Good aviation tax accountant in the Sydney area?

[Matt Tomlinson]

Hi fellow flyers,

 

 

 

I am looking for a recommendation for a good personal tax accountant in the Sydney area who knows a thing or two about aviation! I am about to invest heavily in my personal flying development (from PPL to CPL with flying instructor rating) and need to ensure I am maximising my deductions.

 

 

 

Can anyone provide a recommendation of someone they trust?

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

Matthew.

 

 

[Mriya]

You could try Alexander Hopkins &Co (formerly Christopher Leech) This company has had a long association with airline employees (Pilots and Engineers) and runs an office in Mascot & Sutherland. I have been happy with their results both for many years as a LAME with QF and for the last 7 years involved in General Aviation. They can advise on circumstances where flight training and proficiency/renewal costs can be claimed either as a work expense or as part of your continuing professional development.

 

As a creature of habit (and happy customer), I continue to use them each year for my tax return despite now living in Victoria.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Hi Matt.

 

Don't shoot the messenger OK? I see where you're headed with this, but best you be prepared for a disappointment.

 

My wife is a commercial accountant and now furthering her career by completing a masters degree and a fair bit of that study during the last two years has been to do with Australian tax matters of all types.

 

I was (also) very surprised to hear that what I'm sure you're hoping for isn't permissible.

 

The long and short of it is that if you're paying money for courses of any kind that further your paid career then it's tax deductible, but if you're not already employed in that environment, and taking courses or study to be able to gain employment in a new arena, then it's not deductible.

 

You don't need a tax accountant that's 'an aviation specialist' to tell you this, the same applies to whatever field of endeavour that interests you. For example - a person living in Melbourne wants to become a hairdresser, so they pay $5000 to take a course in Brisbane to learn the basics of hairdressing. None of those expenses are tax deductible, ever, cannot even be carried forward.

 

The same person is already a junior hairdresser but wants to improve their position and work in a better salon. He/she takes a course in Brisbane. The costs of the course, the hotel costs, the flights, reasonable costs for living away from home, are all tax deductible because that person is already working in that field and is taking further education to improve their position.

 

In your case, as a PPL, you cannot be employed in any aviation/flying position. You can fly a skydiver's plane and you can fly some aerial work on stations but you cannot be paid to do that so you are not 'employed' in aviation, you might be being paid as an assistant at a skydiving centre and part of your duties are flying, or similarly being paid as a stockman on a station some of which requires flying the station plane, but you cannot be employed as a pilot, so your further training to become a commercial pilot cannot be tax deductible. Sorry, I feel your pain ...

 

On another note, why do you want to get a commercial licence and also an instructor rating? Are you a multi-thousand hour PPL wanting to pass on your decades of experience? If not, why not just get your comm licence and go and get some real-world experience so that you have something worthwhile to pass on to your students? This nonsense of students becoming instructors to build hours has to stop, it's why we have so many timid instructors ...

 

 

[Geoff13]

HIC seems to know what he is talking about. You must be employed in the field before you can claim the deduction. The sad thing is there are probably as many tax auditors reading this as there are tax accountants.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

The sad thing is there are probably as many tax auditors reading this as there are tax accountants.

That's unlikely, they're busy people and stretched. The Australian personal tax system is largely based on honesty, so the OP could always fill in his own tax return dishonestly and hope for the best. But no tax accountant would provide him with what he hoped for.

 

The problem with dishonest tax returns is that they never expire, unlike business documentation which has only to be archived for 5yrs, a dishonest tax return can bite you 20yrs or more later, and the penalties are massive, and they compound. That's what allows the system to exist, based just on honesty ... and life-destroying penalties.

 

Fancy retiring with a comfortable nest-egg and the ever-increasing software search technology finds that you didn't declare a profitable investment property sale 25 years ago. Say you made just $50K on the deal. The penalties for not declaring the tax liability are huge in the first year. Say you should have paid CGT of 12.5% if you'd owned it for more than 1 year, then that approx $7K of unpaid tax would, with penalties, have grown to millions in 25 yrs. More than just about anyone's Super account ...

 

Good luck with ever sleeping well to anyone who doesn't give unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar ...

 

 

[Matt Tomlinson]

Thanks all for your comments...great discussion and advise. Certainly the plan is not for hour-building though; I'm making the change to become a career instructor, and halve my salary in the process no doubt! My life has been spent in flying for fun (paragliders, microlights, GA) and my career has been in coaching, business and L&D. So let's just say it's a semi-retirement plan and I think I have a lot to give! Happy flying.

 

 

[Robbo]

Enroll in a full time course and you won't pay GST.

 

 

[ben87r]

Enroll in a full time course and you won't pay GST.

But you will pay overs on the hourly rate, much more than the 10% "discount".

 

 

[Robbo]

Never experienced that.