HMRC Flight pay

[autobrake3]

Historically, flight pay/duty pay/sector pay used to be tax free as it was a payment to cover out of pocket expenses while on duty. Over the last few years this has slowly been eroded to the point where within my airline we are now paying tax on 100% of the flight pay element yet the out of pocket expenses have remained unchanged. I still have to live when night stopping either in the UK or in foreign parts. I am aware that some UK airlines still enjoy a tax free element of flight pay. It would therefore be of interest to know a) why there appears to be an unequal playing field and b) which companies are or are not in continued receipt of a tax free element to their flight pay. Comments anyone.........

[deltahotel]

My understanding is that HMRC believe that in many cases FDP is used as an addition to salary rather than for away from home expenses and thus is fair game for taxation. Thus (eg) employment in short haul charter has minimal opportunity to spend away from home (out n back, short turnrounds), whereas a job in a different segment of aviation may have frequent stops away where FDP needs to be spent.

HMRC have carried out expenditure trials at various airlines and amended the taxation rates depending on the results.

Hope this helps