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Aviation
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I would like to help you purchase the right plane at the right price, capture the tax benefits of aircraft ownership and enjoy the personal convenience of private aviation.
A legally sound and carefully considered tax strategy accomplishes three things:
- Maximizes the immediate tax benefits of your aircraft purchase in the form of depreciation allowances, sales and use tax savings and operating cost deductions.
- Identifies the steps required to enjoy the greatest flexibility in your use of the plane while remaining compliant with FAA regulations.
- Establishes a tax reporting system that requires the least amount of paperwork, human intervention and confusion in tracking your business and personal use on on ongoing basis.
Select an aircraft tax attorney with broad experience in negotiating, closing and monitoring complex aircraft transactions. Our services cover the following disciplines:
- Aircraft Tax Audits
- Aircraft Dry Leasing
- Aircraft Depreciation and Recapture
- Aircraft Like-Kind Exchanges
- Entity Selection, Formation and Dissolution
- FAA Regulatory Compliance
- Flight Club Design
- Fractional and Co-Ownership Arrangements
- Non-US Citizen Ownership Arrangements
- Part 91/135 Leases and Management Agreements
- Sales and Use Tax Exemptions and Planning
Practical Aviation Tax Tips
What should I expect from an aircraft tax audit?
Florida is Open For Business: Legislature Approves
"21 Day Safe Harbor" For Non-Resident Aircraft Owners
General aviation's years of hard work has finally paid off. Effective July 1, 2010, two new Florida sales and use tax exemptions, codified FL Stat 212.08(7)(ggg), take effect. The first provides that aircraft purchased by non-residents that are returned to Florida for fewer than 21 days (i.e. 20 or less) within 6 months of purchase are exempt from Florida sales or use tax. This new provision puts to rest the widespread perception that new aircraft owners who bring their planes to Florida for vacations or occasional visits will be subject to a 6% tax on the purchase price just by touching down.
Regaining private aircraft owners' confidence will take time. FBOs, aircraft dealers, charter operators and others should be prepared to answer customers' specific questions, such as:
- When is an individual, or a corporate, aircraft owner a "non-resident" of Florida?
- How would the Florida Department of Revenue inquire as to how long I have been in Florida? What type of documentation will I need to prove that I fall within the exemption?
- Do I need a lawyer if I am questioned by the Florida Department of Revenue?
- What can or can't I do if I'm here "exclusively" for flight training, repairs, alterations, refitting or modification?
Scope of Services
Mr. Good supports aircraft dealers, brokers, flight schools and commercial operators worldwide in operational, regulatory and compliance matters. His firm's services are aimed at income tax planning, managing state sales and use tax obligations and defending aircraft audits of all kinds. Mr. Good is a frequent speaker at aviation organizations such as the Florida Aviation Trades Association.
A Florida aircraft "dealer", such as an FBO, may make use of their aircraft for purposes other than purely as "inventory". If the dealer wants to use the aircraft in part for flight instruction, it is better (though not absolutely required) that it lease the aircraft other than for for flight instruction first. Leasing and flight instruction both constitute permissible uses of aircraft held "exclusively for resale"...