Trump Administration Refuses to Close Tax Loophole Exploited by Private Jet Owners

Trump’s Beautiful-for-Billionaires Bill extended a major tax break for ultrarich private jet owners New letter denies Senators’ request to close loophole because doing so would be “burdensome” Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) today blasted the Treasury Department’s refusal to close the Standard Industry Fare Level (SIFL) loophole, which has long been abused by private jet owners to substantially undervalue the taxable cost of personal travel on a corporate private jet.  The Trump Treasury Department’s pro-billionaire pronouncement came in a response to a July 24 request from the senators. The Treasury Department argued in its new letter that calculating the true market value for employer-provided flights taken by employees for personal purposes, rather than using the existing SIFL method, would be “administratively burdensome” for taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service.  The Department also claims that the SIFL method is intended to produce consistent results – regardless of the staggering gap between the SIFL rate and the actual charter market rates. “President Trump’s 2017 tax law and Big, Beautiful-for-Billionaires bill handed billionaires and big corporations massive tax breaks on private jets.  The Trump administration now says it would be ‘burdensome’ to close the private jet tax loophole because this is an administration hell-bent on using the powers of government to make the ultra-rich even richer, and they don’t care if middle-class taxpayers get stuck with the tab,” said Whitehouse. “Donald Trump’s priorities revolve around enriching himself and his billionaire friends.  While working families struggle to afford groceries, housing, and gas, this Administration focuses on tax breaks for billionaires – including tax breaks for private jets.  What a disgrace,” said Van Hollen. Passage of President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ Big, Beautiful-for-Billionaires Bill made permanent an egregious tax provision allowing 100 percent bonus depreciation for the purchase of corporate aircraft, which the senators argued exacerbates the tax giveaway created by the SIFL loophole, letting the ultrawealthy skirt the true cost of personal private jet travel on corporate aircraft. Alongside their July 24 letter , the senators also released analyses by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation detailing the boom in private jet sales after passage of Republicans’ tax cut for corporate jets and highlighting the extent of the tax revenue lost by the abuse of the SIFL loophole.  One analysis responds to an inquiry from the senators on the tax consequences of the SIFL loophole, finding that a wealthy executive would pay roughly between $1,577 and $1,804 less in taxes for a flight from JFK airport in New York City to DCA airport in Washington, D.C. under the SIFL method.  The fair market value of that flight could range from $4,500 to $5,112, but under SIFL, that executive would only have to report a value of $235.77.   JCT also responded to an inquiry from the senators on the tax benefits provided to businesses that own private jets for employee use, finding that from 2012 – five years prior to Trump’s 2017 tax law – to 2022, sales revenue from private jets delivered in the United States jumped more than 36 percent.