WESTERN CPE BLOG

The Internal Revenue Service announced this week that it plans to begin dozens of audits on business aircraft involving personal use. The audits will be focused on aircraft usage by large corporations, large partnerships, and high-income taxpayers. They’ll also take into account whether for tax purposes the use of the aircraft is being properly allocated between business and personal reasons. I wonder if the Taylor Swift love story played into the IRS’s tax season announcement?

Taylor Swift jetted from Tokyo to Las Vegas to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, play in Super Bowl LVIII.  Her jet was parked with 881 other private planes that flew into Las Vegas on Super Bowl weekend. 991 private planes flew into Phoenix for last year’s Super Bowl.  I’ll bet the IRS can start with a list of the owners of those planes.

If you are preparing an LLC for your client’s business aircraft, remind your client that records must include who was on the plane, business relationship of each passenger, and the business purpose of the flight. And the record must match the FAA flight log. Records matter, as always.