Aircraft ownership - what are optimal arrangements?

[Ultranomad]

Preparing to buy my first aircraft, I am trying to do optimise it from the fiscal and regulatory viewpoint. My accountant will give me general advice, but he has never dealt with aviation. Are there any tricky arrangements I should be aware of, such as registering a separate company to own it, selecting any particular country for such a company, etc.? (Ordinarily, I would just put it on the balance sheet of my consulting company, a one-man business in Czech Republic). I will certainly use it for my business-related travel, and potentially for commercial aerial work as well.

[IO540]

As Czech :) I would like to give you good advice but this is highly country specific.

I could give you (privately) a long list of what to not do under the UK regime but Czech I know nothing about.

You MUST get an accountant who deals with wealthy clients who have planes, boats, expensive women, etc :) Go and see somebody who does the Russian "business community". Not some street corner type; they are hopeless, will get you into sh*t with the tax people and will then throw you to the lions.

As a very general advice, business ownership is tricky if you also make use of the asset yourself. In some countries this is a non-issue but the general trend is to tax this as a benefit. Various defences have been developed but these have a habit of being penetrated by aggressive tax authorities.

I went through all this and while it worked out OK overall it was not worth the hassle. In the UK, the best way is to buy the plane via Denmark (zero VAT; this is another process which must be done ultra carefully), own it personally, and if there is business mileage involved then you invoice the business at the highest mileage/hourly/whatever rate your professional adviser saus you can get away with. That keeps everything clean and beyond question. All you might then get is some aggressive taxman demanding a proof of some business trip, but of course you keep the landing fee invoices and customer/supplier correspondence relating to the visit!! And they cannot contact the person you met for proof of the means of travel because it would be unusual to tell a customer that you came to him using your own plane ;)

[strake]

I have experience of this type of arrangement but obviously not with your exact circumstances which appear to be quite broad.
I think, if this type of arrangement is important to you, you probably do need to consider professional legal/accountancy advice. A google search on "Private Aviation Laywers" should help.

[IO540]

Accountant, not a lawyer, is the tricky bit. The legal aspects are relatively trivial.

[miroc]

Try to contact some aircraft dealers. They have customers which had the same problem. Good source of country-related information IMHO. Pretend interest in buying. Expres uncertainity what is to do. Listen.