Bonus depreciation may allow aircraft owners to realize the depreciation benefits of an eligible asset more quickly. Aircraft owners are not entitled to more depreciation, but are allowed to obtain the benefits of depreciation more quickly. When available, bonus depreciation can be utilized by owners of many capital assets and is not an aviation specific benefit.
The U.S. House and Senate have approved extensions of bonus depreciation on numerous occasions, which affirms what many industry analysts and economists understand – that businesses are unable to fully deduct the initial cost of capital investments, including those made in new aircraft, as they do with labor and raw material. Instead, they must write these costs off over many years, and, as a result, never recoup the full value of investments that drive economic growth.
Bonus depreciation delivers long-term stimulus to industries like general aviation, which provides high-skill, and high-paying, jobs for more than 1.1 million Americans, and is responsible for generating $219 billion in economic activity in the United States annually. It also gives American companies access to advanced equipment, including aircraft, making them more competitive, while preserving jobs in aviation-related manufacturing, one of the few industries that contributes positively to America’s trade balance.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provides for 100 percent bonus depreciation, allowing taxpayers immediate deduction of the cost of aircraft acquired and placed in service after Sept. 27, 2017, and before Jan. 1, 2027. (Jan. 1, 2028, for longer production period property and certain aircraft.) Through the efforts of NBAA and a coalition of general aviation groups, the new law permits 100 percent bonus depreciation for both factory-new and pre-owned aircraft so long as it is the taxpayer’s first use of the aircraft.
Learn more about the depreciation rules under the 2017 Tax Act.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.