Reminds Lawmakers That Most Of The Companies Using Business Aviation Are Smaller Businesses

NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen repeated the business aviation community's support for Congressional proposals to renew accelerated, or "bonus," depreciation for investments in strategic business assets, including aircraft in Congressional testimony Wednesday.

In written testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Small Business, Bolen said: "There is no doubt that bonus depreciation is a proven incentive for businesses to accelerate replacement and purchases of essential equipment - including general aviation aircraft."

The Committee's hearing, held Wednesday, focused on the importance of extending the benefits of accelerated tax depreciation for business investments that expired at the end of 2009. Bolen noted that, among other benefits, extending the tax policy would "help promote the sale of business aircraft, and preserve the good-paying manufacturing jobs that come with those sales. It will also strengthen the economic viability of all the jobs that are created by the use of those aircraft - the associated businesses and industries in communities surrounding general aviation airports and facilities," he said.

Just as important, Bolen pointed out, is that stimulating investment in general aviation aircraft for business purposes "will enable many more American companies to continue using business aviation to succeed."

Earlier this year, NBAA joined with more than 80 U.S. businesses and organizations in a joint letter urging House and Senate leaders to renew the tax incentive as one way to help continue the nation's economic recovery. In addition, NBAA commended the bipartisan group of House members who recently sent a letter urging the House Ways and Means Committee to incorporate bonus depreciation in any final version of the pending Senate Small Business Tax legislation or similar legislation moving through Congress this year.

More than 85 percent of companies using general aviation for business in the U.S. are small to mid-size businesses, Bolen noted in his testimony. Recent studies show that the most successful companies use general aviation aircraft because it is a proven "efficiency multiplier" that permits company employees to work together en route, make effective use of time, including visiting multiple locations in a single day.

The manufacture and use of business aircraft supports more than one million jobs and contributes positively to the nation's trade balance. Nevertheless, a continuing economic recession has weighed heavily on the industry, which over the past year has witnessed a raft of layoffs among aircraft manufacturers. Retaining accelerated depreciation would help incentivize the purchase of general aviation aircraft, and the jobs and other benefits that come with it.

"We look forward to working with the Congress and the Administration in the coming days to obtain legislation extending accelerated depreciation as part of the recovery effort by continuing the virtuous cycle of stimulating a vital industry through tax incentives, bringing back more U.S. manufacturing jobs and improving our trade balance, and at the same time enabling many more American companies to continue using business aviation to succeed," Bolen concluded.

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