General aviation advocacy groups, including the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), have issued a call to action to pilots and aircraft owners in Florida to support proposed legislation that would eliminate the state’s 6% sales and use tax on aircraft.
Because of the current tax system, many buyers take delivery of aircraft — even those built in Florida — in states with more attractive tax policies, or they use Florida’s 10-day “fly-away exemption,” which means taxes aren’t levied if the plane is flown out of the state within the prescribed time.
The passage of Senate Bill 786 and House Bill 6051 would eliminate the sales and use taxes, which would bolster Florida’s aviation industry, which supports nearly 95,000 jobs and contributes more than $17 billion in annual economic output to the Sunshine State, according to NBAA officials.
The repeal also would strengthen the state’s 129 public-use airports, as aircraft owners could base their aircraft in Florida or choose to have them maintained by companies in the state, officials said.
“If Florida eliminates the sales and use tax for aircraft as proposed in these bills, it would be more competitive with its neighbors, increasing general aviation activity and boosting the industry’s economic impact,” said Scott O’Brien, NBAA senior director, public policy and advocacy. “Aircraft owners would also visit more frequently without fearing a significant sales or use tax burden, which would provide more revenue for the state.”
“It is critical for legislators in Tallahassee to hear directly from the general aviation community,” he added.
For more information, check out NBAA’s Grassroots Action Center here.
This isn’t the only State that needs this abolished. Illinois wants 7%. Buy a plane out of state, and this Communist state wants it pound of flesh. It is taxation without representation. They represent nothing I believe in. Democrat Thieves!
Would this tax reform bill alleviate the aircraft parking/hangaring shortage in Florida?
I am repelled from states that have a negative attitude towards AIRCRAFT by taxing them just for being in the state from another state. That’s why I don’t go to Sun N fun anyway more for several years an go toCopper state in Arizona and Oshkosh almost every year in Wisconsin. I am a Alaska resident.
General aviation activity generates a LOT of business at many levels – maintenance, parts sales, tie-down and hangar rentals, fuel tax – and encourages businesses to locate in Florida as well. Taxing aircraft sales and services is eating the seed corn – once the aircraft is here, over its service life it is going to generate FAR more tax revenues and support FAR more jobs and be of FAR greater revenue to the state and citizens than the one-time benefit of the sales tax on the purchase (which there are ways to avoid anyway).
General aviation is a “force multiplier”. Every hundred jobs in aviation manufacturing (durable goods) generates 744 follow-on jobs (suppliers, disposable income, housing), and every hundred jobs in technical services (maintenance) generates 418 follow-on jobs. (Data from BLS.)
This is why Florida wants to attract as much aviation business as possible, it is a long-term investment in the state’s economic future, rather than a short term one time cash grab.
Airplanes are mobile (that’s what they are for!) so going for a short time to a lower tax state or a no tax state for avionics, paint, or even the initial purchase makes a lot of sense and is easy. DOR does ramp checks to see if such and such an N number is listed as having a Florida owner. The big guys are registered in Delaware or Montana and are usually kept in closed hangars anyway, so unless the DOR gets a search warrant (which I’m sure they’d like), they aren’t going to collect sales tax on a Gulfstream anyway.
Florida’s sales tax on aircraft is stepping over long term dollars – and lots of them – to pick up one-time pennies.
Think of the benefits of passing similar tax bills for watercraft. I’m sure that would more directly benefit Floridians.