Options regarding Shares
 

Hi Guys

We are a group of six flyers who have been flying together for several years. Recently one member sold his share for financial reasons. We would ideally like him to continue to fly with us. We understand that the CAA requires a minimum of 5% share otherwise it might be deemed as renting the plane out to him. Do we have any options available? Could he, for example, put in a calculated 5% non-voting share in a holding account to be retrieved when he stops flying? Any advice would be gratefully appreciated even if the answer is no options. Cheers.

Don't see why not, as long as he has the share it is down to the "owners", I.e. The group, how the group is run, even if you gave him a vote it would only be a 1 in 20 vote the rest of you would have 3 and 1/6 votes each to that one, and I am sure he would agree to abstain anyway.

Why not sell him a 5% stake in the aircraft for £1.00 that can be repurchased by the group at any time (or sold back to the group). That would sort out the requisite ownership element but would give the ability to take that 5% back in advance of a sale or (hopefully never) an insurance payout.

At the same time, you could agree different terms for this individual's actual flying but you'd want to be careful not to trigger any tax liabilities along the way (eg by making a profit, etc).