By: Kevin Singh is CEO of aircraft management services provider Icarus Jet

In July 2025, the U.S. government passed one of the most significant pro-business aviation policies in recent history: the permanent reinstatement of 100% bonus depreciation on aircraft purchases. Linked to the broader “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” – a multitrillion-dollar legislative package passed by Congress in late June – the provision enables companies and individuals to immediately deduct the full purchase price of a new or used business aircraft, as long as it’s used at least for qualified business purposes.

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The impact is immediate and broad. With no phase-out schedule and retroactivity back to January 20, 2025, the incentive reopens the floodgates of capital investment in business aviation. Aircraft that once had depreciated on a staggered schedule now offer a one-year tax shielding millions in potential deductions on the table for businesses needing flexibility, mobility, and time savings.
But this tax windfall does not exist in a vacuum. It is accompanied by increasing pressure on aircraft owners and operators from another source: public transparency. Even as the tax code offers unprecedented relief, regulatory and digital systems are exposing jet ownership and flights like never before.

Your plane, everyone’s data

Each airplane registered in the United States has a data footprint: its tail number, registration entity, ownership chain, and flight patterns are recorded in FAA databases. These documents, meanwhile, are searchable via an increasing array of online flight-tracking websites, open registries, and crowdsourced databases that collect airplane movements and cross-reference them with legal or corporate filings.
Even when the jets are registered in LLCs or trusts, as many are, tracing the ownership to individuals or holding companies is not a particularly difficult task for anyone with interest and limited research skills.
For entrepreneurs and business leaders, this is a growing liability. What once was a strategic asset, mobility, discretion, time, now comes with the baggage of public transparency. Your meetings, movements, and associations are traceable. The aircraft you own, lease, or utilize can be followed city to city in near real time.
Regulatory mechanisms like the FAA’s Limited Aircraft Data Display (LADD) and Privacy ICAO Address (PIA) programs try to provide some shielding. But uptake is spotty, enforcement is weak, and public knowledge of these mechanisms is minimal. Most owners hope that registering their aircraft in the names of legal proxies is sufficient. It isn’t. Not any longer.
The problem isn’t surveillance in the classical sense – it’s correlation. A tail number appears in a public database, then on social media, then in a press story, then in a shareholder lawsuit. The dots are being connected by themselves. And while privacy is not guaranteed in aviation, the erosion of even casual discretion is making more operators defensive.
So, we have a paradox before us: the government is encouraging private aircraft ownership on the one hand and subjecting it to unprecedented exposure on the other. And owners must balance those two forces.

Leverage with discipline
The bonus depreciation allowance is an effective economic stimulus, and one that savvy companies will take advantage of. It can shelter large amounts of taxable income, liberate working capital, and rationalize a new jet acquisition or fleet renewal that might otherwise be deferred. It will also stimulate demand, reduce inventory, increase prices, and attract more buyers into a market already characterized by short supply and lengthy lead times.
However, to gain full benefit, owners must move with urgency and clarity. The depreciation only stands if use meets the legal threshold – more than 50% qualified business use – and is properly documented. That means flight logs, itineraries, passenger manifests, and expense matching that must be recorded as part of an overall compliance strategy. Anything less opens the door to audit risk, and the IRS is unlikely to be forgiving if aircraft are being used as personal perquisites masquerading as business assets.
Meanwhile, owners need to rethink the way they approach aircraft registration and how extensively they use anonymity as a buffer for privacy. If privacy is an issue, it needs to be strategized as thoughtfully as tax planning. That involves involving legal experts, implementing FAA privacy initiatives appropriately, and conducting operations in a manner that presents the public image the owner is willing to maintain.

The airplane, in this context, is no longer merely an operational asset. It’s a financial, legal, and reputational one. And it needs to be handled accordingly.

Where we go from here
There’s a broader significance to these policy gains. Business aviation is being confirmed, publicly and officially, as an economic growth driver. The tax code now recognizes what many of us in the industry already know: airplanes, if used responsibly, are not luxuries. They are catalysts for value, access, and time.
Yet that legitimacy has conditions attached. Owners have to demonstrate business purpose, defend tax positions, and acknowledge that transparency is now part of the deal. If they wish for the advantages, then they have to deal with the repercussions too.
Icarus Jet, as a trip support and aircraft management services provider, works with clients confronting these complexities every day. We see the upside; how well-managed aircraft can transform a company’s operational rhythm. But we also see the pitfalls regarding how breakdowns in structure, documentation, or perception can turn a strategic decision into an albatross.
This is the new reality. The opportunity is real, and the motives are good, but they demand something more than enthusiasm. They require structure, compliance, and accountability.
So go ahead, purchase the jet. Claim the deduction. Create momentum in your business. We’ll be here ready to manage the entire process and ensure your private jet qualifies for the 100% bonus depreciation. But buyer beware, with increased financial opportunity comes greater operational responsibility.

About the Author
Pilot, president, and founder of Icarus Jet, a leading global trip support and aircraft management company, Kevin Singh has flown globally as a chief pilot and captain on private jets like the Hawker 800-A and 850 XP, and the Challenger 600 series and Global 6000.