United Enrolled Friend Fees, be careful.

ChasenSFO

hen teaser
Just a heads up, since the merger, United's imputed income fees for enrolled friend travel have sky rocketed. We have people at work getting $0.00 paychecks now that imputed income is starting to be subtracted from the past several months. Fees seem to be random too, no rhyme nor reason to them. Here are some examples of charges:
SFO-MEX $11.88
MEX-SFO $72
SFO-LAX $25
LAX-SFO $25
ONT-DEN $48
DEN-SJC $46

As you can see, some of these cost more than buddy passes. To put this into perspective. Last year my enrolled friend took 34 United flights, several SoCal trips, 1 roundtrip to HKG and 2 to YVR, some longer flights like SFO-MSP/JFK/ORD/IAD, and several shorter flights. I paid $310 for the whole year.

Just be aware and be careful. Keep track of the charges. A heads up to the JC crowd.
 
I've noticed that, too and worried now about what kind of deduction I'm going to see for our last trip out West. Went from DTW-ORD in April, it was quoted $25 under the estimator and I got deducted $50. This was a one-way trip only! That estimator on Skynet is completely useless! I always thought the UA benefits would be cheaper than the DL companion yield fares, but I think I was wrong.
 
. We have people at work getting $0.00 paychecks now that imputed income is starting to be subtracted from the past several months. Fees seem to be random too, no rhyme nor reason to them. Here are some

Probably not all that random, the IRS defines the 'fair market value' of pass travel based on a totally unrestricted full-fare coach ticket. (that hardly anyone ever buys).
 
Probably not all that random, the IRS defines the 'fair market value' of pass travel based on a totally unrestricted full-fare coach ticket. (that hardly anyone ever buys).

This. IIRC it was 10% of the Y2 fare that was added to my income and taxed.
 
I've noticed that, too and worried now about what kind of deduction I'm going to see for our last trip out West. Went from DTW-ORD in April, it was quoted $25 under the estimator and I got deducted $50. This was a one-way trip only! That estimator on Skynet is completely useless! I always thought the UA benefits would be cheaper than the DL companion yield fares, but I think I was wrong.
...added incentive to get married?
 
Straying from the topic a little, but Chasen, are those numbers you gave the amount the company added as taxable income to your paycheck, or the amount of extra tax you ended up paying due to the travel?

I ask because I've been seeing a lot of people say stuff about imputed income that doesn't jive with my current understanding of how it works. For example, my girlfriend and I went on a trip a few months ago, SLC-BIL-MSP-ORD-SLC. I was charged $74 of imputed income for her flights, meaning, at my tax bracket, it "cost" me about $12 total. Yea or nay?
 
I ask because I've been seeing a lot of people say stuff about imputed income that doesn't jive with my current understanding of how it works. For example, my girlfriend and I went on a trip a few months ago, SLC-BIL-MSP-ORD-SLC. I was charged $74 of imputed income for her flights, meaning, at my tax bracket, it "cost" me about $12 total. Yea or nay?

I say "Nay." $74 is what the man is getting from you considering the tickets cost X and your tax bracket being what it is.
 
"Imputed Income" is the pretend income that you make from the travel, the value of the flight. You don't actually pay the imputed income amount, you pay tax on the imputed income, so somewhere around 25% of the imputed income number. Whatever your tax rate is.

If there's a line on your pay stub that says $100 imputed income, you didn't pay $100, you're being taxed on an extra $100. So really you're only paying $15-$25 extra tax. The $100 is just funny money.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus that ate your iPhone.
 
Another thing, there is no imputed income fee. The amount you pay due to imputed income doesn't explicitly show up anywhere, you can't just add up all your imputed income and say you got cornholed for $300 in imputed income fees. There is no fee.

Here's how you figure out how much you paid: Look at your pay stub with the imputed income. Divide the tax by the taxable income, this is your tax rate. Multiply the imputed income by the tax rate and there's how much it cost you. Any of you who have been billing your enrolled friends for the imputed income amount have been screwing them.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus that ate your iPhone.
 
I'm totally confused now, so maybe you or anyone can clear this up for me and see if I was charged too much or what...

My enrolled friend flew one-way from DTW to ORD. Here is what my pay stub looks like with the imputed income charge.

Under the After Taxes Deductions column, i see Imputed Income of $50.61. Its in the same column as my ALPA union dues, so they actually took out $50 from my paycheck.

If I follow the formula you stated above (unless I did it wrong), I don't come up with that amount.

For that particular pay stub, my fed taxable gross was $1460.80 and total taxes was $312.29. So, if I calculated it right I came up with $10 and change? Roughly 21%! So why did they actually deduct $50?

Is this an error?
 
I'd call your payroll department and ask them, imputed income isn't a deduction. Maybe they just put it in that section for lack of a better place to put it. It's funny money, it doesn't add or subtract to your actual income.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus that ate your iPhone.
 
Imputed income should not be deducted from your check. As stated above, it is income based on a benefit, that increases your taxable income.
 
Ok, thanks! I just checked again and added it up myself and it was definitely deducted! Our payroll department is the worst and now I gotta go chase after them again and fill out a pay claim thats going to take them several weeks!
 
Ralgha, thank you, that was my understanding of what happened with imputed income.

CRJDriver, before you do that, double check your earnings. My paychecks do it this way:

1) They first add the imputed income to my total earnings
2) Tax it
3) Deduct the same amount of imputed income after-tax.

My actual earnings didn't change, I just get taxed more. So yeah, what I wrote further up was correct, the company said my flights were worth $74 to them, which means I paid an additional $12 or so in tax above what I would have otherwise.

At a 20% tax rate, Chasen (assuming he didn't already do the math with his numbers) would have paid about $45 total for his friend.
 
These numbers came out of my paycheck, and for any Skywest pilots at least, can also be double checked in your My Travel>Leisure Travel>UA Etravel. The numbers listed there with the dates and routes match the "UA Etravel" deductions that came out of my paycheck, not my taxes. In prior years, it was added to my taxes and I paid at the end of the year. I've never had to pay out of paychecks as they were processed like this. Anyone have any ideas why this is? Skynet still shows a $0.00 balance for domestic enrolled friend travel, and the "imputed income" is sometimes double what United says it will be.

I was charged the full amounts listed for all that travel.
 
If its only happening to us, I'll talk to HR about it. I assumed it was UAX wide, or at least company wide.
 
These numbers came out of my paycheck, and for any Skywest pilots at least, can also be double checked in your My Travel>Leisure Travel>UA Etravel. The numbers listed there with the dates and routes match the "UA Etravel" deductions that came out of my paycheck, not my taxes. In prior years, it was added to my taxes and I paid at the end of the year. I've never had to pay out of paychecks as they were processed like this. Anyone have any ideas why this is? Skynet still shows a $0.00 balance for domestic enrolled friend travel, and the "imputed income" is sometimes double what United says it will be.

I was charged the full amounts listed for all that travel.

You need to call someone, because that's not how it is supposed to work. SkyWest's own internal communication regarding imputed income is correct with how it's supposed to work.
 
You need to call someone, because that's not how it is supposed to work. SkyWest's own internal communication regarding imputed income is correct with how it's supposed to work.
It's happened to multiple friends of mine at my station, I'll take it up there. Glad I made this thread.
 
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