Petition to Government regarding tax free pay

[polkadotwellies]

Please add your signature to the petition against the governments proposals to abolish the tax free element for sustinance/flight pay.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/flightpay/

[fonejacker]

Just my opinion, but it matters not one iota how many people sign, Brown is going is come down hard on allowances. The recent trial was a sham (allegedly)...

[Abusing_the_sky]

[Rant mode on]
Ok, so i have a tiny question....?
What smart dumb a$$ decided to come up with this new tax imposed on us, CC and flight crew??? I mean Mr. Brown is not the smartest of them all, but surely some a$$ kissing idiot "proposed" the above taxing to him as a "solution to make more profit for the government" = their pockets.
I know nothing about how these things work, i don't do politics and for trust me i couldn't have a "discussion" about the "financial predicament nowadays" if my life depends on it. However, my all tired and sometimes stressed out brain just doesn't get it:ugh:
Say we fly outta... i don't know...BHX to AGP. We are in the British airspace for about what, 30-40 mins? until we get into the French airspace. After that, we get into the Spanish airspace, land, log the flight time and start calculating the flight pay.
Righto, we know where we've been and flight times.
So how can the honorable Mr. Brown tax my sector cheque (flight pay) when i fly over France and Spain? I basically work in these countries' airspace, so how come my whole flight pay gets taxed, say 3hrs flight time, but only 40mins work in the UK airspace?
If someone could enlighten me, that would be great. Until then, i would kindly suggest to Mr. Brown&Co to take the "tax proposal", nicely fold it up and shove it where the sun don't shine!

[Rant mode off]

Rgds
ATS

[topdog1]

I have signed it :ugh:

[easy1]

It does not matter if you sign it or not, it will go ahead. The governmet is in the brown smelly stuff and they are going to screw us all. This country is going down the pan, strap in and wait for it!

[Pegasus747]

Just FYI,

about 15 years ago the Australian government started taxing overseas allowances. When senior government officials and tax office officials were paxing on flights sitting behind flight attendant who were bragging about how much of their meal allowances they actually saved.

An audit was done and the tax office realised that flight attendants were including their meal allowances as part of their income when applying for home loans etc .

The FAAA sought a private tax ruling seeking to exempt flight attendants allowances however the best that could be achieved was the following:

1. The government publishes an allowance schedule for senior civil servants when they travel away from home. Where Qantas pays an allowance "higher" than that amount the "difference" is subject to tax

2. The Tax office has indicated also that if you have reciepts for the expenditure of your total allowances for meals and travel related expenses it will not be subject to tax.

I dont know of any flight attendant that has ever fully expended their allowance on food, maybe alcohol :) so therefore we pay tax on the difference.

As the government/civil service allowances are quite generous we rarely pay tax as the difference is often very small

Perhaps your union may look at following that example. I hope that helps