AOPA Plane Giveaway and Taxes

Peter R. wrote:
Ron Wanttaja wrote:

Back when rec.aviation participant Margaret Puckette won the AOPA Archer, AOPA
did do some work to lower the valuation of the aircraft, so she didn't have to
pay taxes on the full retail value. However, she was still stuck with a ~$35K
tax bill.

Rush right off and get that aircraft assigned to some business, then start
taking the aggressive depreciation on it! ;-)

Since you can only take depreication against the basis (or cost to put
into service), and since her basis would be $0 since she got the plane
for free, I can't see the point of this strategy.