Business Aviation

Business aircraft are high value, high visibility assets. Purchasing and aircraft and structuring its operations can have significant cost, tax, and regulatory implications for a company. Holland & Knight's business aviation lawyers can provide sound legal advice in:

• acquiring and financing your aircraft
• structuring your operations to minimize or defer tax liabilities, maximize depreciation and ensure compliance with federal and state regulatory requirements
• advising on a full range of aviation law issues from flying political candidates and personal use of corporate aircraft to representing clients in litigation relating to their aircraft

Assisting You in Acquiring and Financing Your Aircraft

Our business aviation lawyers can provide experienced counsel to you on all legal and tax aspects of buying, selling, or financing an aircraft including:

• Purchase Documentation – drafting and negotiating letters of intent and purchase agreements that protect our client and reduce the risk of disputes and litigation over failed transactions
• Tax Issues – advising on tax issues including 1031 like-kind exchanges, depre¬ciation, and state sales and use tax planning
• Technical Pre-buy Issues – working with brokers, pilots, and charter managers to resolve issues that may arise during the negotia¬tion and/or pre-buy inspection
• Trusts – establishing owner trusts where foreign ownership would otherwise prevent ownership
• Financing – structuring and negotiating finance solutions to ad¬dress various issues particular to our clients
• Foreign Aircraft – handling cross-border transactions, including use of foreign registries, and obtaining export certificates of air¬worthiness and export and import clearance

Optimal Structuring of Aviation Operations and Tax Planning

The proper structuring of your purchase and aircraft operations is critical not only for tax planning purposes, but also to ensure compliance with the myriad of overlapping regulatory requirements:

• Tax Planning - optimizing the tax posture of the owners, including depreciation of the aircraft, state sales-and use-tax planning, and reducing flights subject to the transportation tax (federal excise tax)
• FAA Regulatory Advice -structuring operations to comply with FARs while allowing for usage by related companies and entities through dry leases, interchange agreements, and time-sharing arrangements in accordance with FAR 91.501
• Joint Ownership - advising clients interested in joint ownership or similar arrangements
• Charter Management -Negotiating agreements with charter management companies and ensuring such arrangements comply with the FAA’s stringent policy on “wet leasing” aircraft for charter

Providing a Dedicated Team with in-Depth Industry Experience

The business aviation lawyers are integrated with the aviation structured finance, aviation regulatory, aviation litigation and tax lawyers in the firm to provide comprehensive legal services in the aviation field. For example:

• FAA/DOT Practice - representing charter management companies in regulatory matters before the Department of Transportation and the FAA, including applications for commuter air carrier authority, DOT/FAA investigations and penalty matters, and general regulatory compliance issues.
• Tax Audit - representing aircraft owners in state tax audits regarding sales and use tax.
• Corporate Aircraft Usage Policies – drafting corporate use policies to cover personal use, carriage of political candidates, SEC reporting, and related issues.
• Fractional Shares - assisting clients purchasing and reselling fractional shares with all of the major fractional programs, including loan and lease documentation, like-kind exchanges, and dispute resolution with respect to resale value of fractional shares.
• HAZMAT Violations - representing clients in investigations and penalty proceedings brought by the FAA for improper carriage of hazardous materials by air.
• Dispute Resolution - handling litigation, arbitrations, and mediations of the full range of commercial disputes.
• Accident Investigation and Litigation - advising aviation clients in NTSB investigations and in defending those clients in tort actions arising out of aircraft accidents.