Allowance money card

[NzAkL20]

Does anyone have any experience with allowance cash cards.. Do they work well? Does your company absorb all the fees? Etc. Pro and cons would be great. TIA

[josephfeatherweight]

Not sure exactly what you're talking about - do you mean a company credit card for expenses vs set daily allowances (per diems in "US speak") for when you're away with work?
If that's what you mean, I can certainly expand on some pros vs cons!

[Ollie Onion]

Yes, the airline I flew with in the UK had an allowance card, you could withdraw money from crew hotel receptions and the monthly bill was deducted from you pay directly. Company paid exchange and card fees, they were great, it was a lot easier to deal with than the cash we used to get handed with the downside that you couldn’t hide any of your allowances from the taxman.

[josephfeatherweight]

you couldn’t hide any of your allowances from the taxman
Are allowances taxed?

[Ixixly]

josephfeatherweight in Australia your Per Diems are not taxed, you don't even need to mention them in your Tax Return! Why? Because the Politicians get lots of them so they love it being this way and the bonus is that it works well for us ;)

For example in a previous job I was away for 3 weeks at a time, per diems every day and that amounted to a fair amount which meant not only did I earn more but I avoided a tax bracket which helped too :D

[josephfeatherweight]

That's what I thought!

[NzAkL20]

Yes instead of cash at hotels etc. I know some euro airlines have card allowances are loaded on to prior to start of duty . Love to know the pro and cons . Is the card the way of the future or stsy clear . Tia

[Ixixly]

I'd dare say cards are a great way for Airlines, they need to give people an allowance and either they give them the full amount with their pay or they give them a card with it loaded to an amount and see if they maybe don't spend the whole thing instead.

[Roj approved]

A few years ago, maybe 2015? QF went from cash in the hotel to a CitiBank Credit card the crew could use worldwide without fees for Forex. I'm not sure of exactly how it worked, but everyone I spoke to seemed happy enough with it

[neville_nobody]

It's also a nice way for executives to get some side business from Banks as they clammer to sign up 10000+ people to their card system. Depending on the system staff would have to spend the entire amount on the card and are unable to pocket any of the allowances. It also then allows the ATO to track where all the allowances are going and start mounting a case for further taxation.

[wombat watcher]

A few years ago, maybe 2015? QF went from cash in the hotel to a CitiBank Credit card the crew could use worldwide without fees for Forex. I'm not sure of exactly how it worked, but everyone I spoke to seemed happy enough with it

Not quite correct.
Yes re the change from cash in the hotel to the money in the pilot’s bank account.
No to Qf providing the a Citibank card.
Pilots being pilots, sussed out that the best card was a fee free Citibank card. The word spread and most have that. Some have an ING equivalent.

[wombat watcher]

It's also a nice way for executives to get some side business from Banks as they clammer to sign up 10000+ people to their card system. Depending on the system staff would have to spend the entire amount on the card and are unable to pocket any of the allowances. It also then allows the ATO to track where all the allowances are going and start mounting a case for further taxation.

Rubbish.
ATO has been tracking aircrew allowances since Keating was the Treasurer.. Most of it is tax free. It is based on the Commonwealth public service tax free allowance system. Get paid more, the excess is taxable; get paid the same or less, it is tax free.

[neville_nobody]

ATO has been tracking aircrew allowances since Keating was the Treasurer.. Most of it is tax free. It is based on the Commonwealth public service tax free allowance system. Get paid more, the excess is taxable; get paid the same or less, it is tax free.

Difference being that there was never a way of proving what you spent your allowances on as it was given in cash. Now there is a way of tracing your spending.

The reason they are tax free is because the assumption is that they are 100% spent on work incurred expenses. If however the ATO could prove this wasn't the case....

[Ollie Onion]

Where I said about the taxman I meant that you ONLY get the tax free allowances that you ACTUALLY incur on a duty. When we used to get cash you simply took the unused cash home and stashed it somewhere or exchanged it an paid the grocery bill with it. In the yearly tax audit that a percentage of pilots went through they would just tell the tax guy that they spent every cent and they couldn't prove otherwise. When we went to the card, the exact amount that you used in allowances showed in your payslip as that is where it was deducted from, this meant that the taxman and the wife could see how much was spent in a month. The team players would withdraw the full amount in cash every time to carry on the old system. A good proportion of pilots though would withdraw much less so that they balance still go paid in the pay round so they could use it for mortgage etc. Last audit I was in Europe for HMRC turned around and reduced our tax free allowances by 25% across the board as they could show via the pay roll accounts that on average pilots were only using 75% of the allowance by withdrawing it and the rest was going into their bank account with normal wages. Lets be honest guys, when you get cash at the hotel how many 'hand' back the unused cash at the end of the trip. Technically you should as the tax free amount should be what you are required to spend, if it goes into your normal day to day living when back at home it should be taxed. As I say the only downside of the card was that it gave very good visibility of what allowances were being used. It was never a problem for me as the tax free allowances never covered my beer bill for the first night :-)