employer paying for flight school and flight expenses

[justinm001]

Hey all! Just joined this forum and starting private pilot lessons Thursday. I'll be training in a DA20 over at capital city aviation at KOSU.

I recently started a few small corporations and am looking to have my business pay for flight school and pay all flight expenses when using for business. I understand part 95 doesn't allow compensation and all those laws, just they're a bit vague.

I have an IT support company and plan on flying to neighboring states for business deal meetings, and business conferences. Also started a travel site finding small restaurants and festivals across the country. The second isn't much of a business as a hobby. I also obviously plan on flying a lot for personal reasons.

Any thoughts on expensing the whole training as well as reasonable equipment needed specifically for flight training?

Also if i plan on taking a couple employees to a conference is there any issue with the company still paying 100% of the flight?

 

[Jim Logajan]

Several web sites discuss this issue; here's one on the AOPA site:

http://www.aopa.org/Pilot-Resources...siness-Justification-Flight-Training-Expenses

Cases they cite that appear to be relevant to your situation are:

Sartor v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, T.C. Memo 1984-274.
Knudtson v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, T.C. Memo 1980-455.
Aaronson v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, T.C. Memo 1970-178.

 

[Jim Logajan]

The biggest issue with YOUR company paying for you to learn to fly will be the IRS.

The court cases cited in the document I linked to in post 6 indicate that training lessons for the OP would be tax deductible expenses. That isn't always the case, but should be the case for the OP's scenario.

I don't think the FAA gives a rats rear end how you pay for lessons as long as it's not someone else paying for it. But, I would probably pay out of pocket and work out a leaseback to the company on the plane once you get it.
The IRS isn't a big fan of company owned airplanes, especially if it appears to be personal use vs business travel. :yikes:

One of the tax court cases was of a photographer who paid for the lessons out of his own pocket but was able to deduct the cost of private pilot lessons. The student pilot restrictions in 61.89 would seem to preclude business compensation of the lessons. On the other hand, once the private pilot certificate is in hand, the OP's business could pay for instrument training since 61.113 does allow compensation in connection with a business.