EIM50052 | Airline pilots: industry wide FRE for 2013/14 onwards: details

From HM Revenue & Customs · Employment Income Manual

The basic FRE agreed for uniformed airline pilots, co-pilots and other uniformed flight deck crew is £1,022. A further deduction (EXP) of £110 has been agreed to cover the allowable cost of travel to certain regular, specified activities (see EIM50060). For details of the FRE applicable from 2006/07 to 2012/13 please see EIM50050.

The basic £1,022 FRE is deemed to cover all potentially allowable expenditure by the employees concerned (other than travelling expenses) except:

The provision of uniforms, where these are required to be worn but are not provided by the employer (see EIM50053)
The provision of a noise-cancelling headset, where one is not provided by the employer (see EIM50054).

Pilots seeking relief for the two bulleted items above may do so without jeopardising their entitlement to the £1,022 FRE.

However, if a pilot wishes to obtain relief for the actual costs of other allowable items in a particular tax year they cannot take advantage of the FRE. In that case their relief will be based solely on their actual, vouched, qualifying costs in that year. By “qualifying costs” we mean amounts for which a deduction is due under

Section 336 ITEPA 2003 (see generally EIM31600 onwards) and
Section 36 CAA 2001 (see generally EIM36500) onwards).

EIM50051 provides a summary of the things for which relief may be due in a given year. There is a list of items included in the FRE at EIM50059.

As regards luggage, and personal computers, see EIM50055 and EIM50056 respectively.