Incorporates HR Compliance And Guidance For Taxes, Benefits For Employees

Flight Dept Advantage (FDA), a provider of start-up and operational services for flight departments, has unveiled its newest program, FDA HR Advantage. The new program is designed to offer flight department managers and aircraft owners a comprehensive solution to employ and retain crewmembers while addressing a growing divergence between FAA and IRS requirements.

The program relieves the aircraft owner of all direct obligations related to payroll taxes, benefits and workers compensation while avoiding IRS, FAA and other regulatory pitfalls that may exist. FDA works collaboratively with the client's professional advisors to create a customized solution specific to the aircraft owner's operation, business structure and goals.
 
The FDA HR Advantage Program helps clients avoid potential taxes and fines from the IRS, states and insurance agencies caused by a widespread practice of misclassifying pilots as independent contractors. The program can also be used as a tool to minimize tax issues resulting from the IRS's recent attempt to subject an aircraft owner to the 7.5% Federal Excise Tax (FET) on payments to their management company for Part 91 flights. While this issue is still unresolved, the IRS has indicated it will provide further guidance on the matter sometime later this year.
 
As state and federal rules governing employment and benefits (e.g. Obamacare) grow more complex, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up. This program incorporates HR compliance and guidance, and provides a cost-effective way for aircraft owners to provide a strong benefits program to attract and retain crewmembers.

Rob Gort (pictured), Aviation Manager for a California-based Fortune 250 company, is FDA's first client using the new program. "FDA helped us evaluate all the employment options available. They assisted us in developing a new employment structure to avoid certain IRS tax issues while providing our crews with better benefits," says Gort, who manages four aircraft in their flight department. "Better yet, our costs have gone down, our potential liability has gone down and our benefits have been greatly improved."

The program is being launched amid increased awareness by federal and state tax agencies focused on the misclassification of workers, such as commonly found with contract pilots and flight attendants. Dave Weil, CEO and founder of FDA, previously served on NBAA's Employment Issues Working Group and was quoted in NBAA's Business Aviation Insider Dec 2012 article entitled: Employer or Contractor? Avoid Pitfalls When Hiring Temporary Crew. In the article, Weil commented that the pitfalls associated with contract crewmembers can be expensive and time consuming to fix if discovered by the IRS. The issue has become so prevalent that NBAA published a guide on the subject called, Best Practices for Utilizing Independent Contractors. Members of NBAA can download the guide for free on the organization's website.
 
The FDA HR Advantage Program offers two levels of service. The primary option is for aircraft owners and other aviation employers who do not wish to be a direct employer or find it difficult to do so. The second option involves helping flight departments and other direct employers with ten or more employees, implement an improved, more compliant, cost-effective employment solution. Both options are customizable and require some lead-time for implementation. FDA is working with a national Professional Employment Organization (PEO) to administer the payroll, HR compliance, benefits and workers compensation areas, utilizing the extensive purchasing power of its PEO partner to provide an affordable program.

FMI: www.flightdeptadvantage.com