?

[GA Driver]

Recently been given the nod! :)
I'm aware there are quite a few rumours floating around regarding costs being abolished etc, however I'm yet to be told that from the horses mouth. :}Soooooo

If indeed you do still have to cough up for the endorsement, can anyone point me toward a decent accountant who may be able to give me some tax advice on the best way I can claim some of it back?

Any help would be great.

[Track Direct]

GA Driver

This thread may be of interest to you ...

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=276142

[Left Wing]

why not ask the accounts at Alteon for help since they willl train you.:ok:

[cunninglinguist]

GA, further to whats on the other thread Track direct kindly pointed you toward, have been advised by the AFAP not to ask for a private ruling, apparently this just gets the ire of the ATO.
Apparently, the ATO have'nt been succesful in 1 single case against a legitimate claim

[404 Titan]

cunninglinguist

Just to clear my understanding of the debate whether the endorsement costs are tax deductible, are you an employee of DJ/JQ before you start your endorsement training or after and do you pay over the money before or after you start employment? My understanding, at least with DJ is that you aren’t an employee with them until you have completed your endorsement training?

As former bean counter it would be appreciated if you could point me towards any court cases there are regarding this question? It would be interesting to have a read of the transcripts and the reasoning the judge may have had in his decision.

[neville_nobody]

The other trick is to remain continuously employed by either holidays or LWOP. That way you are always employed in the aviation sector.

[metrosmoker]

It is very simple.
Any expense you incur for training purposes or to better yourself related to your industry is tax deductable. You don`t have to be employed by VB/JQ to have an endorsement tax detuctable. You could be working for, oh I don`t know, AF in Darwin as a casual pilot earning $200 per week answering the phone, do a B747 endorsement and claim it on tax. The reason is that it imporves you. You become more employable and it is directly related to your the indusrty you are in.
The income cut off in $5000. You must earn more than that, to claim. So you may have to work at AF for some time, but eventually you could make a claim.

[404 Titan]

metrosmoker

Are you an accountant? I am or more correctly use to be before I took up flying for a career. What you have said is incorrect and there are plenty of Tribunal rulings and court cases to prove it.

[Angle of Attack]

MEtro, that is my understanding and I have been audited by the tax department when he used the clause of bettering yourself for the industry. (Not even employed in Aviation industry but claimed training expenses) They didnt say anything about it and it was thousands of dollars. Unless somethings changed that was around 10 years ago. :confused:

[404 Titan]

Angle of Attack

The problem is that two different ATO offices will give you two different answers. Most people working in the ATO aren’t accountants. They are clerks who thing they are accountants. Being audited is just that, being audited. The person doing the auditing probably hasn’t a clue of how the aviation industry works and what is a fair, reasonable and required deduction. If it went to court though it is a completely different can of worms. They (the ATO) will bring out their aviation experts and peck you to death on everything. It has happened in the past with similar deductions and it will happen again. In most cases the ATO has won.

[Don Esson]

]They are clerks who thing they are accountants[/B]

...just like pilots who think they are engineers/flight attendants/CFOs/doctors/dentists/marketing experts/farmers/barristers/solicitors/animal trainers/.......................[insert an occupation]/ (delete as appropriate) ;) ;)

[Spanner Turner]

Don Esson said

...just like pilots who think they are engineers/flight attendants/CFOs/doctors/dentists/marketing experts/farmers/barristers/solicitors/animal trainers/.......................[insert an occupation]/ (delete as appropriate)


Touche'

[404 Titan]

Don Esson & Spanner Turner

You obviously haven’t taken note of my profile. If you had you may not have written those last posts. For the record I have five years of study, six years of experience and a framed piece of paper from the UNSW that says I am more than qualified to know what I am talking about. And you?????:ugh:

[smokey2]

Training deductions are simple compared to living away from home situations. Currently in Canberra and keeping a household in Victoria. ATO has a number of rulings dealing with this. It would help if I was paid through the Victorian office of the company I work for and not the ACT branch. This whole tax thing appears to be :*quite complicated and open to misinterpretation.

[Quokka]

A mate of mine's an ATO Auditor who warned me about claiming pilot training expenses outside of employment. He said that you have to be employed in the industry but it doesn't matter what the job is, as long as you are still employed at the time of the pilot training.

Apparently a lot of Baggage Handlers are claiming pilot training expenses...

[cunninglinguist]

404 ( stop bashing your head ;) ) to answer your question, I signed an EBA, which was countersigned by the company all prior to commencement of endo.

There have been 2, I believe, cases that have not gone past the steps of the court, they where being defended by the AFAP and the ATO backed down. Not sure if there have been any cases privately defended.

From the many different accountants I have dealt with over the years, I believe your statements to be correct, including the one disagreeing with Metro.
Not to say that people have'nt claimed as he said, its all self regulation now until they audit you :hmm:

[404 Titan]

cunninglinguist

Thanks for that. I think you have just explained why the ATO backed down before the court proceedings took place. You signed a contract of employment before you paid for the endorsement. I was mistakenly under the impression this didn’t occur until after you completed your endorsement hence my belief it wasn’t tax deductible. It’s worth pointing out that one doesn’t need to have earned anything before hand, just that they were employed before the cost was incurred.

Many pilots like Metro claim things they aren’t entitled to. They think that it is all OK because the ATO appears to have accepted their claim. As you rightly said it is self assessment. The ATO checks nothing in any Australians tax return anymore until you are audited. Then you have to justify everything. I’ve been audited three times since 1985. It may not seem much but definitely more than most. Each time they went through everything, not just for the year in question but for the previous seven years as well. Some people hear are playing with fire and one day they will be burnt, big time.

[cunninglinguist]

I can only speak for Jet*, not sure what the deal is with VB, but I believe the pilots that where going to be taken to court by the ATO where VB pilots