PPL Flight Expenses Legal?

"some companies.. including the federal gov't, already have in a
"mileage
allowance" "

Actually, this is something set by the IRS. If a company pays you more
than the mileage allowance (this is for cars) you must show receipts to
the IRS that your vehicle costs more to operate, otherwise you will be
taxes on the difference as ordinary income.
The IRS would actually be quite irritated if you took a car milage
against an aircraft unless you also provided documentation that you
spent at least that on the aircraft. You can not just say "give me the
mileage allowance and don't ask how I got there".

Remember, the mileage allowance is a nice goody the IRS gives us by
saying reimb. at that rate does not require supporting documentation.

Robert M. Gary wrote:
"some companies.. including the federal gov't, already have in a
"mileage
allowance" "

Actually, this is something set by the IRS. If a company pays you more
than the mileage allowance (this is for cars) you must show receipts to
the IRS that your vehicle costs more to operate, otherwise you will be
taxes on the difference as ordinary income.

About two years ago I recall reading that there was a rate of
$0.975/mile for use of GA aircraft. Auto rate was about $0.37 at the
time. I'm not sure if this was official IRS rate or a contract rate set
by GSA or somehting similar.

The IRS would actually be quite irritated if you took a car milage
against an aircraft unless you also provided documentation that you
spent at least that on the aircraft. You can not just say "give me the
mileage allowance and don't ask how I got there".

If this is just an occasional usage I'd just claim it as car mileage
and no one will be the wiser. In the odd event you get audited, the
actual rate will surely be significantly higher.

-cwk.

wrote:

About two years ago I recall reading that there was a rate of
$0.975/mile for use of GA aircraft. Auto rate was about $0.37 at the
time. I'm not sure if this was official IRS rate or a contract rate set
by GSA or somehting similar.

I also recall reading that. I had occasion to check my tax software (TurboTax)
last year, however, and they had no provision for writing off aircraft usage
using a standard rate. As far as I can tell, the only way to do it was to fill
out all the expense info, percentage of business usage, etc.. Since I only put
about 20 miles on the plane for business, I decided it wasn't worth it.

Of course, this may simply be a shortcoming in TurboTax.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

wrote:
Robert M. Gary wrote:

"some companies.. including the federal gov't, already have in a
"mileage
allowance" "

Actually, this is something set by the IRS. If a company pays you more
than the mileage allowance (this is for cars) you must show receipts to
the IRS that your vehicle costs more to operate, otherwise you will be
taxes on the difference as ordinary income.


About two years ago I recall reading that there was a rate of
$0.975/mile for use of GA aircraft. Auto rate was about $0.37 at the
time. I'm not sure if this was official IRS rate or a contract rate set
by GSA or somehting similar.

DoD through the GSA defines what can be charged against a Govt contract.
http://www.dtic.mil/perdiem will get you to the current GSA site and
you can dig for "use of personal airplane". But don't bother -- it's
always limited to the customary charge on a normal scheduled airline.
Now, Southwest is charging only $39 for many flights so you're not going
to get much reimbursement.

You and your company might have an agreement that lets the company pay
for your airplane. You probably won't run afoul of the FAA if the plane
is not required for the business ("incidental") but you should check
with a CPA about whether the money from your company in excess of the
normal airline rate is taxable income if you want to get the IRS
interested in your case.

Stubby wrote:

But don't bother -- it's
always limited to the customary charge on a normal scheduled airline.
Now, Southwest is charging only $39 for many flights so you're not going
to get much reimbursement.

Not entirely true. Just because there may be some Southwest Airlines seats
somewhere in the US for $39., it doesn't mean a GA pilot can only claim up
to $39 per leg for his particular flight. There have been cases I recall
reading (Flying Magazine, perhaps?) where a GA pilot was successful in
getting the IRS to allow actual costs for the flight.

Also, there have been cases where the pilot was able to prove that the time
saved by flying GA (door-to-door being less than commercial airlines with
security, connections, etc) allowed him to more productively operate his
business. In this case, the IRS allowed the actual costs of the GA flight.

Again, I don't have an Internet site because it was an article in one of
the aviation periodicals I received. But, in my case, I have been flying
GA every week for business since March between two cities not serviced by
GA. I was told by my account to confidently deduct actual costs of each
flight (following the proper logging of each flight, etc.)

--
Peter


















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"Peter R." wrote:

But, in my case, I have been flying
GA every week for business since March between two cities not serviced by
GA.

Sorry for the typo: "Not serviced by commercial airlines," it should read
above.


--
Peter


















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