Bolen: Administration's Proposal At Odds With Job-Creation Agenda

NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen on Monday issued a statement in response to news that President Obama's jobs plan (the American Jobs Act), unveiled Monday, includes a provision singling out business aviation with a proposal to lengthen tax-depreciation schedules for business aircraft. The move would be a reversal of a decades-old IRS policy for taxation of the asset, and removing a proven incentive for the purchase of business aircraft.

"The president's proposal to lengthen depreciation schedules for general aviation aircraft seems directly at odds with the stated purpose of the proposed legislation, which is to create jobs," Bolen said in a statement released to the media. "The president himself has said shorter depreciation schedules create jobs. With that in mind, it is difficult to see how this latest proposal could support his broader goal of addressing the nation's job crisis."

General aviation tax-depreciation schedules are set by the IRS, and the current schedule has been in place since 1986. Last year, the president called for and Congress passed a law, the "Small Business Act of 2010," allowing businesses 100-percent accelerated, or "bonus" depreciation of investments in capital assets, including new aircraft, through December 31, 2011, retroactive from September 8, 2010.

FMI: www.nbaa.org