Deciding to buy an airplane can be an exciting choice in life. Whether you intend to fly for business, pleasure, or both, you might enjoy the thrill of choosing a particular model, size, and color for your airplane. As with many other expensive purchases, you will probably have to finance your aircraft. Fortunately, there are several tips you should know that make this process easier.
Financing an airplane isn’t quite like financing a car or home because it’s a very different kind of purchase:
- Partner With an Expert: Find someone you trust with significant knowledge about aircraft to join you in your shopping. When they know your interests and needs, they can help you find the right aircraft that will suit your situation and budget.
- Decide Between a Lease or a Loan: Both have their benefits and drawbacks. Loans let you pay for an aircraft over time until you own it, while a lease gives you a certain number of rental hours per year.
- Choose Your Best Deal: At some point, you’ll stop shopping around and identify the option that looks most appealing to you at the time. At this point, your team of experts should now include a financial advisor and an attorney who can help you with the finer points of the process.
- Negotiate: Nearly every business deal is open to at least some negotiation. Decide your position, especially in terms of balancing what you can offer and what you want. Get the best contact options and terms you can.
- Conclude the Process: At some point, you’ll either have a contract you’re comfortable signing, or the process will hit a point when you need to walk away and start looking again.
Waiting Isn’t Necessary
Finding the right aircraft can take some time. Actually, financing it and negotiating the deal can take even more time, and then you might have to wait a while before you can physically use your airplane. However, you don’t have to wait to enjoy the benefits of having your own airplane in the meantime.
If you have air travel you want to do before you get your aircraft, you can use charter jet services to get around. There are a number of them across the country, such as Stratos Jet Charters. Depending on the flight you arrange, you can enjoy the same benefits of owning your own aircraft until the day comes that you actually do.
Chartering planes and owning your own aircraft both mean you can get to hard-to-reach destinations. Commercial airlines fly in and out of approximately 1,500 airports, but private and charter aircraft can use nearly 5,000.
Privacy is perhaps the biggest benefit. You might enjoy a private aircraft cabin and the comfort that comes with being only around you and anyone you invite to come along with you. Everything about your schedule and destinations can remain confidential.
Tax Benefits of Owning a Plane
If you buy an airplane as part of a business, then there might be tax benefits if you put it into your LLC structure. You might even be able to use the LLC structure as a private owner just to get the tax benefits. Just make sure you structure the ownership the right way so the FAA doesn’t classify the plane as a commercial one instead of a private one. An aviation attorney can help with this.
Putting your airplane into an LLC structure can open the door to many tax deductions not available to individual owners, such as small business expenses. Sales and use tax might also be exemptions in many states. Liability protection is another benefit of doing all this, although this might be more about avoiding personal responsibility for financial debts. If you have an accident with the plane, then you might still be on the hook for actions you took as someone involved with the flight.
For many people, the biggest purchases they’ll ever make will be homes and cars. If you’re in the market for an airplane, then you’ve got a unique opportunity ahead of you. Use these tips to make financing easier to accomplish, and then enjoy the benefits that come with it.
Author name: Grace
