Interesting point here IO, there's an inference that declaring it to HMRC brings its own problems?
The issue with using a plane which you either own, or rent, and charging it to the company introduces Benefit in Kind issues, potentially. I've written on this previously but one sure safeguard is to never use the plane for private mileage.
It also is a problem with the ANO in that you aren't supposed to make a profit on the flight and can recover only the direct costs, etc.... Basically the CAA wants a PPL to always end up out of pocket. But if the company supplies the plane to you to jump in and fly, and they pay for everything on it, that gets around the whole thing.
I'm self employed and don't do much flying for business (yet) but would hope to during the better months of the year. For info, the flying would save a lot of time (North East to Wales circa just over an hour, compared to 5+ hours), so there and back in a day is very easily do-able. I'm in property so visits to houses, sites, commercial buildings can be arranged at pretty much any time.
Does being self employed change anything?
You cannot get done for BIK if the business is not a limited company
