Federal Income Tax and Excise Tax Planning

One of the key components in a well designed aircraft ownership structure is ensuring that all Federal income tax benefits are maximized while adequately minimizing the exposure to Federal excise tax liability. The tax attorneys in the Business Aviation Group at GKG Law have mastered the knowledge of the tried and true methods for accomplishing these objectives while continually monitoring the newest developments in these areas. This enables us to create both state of the art and often novel planning strategies to maximize tax benefits and minimize tax liabilities associated with business aircraft ownership and operations. In conjunction with these goals, the tax attorneys in the Business Aviation Group at GKG Law provide the following services to clients of the firm:

  • Comprehensive Federal Income Tax Planning
    • Maximizing deductions for aircraft depreciation and operating expenses
    • Developing guidelines on personal use of employer provided aircraft, and compliance with SIFL requirements
    • Minimizing the impact of "Jobs Act" disallowance rules due to personal entertainment use of aircraft
    • Complying with "Qualified business use" requirements under Code Section 280F
    • Ensuring proper characterization of aircraft related losses as "active" or "passive"
    • Mitigating the effects of other loss limitation rules
  • Turnkey Tax Deferred Like Kind Exchanges of Aircraft
    • Conducting forward and reverse tax deferred like-kind exchanges of aircraft
    • Acting as Qualified Intermediary or Qualified Exchange Accommodation Titleholder
  • Comprehensive Federal Excise Tax Planning
    • Planning and implementing third party aircraft management structures to minimize or eliminate Federal Excise Tax liability
    • Maximizing the benefit of Federal excise tax efficient structures to ensure that parties qualify for all available fuel excise tax credits