QANTAS Club Lifetime for $4200 - tax deductions?

[beardoc]

I'm flying a partially for personal and partially for business/self-education reasons. I'm contemplating the $4200 QANTAS Club Lifetime membership, and was wondering if there are any options for tax deductibility of this sort of payment can be tax-deductible. I know others have salary sacrificed, but I have done salary sacrifice as far as is possible already.

I fly often enough to want to have access to QC, not often enough to get Gold (and no real likelihood of massively increasing my flying beyond what I do now into the future) and I'm young enough to make it worthwhile.

Has anyone else claimed QC Life as a partial or full tax deduction? If so, how did you do it? Was it apportioned over a number of years and if so, how many?

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Rule number 1: Never do anything purely for a tax deduction.

I may be wrong, but my guess is that you can only claim the business percentage use of QC membership. So if you fly for fun 40% of the time, then only 60% would be deductable.

 

[beardoc]

Rule number 1: Never do anything purely for a tax deduction.

I may be wrong, but my guess is that you can only claim the business percentage use of QC membership. So if you fly for fun 40% of the time, then only 60% would be deductable.

I'm not doing it for a tax deduction - I'm doing it because I was QANTAS Club Membership, and I'm looking for ways to defray the large cost of it!

I understand the principle about apportioning to business and personal uses when talking about tax deductions. What I'm actually interested is whether people have been able to claim QC Lifetime membership (for which the benefits are ongoing for life) as a tax deduction - not at all, able to deduct over a series of years (how many?) or just be able to claim $4200 (less personal use, of course) over a single year?

 

[Altair]

I'm not doing it for a tax deduction - I'm doing it because I was QANTAS Club Membership, and I'm looking for ways to defray the large cost of it!

I understand the principle about apportioning to business and personal uses when talking about tax deductions. What I'm actually interested is whether people have been able to claim QC Lifetime membership (for which the benefits are ongoing for life) as a tax deduction - not at all, able to deduct over a series of years (how many?) or just be able to claim $4200 (less personal use, of course) over a single year?

Being in NZ and as an independent consultant I am able to deduct my airline membership costs as a straight out expense. This was told to me by a tax lawyer. I was also told that you did not need to apportion the expense over the years, which was counter-intuitive to me (that is why I never went for my CA ).

 

[NM]

My understanding is that the ATO will permit you to write off the Life Membership costs over 10 years. So that is $420 per year for 10 years.

But check with your accountant to be sure.

 

[beardoc]

My understanding is that the ATO will permit you to write off the Life Membership costs over 10 years. So that is $420 per year for 10 years.

But check with your accountant to be sure.

Thanks, this was what I was trying to find out - I will check with my accountant, yes.

 

[Alan in CBR]

My understanding is that the ATO will permit you to write off the Life Membership costs over 10 years. So that is $420 per year for 10 years.

But check with your accountant to be sure.

This is correct. The ATO issued a specific ruling about life membership of airline clubs many years ago, and the cost can be deducted at 10% of the purchase price per year for 10 years. Unless of course they've changed their minds in the mean time, but I don't see why they would.

Also, the deduction needs to take into account the ratio of business to leisure use. Unfortunately during the years I deducted my QC life membership my ratio was about 50:50, so I was only able to deduct half of the cost. Now my QC use is 100% business, but my 10 years are up! Then again my life membership only cost $2500, so mustn't grumble.

 

[Expon]

Then again my life membership only cost $2500, so mustn't grumble.

Then again $2500 10 yrs ago was worth more than $4200 now days. Or so my parents keep reminding me

 

[simongr]

Actually based on the cpi rates overt the past 10 years in australia - $2500 in 1995 would be about $3,300 in 2005....

 

[straitman]

Actually based on the cpi rates overt the past 10 years in australia - $2500 in 1995 would be about $3,300 in 2005....

There's always one out there to spoil the fun :!:

 

[v8Statesman]

All that show is that life membership is over inflated today. Or in otherwords you got a much better deal 10 years ago.

 

[simongr]

There's always one out there to spoil the fun :!:

Spot the accountant eh

@v8statesman - yup looks like the QP membership fee had a slightly less than proportionate increase - wonder if this coincided with the collapse of Ansett... I am sure they wouldnt tae advantage of a lack of competition.

Mind you - it might reflect that it was underpriced back then

 

[serfty]

... Mind you - it might reflect that it was underpriced back then

10 Years ago QP's and GoldenWing lounges/facilities were subsidised by inflated airfares. e.g. Standard Super Apex MEL-SYD return was approx $250; you had to be away 3 nights or a Saturday night. Full WHY was around $700.

These days it's still $250 standard red e-deal and $790 for full WHY.

 

[kpc]

...you had to be away 3 nights or a Saturday night.

Thank God they got rid of that...:mrgreen:

 

[Alan in CBR]

Then again $2500 10 yrs ago was worth more than $4200 now days. Or so my parents keep reminding me

Not to me. 10 years ago I was single with a good income and a low mortgage. I hardly noticed the expenditure.

Now I'm married with two young daughters, a significantly higher income, but an astronomical mortgage. There is no way in the world I could justify purchasing lounge membership these days, but fortunately I don't need to.

 

[Maca44]

After frequenting the Flight Deck for several years (as it was then called) several years later I decided to join the QP. I was not doing that much flying at the time, but looked at it as an investment because I intended to live for at least twenty years, did not believe that I would attain sufficient status to give me access and liked the benefits of the club.

From memory, I think Life Membership cost me less than $1000 which doesn't sound much now but when I purchased it something close to 15 years ago, and taking into consideration inflation etc it was a big outlay. However, now that I have had use of the lounge the initial cost now seems negligible. If you don't have status to get access and you don't think you will get it, but fly often then it could be a good investment considering the fees for annual membership.

 

[beardoc]

If you don't have status to get access and you don't think you will get it, but fly often then it could be a good investment considering the fees for annual membership.

That's the reason I'm considering it. I figure I currently have a reasonable disposable income, and I do about 8-10 roundtrips a year, and possibly an international trip, but it's not enough to get me complimentary QP. I figure I'm going to have at least another 30-35 years of travel in me, so it could be relatively good value for me over that time.

 

[Rick93]

Actually, I claimed the full cost of my Life Membership. ($3,795. a few years ago)

My CPA didn't say no.

I'll leave it at that....

regards,

 

[ANDREW]

Hi - Going sideways a little (1st posting) - Currently don't have a lot of time to travel but when I do - we enjoy the QF Club purchased l/time membership 4 or so years ago, are there any other airlines that other purchasable lifetime membership ?

 

[Maca44]

Apart from Qantas I don't know of any other airline that offers "paid" life time membership. Others, such as Singapore Airlines offer life time membership but only after you have flown a consider amount with them.

Singapore Airlines website states:

Becoming a Solitaire PPS Club Life Member

As a Solitaire PPS Club Life member, you will enjoy a first class experience and receive all of the privileges of the Solitaire PPS Club without ever having to renew your membership. Solitaire PPS Club Life membership will be yours when you have accumulated 1,875,000 PPS Club miles (or 1,000 PPS Club sectors) in First or Raffles/Business Class on Singapore Airlines and/or SilkAir.

Now that's a lot of flying