Wizzair

[booze]

Maybe. We'll see. In any case wizz just made one the most disgusting move with this fire and rehire scheme. Time will tell but I'm afraid that this is not the last trick they've pulled out of their hat...

[jadrolinija]

They will rehire very small amount of fired pilots. Many of them received rejection after they applied again. Only few were invited for further steps or assessment.

[flightbooking]

Pearlharbour

There might be few countries asking to top up the tax according to the local income tax where the person is resident but most do not if you paid the Swiss tax already. There is no single person I know who pays 40% tax or anything even close to that. I know it doesn't mean they do not exist but definitely not the majority. Obviously for those few Wizz is not a good option then.

[Pearlharbour]

jadrolinija

that is 100% correct. After made us reapply they knock out again. So 2 KOs in less than 4 months.
I don’t understand the point of made redundant pilots to reapply for knock out them again. Maybe it wouldn’t be better just to contact the ones you are interested in to come back? I want to think there isn’t bad intention and I want to believe that they are not trying to hurt us but still don’t seeing the reason of doing that.

[Pearlharbour]

flightbooking

I can put you 100 cases of pilots paying even more than 40% taxes. For example in Romania local TRI can made with the old Scheme 11/12k gross and I saw their salary. Net 7k. I saw with my own eyes.
and that was with the old scheme.
CONFAIR floaters or non floaters Captains doing things properly they pay a small amount of taxes in Switzerland, the rest till even more than 40% in their Western Europe countries.
of course if you want to “play” as a contractor with taxes that is another history... but if you do it properly is what it is

[booze]

Pearlharbour

Just chatted with some of my buddies this moment. You are correct. However all i see is bad intention here. Pure evil and the beancounters still try to defend this as cost saving when the amount saved versus the amount paid to some of the pilots let go are nothing more than a rounding error when looking at the big picture.

[flightbooking]

Pearlharbour

Again I do not claim it is not happening I say that according to my experience this is not the majority. Your experience apparently differs from mine.

However then the question is if there are so many pilots having to pay so high taxes and earning so little money why they did not left Wizz before the COVID during the hiring boom? An Airbus rated TRI or CPT could have gone anywhere in the world. Now as things go south it is indeed not possible any more but why not before pre-COVID?

[FlightDetent]

LorisBatacchi

That is exactly how it does not work in general, although in some particular case it might. A lot of folks have wet dreams and wishful thinking for such an arrangement, but actually reading those tax agreements and local law paints a different picture.

Edited: +1 on the post from Pearlharbour below.

[Pearlharbour]

Originally Posted by LorisBatacchi

Mate, in Europe there are agreements on double taxation. If you pay in one place, you dont pay in another. You need to be resident in that place for more than 183 days, of course.

of course and I’m aware of double taxation agreement between countries. But even like that if you pay 12% in Switzerland you have to pay the rest till 40% in your residence country.
and even if you stay out of home for 6 months if your family lives in Western Europe it is considered as your residence country. It doesn’t matter how many days per year you stay away. Is regarding where you have the Core Of your family.
so At the end even with double taxation you have to pay the difference amount of money in your residence country (where your family really live)

[FlightDetent]

flightbooking

Because if you want to stay close to kids and not see them only on 6/3 wks rotation, AND need to keep family in Europe (think your wife parents who might need attention on a weekly or 3-daily basis, just one example), the only real good choice was China with 50% part-time. And that was not easy to get into, not everyone by far made it let alone wanted it.

[Pearlharbour]

flightbooking

well every individual has a different life. I know about pilots leaving for going to Asia but also others that doesn’t want to go far away maybe because of family issues.

[flightbooking]

LorisBatacchi

It is not as simple as that. It mostly depends on what exactly is written in the "Convention between [YOUR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE] and the Swiss confederation for the avoidance of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and on capital".
Your country of residence is not automatically the place where you spend >183 days, it is a bit more complex animal than that.

[flightbooking]

Originally Posted by Pearlharbour

of course and I’m aware of double taxation agreement between countries. But even like that if you pay 12% in Switzerland you have to pay the rest till 40% in your residence country.

Well, again this depends on the rules of your country of residence and the taxation agreement between Switzerland and your country of residence.

Originally Posted by Pearlharbour

and even if you stay out of home for 6 months if your family lives in Western Europe it is considered as your residence country. It doesn’t matter how many days per year you stay away.

It is not only where your family lives, that is only one factor and there are others as well. But you're right, just because you spend more than 6 months somewhere, it does not automatically becomes your country of residence.

[Pearlharbour]

exactly, so it depends of countries agreement and of course if you already paid 12 in Switzerland that part is already paid and you just have to pay the rest that it correspond to your personal family status in your residence country. As simple as that

[flightbooking]

FlightDetent

Yep, but hirings were not only in Asia but also in Europe. Not sure if somebody with a family in Western Europe, something in East of Europe is closer than whatever else country in the EU where there were much better conditions in terms (according to the posts above) of money and taxation.

[dirk85]

LorisBatacchi

It's not how it works, even in Itay, where I assume you are going to be resident. You have the calculate the taxes that you would pay in Italy with the Wizzair salary, than deduct the taxes paid in switzerland. That's how the double taxation works.
That's if you decide to commute to Italy and have your family and center of interest there.
If you decide to live where you are based and deregister from italy (AIRE), then this does not apply and you are fine just with what wizzair is taxing you.

[dirk85]

If you were based in the UAE before, the agreement was different there. There are only about 5/6 countries with double taxation agreements with italy where you pay ONLY in the country where you are based, irrespectively of where you are resident. It's Qatar, UAE, South Korea and a couple of other that I don't remember.

[dirk85]

LorisBatacchi

In that case you should be ok.

[jadrolinija]

Pearlharbour

Unfortunately airline has changed drastically after arrival of ex EK captain who got chief pilot function. Many people said that airline will go in different direction after he arrived. Unfortunately they were right. Wizz 2020 and Wizz 2015 is not the same.

And covid is not excuse. I saw Emirates way of redundancies and laying off people with no explanation and criteria and same was done in Wizz. Rumours say that Wizz will give priority to redundant Emirates pilots who applied. (what a coincidence, isn't it?) I didn't believe at first but now there is no doubt.

[booze]

Also the training manager is ex-EK. Both are making way for their cronies at the expense of the recently made redundant.