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It's Time for Ultra-Wealthy Private Jet Owners to Pay Their Fair Share
The Stop Subsidizing Private Jets Act of 2026 would end loopholes allowing billionaires to deduct private planes as business expenses.
May 27, 2026
One of the great injustices of our current tax system is that working people often end up subsidizing the luxury consumption of the billionaire class.
One example of this phenomena can be found in the world of private jets, one of the most ecologically indefensible forms of transformation. The private jet lobby has worked for years to secure tax breaks for aircraft purchases and fuel—and shift their costs on to taxpayers and the commercial flying public.
The lobby scored a big win when a 100% bonus depreciation for business assets including private planes was included in the 2017 Trump tax cut. That provision was renewed in 2025’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
With that provision in place, if a billionaire buys a $170 million luxury jet, they can deduct the entire purchase as a business expense in the year they buy it, greatly reducing their tax bill. Most business expenses are deducted to reflect their depreciation over multiple years. A purchase of a truck or vehicle, for example, is typically depreciated over five years.
Every day commercial flyers are taxed more heavily for their tickets compared to private jet travelers who are only taxed on their jet fuel.
Current tax loopholes give the ultra wealthy—including both private citizens and businesses—millions in tax write-offs for their luxurious travel, including the costs of planes themselves and related expenditures like private pilots and fuel.
The Private Jet Accountability Project (PJAP) at the Institute for Policy Studies has been working with members of Congress to rollback these subsidies. US Reps. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.), Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Mich.), and Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) recently introduced the Stop Subsidizing Private Jets Act of 2026.
“Right now, the tax code allows those buying private jets worth tens of millions of dollars to receive enormous write-offs, while middle-class families do not get deductions for basics like gas or groceries. That is wrong,” Vindman said in a statement. “My bill is a commonsense fix that ends these unfair giveaways while protecting farmers, small businesses, and emergency responders who depend on aviation for real business and community needs.”
Today, private jets, even those valued at $100 million or more, are not considered a luxury vehicle, which means the full value can be a business expense write-off. Expenses such as fuel, pilots, decor, and in-flight services are also a write-off. It is estimated that the owner of a $100 million jet can get a $21 million tax benefit.
This legislation will end these loopholes while protecting “exemptions for aircraft, primarily used to transport property, as well as planes used for agriculture, firefighting, emergency medical services, flight instruction, sky diving operations, and certain commercial flights available to the public” as described in the bill.
These are funds we cannot afford to lose. An Institute for Policy Studies report found that private air travel is a significant portion of air traffic, with a ratio of 1 private jet per 6 commercial planes. Despite this, private jet travel only contributes 2% of the taxes that go to fund the Federal Aviation Administration. At the same time, people flying commercial pay a 7.5% federal excise tax on tickets to fund the FAA’s Airport and Airway Trust Fund. Every day commercial flyers are taxed more heavily for their tickets compared with private jet travelers who are only taxed on their jet fuel.
“It’s ridiculous and unfair that the ultra wealthy get million-dollar tax breaks for their private jets while working families are seeing their healthcare and food assistance cut,” said Rep. McDonald Rivet. “We need to get rid of this insane loophole, because if you can afford a private jet, you can afford to pay your fair share in taxes.”
“The fact that our tax dollars are still funding tax breaks for someone’s private jet is insane,” Rep. Landsman added. “We have to fix the tax code so the super wealthy stop getting special treatment, and our small businesses and farmers can actually get ahead.”
In the face of the jet fuel crisis, European lawmakers are exploring banning certain kinds of private jet operations. Here in the US, all we are asking is that private jets pay their fair share.
Luxury travel that isn’t taxed appropriately epitomizes the inequality that exists in the tax and travel systems. Why should everyday Americans foot the bill for the ultra-wealthy’s private air travel and the air travel infrastructure we all use?
The passage of the Stop Subsidizing Private Jets Act of 2026 is an important step in correcting the imbalance of wealth and power in our democracy.
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UPS Cargo Plane Crash at Louisville Airport Sparks Massive Fire
Police announced a shelter-in-place order for "all areas north of the airport to the Ohio River."
Nov 04, 2025
This is a developing story… Please check back for updates…
Aerial footage showed plumes of black smoke and flames around the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky after a UPS plane crashed during its departure on Tuesday evening.
The Federal Aviation Administration said on social media that UPS Flight 2976—a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 bound for Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii—crashed around 5:15 pm local time. The agency added that the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, with the NTSB providing all updates.
The Louisville Metro Police Department confirmed that the LMPD and multiple other agencies were responding to the scene, where there are "injuries reported."
LMPD initially announced a shelter-in-place order "for all locations within five miles of the airport," which was then expanded to "all areas north of the airport to the Ohio River."
The airport—which confirmed that "the airfield is closed" after the crash—is the UPS global hub. The shipping giant said in a statement that there were three crewmembers onboard and "at this time, we have not confirmed any injuries/casualties."
"UPS will release more facts as they become available, but the National Transportation Safety Board is in charge of the investigation and will be the primary source of information about the official investigation," the company added.
As CNN reported Tuesday:
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11F is a freight transport aircraft manufactured originally by McDonnell Douglas and later by Boeing. The aircraft is primarily flown by FedEx Express, Lufthansa Cargo, and UPS Airlines for cargo.
The plane also served as a popular wide-bodied passenger airplane after it was first flown in 1990. The aircraft involved in Tuesday's crash was built in 1991.
As fuel costs increased for the three engine jets many of them were converted to freighters. The plane can take off weighing in at a maximum 633,000 pounds and carrying more than 38,000 gallons of fuel, according to Boeing, which bought McDonnell Douglass.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said that it "is monitoring this developing tragic event on the ground," and "as this horrific scene is being investigated, prayers on behalf of our entire international union are with those killed, injured, and affected, including their families, co-workers, and loved ones."
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said that he and his wife, Rachel, "are praying for victims of the UPS plane that crashed."
"We have every emergency agency responding to the scene," the Democrat added. "There are multiple injuries and the fire is still burning. There are many road closures in the area—please avoid the scene."
Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who is headed to Louisville for a briefing with the mayor, said, "Please pray for the pilots, crew, and everyone affected."
Republican President Donald Trump's transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, similarly said, "Please join me in prayer for the Louisville community and flight crew impacted by this horrific crash."
During a press conference earlier on Tuesday, Duffy had warned of "mass chaos" if the ongoing government shutdown continues, saying: "You will see mass flight delays. You'll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it because we don't have the air traffic controllers."
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Duffy Warns Technical Issues, Chaos at Newark Airport Could Spread Across US
The transportation secretary has called for upgrades to the systems used by air traffic controllers; he voted against such improvements when he was in Congress.
May 12, 2025
Travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Monday were still being impacted by flight delays and cancellations after numerous technical issues in recent days interrupted air traffic control operations—disruptions that U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday are likely to spread to the nation's other airports.
Duffy told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that he is currently "concerned about the whole airspace," but said traveling by air is still safe.
"The lights are blinking, the sirens are turning," said Duffy. "What you see in Newark is gonna happen in other places across the country."
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement that Newark's most recent technical disruption on Sunday was the result of a "telecommunications issue" at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) Area C facility, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark.
Air traffic control systems were also disrupted on Friday, with controllers at the same facility losing radar and radio contact for about 90 seconds.
At least five air traffic controllers at TRACON Area C are currently on 45 days of trauma leave after a similar incident on April 28 during a busy afternoon.
The air traffic control team at the facility lost contact with all planes while they were managing 15-20 flights. One air traffic controller at Newark told NBC News after this incident that the airport is "not a safe situation right now for the flying public."
The disruption led to thousands of flight cancellations and delays—some longer than five hours—in and out of Newark, which serves more than 24 million travelers per year and is the nation's 12th busiest airport.
Duffy denied on Sunday that job cuts affecting about 400 staffers at the FAA—spearheaded by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk—had anything to do with the problems at Newark.
But representatives of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, which represents about 11,000 employees who support air traffic controllers, warned earlier this year that layoffs would result in critical workers guiding planes in and out of airports with less support from the FAA.
The job cuts affected workers including administrative and logistics technicians, aeronautical information specialists, and maintenance mechanics.
The FAA has blamed many of the issues at Newark, where TRACON Area C has been affected by outages four times since November, on equipment failures and staffing shortages.
Duffy has called for air travel upgrades including investments in digital flight data management, improvements to radio systems, and extending the retirement age for air traffic controllers to 61, up from 56.
On CNN last week, Kaitlan Collins pointed out that Duffy, then a Republican member of the U.S. House, joined his party in voting against upgrades to air traffic control systems.
On Sunday, signs were already emerging that staffing and technical issues could be spreading to other airports with impacts on travel.
An equipment outage at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport—the busiest in the world—led to a ground stop for more than an hour, delaying 1,337 flights. FAA staffing shortages at a control tower in Austin, Texas also led to delays for 145 flights.
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