Private Jet Taxes and User Fees Proposed by Obama

(September 20, 2011) Jet Linx – This past week President Barack Obama has proposed raising taxes and fees for private jet travelers as part of an effort to resolve the budget deficit. Jet Linx Aviation has joined other industry organizations in the fight to oppose such taxes and fees.

The Obama administration’s plan for reducing the deficit includes charging a $100 per-flight fee on turbine-powered aircraft, including private jets, that use the country’s air-traffic-control system. Obama’s recommendations show that the fee would raise about $11 billion over the next decade – a drop in the bucket for resolving the budget deficit and an unwarranted additional fee when current per-gallon fuel charges for private jets are considered.

“We already pay more than our fair share of taxes – more than the alcohol and tobacco industries, whose products are taxed at levels to discourage their use,” said Nicholas Calio, President of the Air Transport Association.

The National Business Aviation Association, the Aircraft Electronics Association, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the Experimental Aircraft Association, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, Helicopter Association International, the International Council of Air Shows, the National Association of State Aviation Officials, and the National Air Transportation Association jointly issued the following statement:

“As primary representatives of the general aviation community, we are expressing our unified opposition to the new $100 per flight tax in your proposal. We believe this per-flight tax not only imposes a significant new administrative burden on general aviation operators who currently pay through an efficient per-gallon fuel charge at the pump, but it will also necessitate the creation of a costly new federal collection bureaucracy.

As you know, the issue of how general aviation can best contribute revenue to the federal government has been the subject of significant study and debate as part of the FAA reauthorization process. After careful consideration, both chambers of Congress have passed bills that endorse the per-gallon fuel charges rather than adopt a per-flight tax similar to the one you propose. In fact, Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives felt so strongly about this issue that 116 members of that body sent you a letter earlier this year saying new aviation charges like the one you are now proposing would be ‘dead on arrival.

Mr. President, many foreign countries have imposed per-flight charges on general aviation and the results have been devastating. Please do not go down the dangerous path and cost jobs in our community.

Per-gallon fuel charges work. Per-flight taxes destroy.”

Please join the fight to oppose President Obama’s tax and user fees for private jet travelers.