General information, not tax advice. Aircraft depreciation is fact-specific — confirm everything with a qualified aviation tax advisor.
Once a jet is a deduction and not just a purchase, the question stops being whether and becomes when — and at this level, timing runs opposite to instinct. Most people wait for a better price. Here, waiting is where the money quietly goes — on both sides of the ledger: the aircraft, and the tax year.
Waiting is where the money goes
The aircraft you actually want is scarce. At any moment there are only a handful of genuinely available, well-kept examples of a top model — against far more buyers than aircraft. Wait, and the one you'd have chosen is either gone or now trades at a premium, precisely because it's available.
Prices here don't behave the way you're hoping. New backlogs run in years; a delivery slot or a low-hour jet holds value because demand outruns supply. “I'll wait for it to come down” rarely arrives at this end of the market.
And every year you wait costs you a year of the very thing you're buying — the time, the reach, the presence — and that year never comes back.
The real question was never whether the market is right. It's whether you are.
The tax picture most people have backwards
Under the old law, this deduction was on its way out — bonus depreciation was phasing down: 80% in 2023, 60% in 2024, 40% in 2025, headed to 20% in 2026 and zero by 2027. The 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act reversed all of it and made 100% first-year bonus depreciation permanent for qualified business aircraft — new or pre-owned. So it doesn't shrink after 2026; it stays.
For a buyer who already flies heavily for business and sits in a high tax bracket, that changes what the purchase is. It turns the aircraft from pure consumption into a same-year tax write-off — the full qualified cost deducted in the year it's placed in service, rather than spread across the better part of a decade. That is one of the harder-edged reasons the cost of waiting is real.
Turning a strong year's profits into an asset
In practical terms, a business jet is one of the few large purchases that can directly offset a company's taxable income. A profitable business that places a qualifying aircraft in service can deduct the qualified cost against that year's business income — turning profit it would otherwise be taxed on into a working asset the company actually uses. For an owner looking at a strong year's earnings, that is the difference between writing a large check to the IRS and putting the same capital into something that carries the business forward.
The mechanism is bonus depreciation under IRC §168(k) — often discussed alongside Section 179 expensing. Both let an eligible business reduce taxable income in the year of purchase; the aircraft-specific one here is bonus depreciation, and it offsets business income, not personal income. That distinction is exactly where the conditions below matter.
What it actually means for a buyer
It isn't, though, a write-off everyone simply gets. The conditions are what make it real:
- It applies to the business-use share — not to personal or entertainment flying.
- Qualified business use must exceed 50%, documented from the very first flight.
- The placed-in-service date controls the year — not the day you sign.
- It can come back on sale through depreciation recapture. It's a timing advantage, not free money.
To land the deduction on a 2026 return, the aircraft must be placed in service by December 31 — which means the sourcing starts months earlier. If a year-end window matters, the time to work backward from it is now. For the mechanics of the deduction itself, see our plainer walk-through: 100% Bonus Depreciation on a Jet, Explained.
We handle the aircraft side — finding it, inspecting it, and placing it in service on a timeline that lines up with your tax year — while your advisor handles the return. Worldwide, on your schedule, and in confidence. Tell us your timeline.