Using personal plane on business -- policy

[7DeltaLima]

Group...

I know some of you use your plane to fly on company business. I've been pushing this internally for a couple of years and have finally been asked to produce a draft policy to address this within our corporation. I've Googled and found some policy statements from a couple University's but would appreciate anyone willing to share their companies policy as a starting point.

If you'd rather not share an internal document with the world, you can email directly to me at doug (at) oncloud7.com .

Thanks in advance,
Doug

[SteelMike]

And post it here, please. When I (theoretically) finish this airplane, it will definitely be used for business. How sweet would it be to expense 100LL? Do you think you could expense a per-hour engine reserve, etc?

[AZtailwind]

I had to talk to our corperate Lawyer about this. I needed permision from the department to fly- Goes something like this: They can't legally prevent you from chooseing what type of vehicle to use on a Mileage basis Since my company does offer mileage rates for personal vehicle use. So I was told this: We "Prefered" that you didn't fly personl aircraft to the remote offices. But if you do, "no passengers allowed" and use car based mileage for reimbursement

[AX-O]

Don't know where you work. But if you work for the Government, there is a rate for using your own aircraft. Just have to request it in your orders.

[airguy]

Originally Posted by AZtailwind

I had to talk to our corperate Lawyer about this. I needed permision from the department to fly- Goes something like this: They can't legally prevent you from chooseing what type of vehicle to use on a Mileage basis Since my company does offer mileage rates for personal vehicle use. So I was told this: We "Prefered" that you didn't fly personl aircraft to the remote offices. But if you do, "no passengers allowed" and use car based mileage for reimbursement

Very similar here - I travel extensively for my job, sometimes to remote areas. My company agreed to pay me direct costs UP TO equivalent airfare on a major airline into the nearest commercial airport, and stipulated no passengers. We don't have a per-mile reimbursement for vehicles, we are given a monthly stipend for using our personal vehicles and then full reimbursement for all operating costs.

[Bob Brown]

On a verbal understanding with mgmt, I expense my aircraft as car miles (I use google maps to calculate car mileage) at $0.505/mi, which is the IRS rate for reimbursement for POV's. There's no engine reserve or maintenance fees, but you'll definitely come out OK. I can normally even rent hangars in my travels and come out on top...maybe because where I live the roads are curvy!! Good luck and keep records.

[Mel]

Originally Posted by Bob Brown

On a verbal understanding with mgmt, I expense my aircraft as car miles (I use google maps to calculate car mileage) at $0.505/mi, which is the IRS rate for reimbursement for POV's.

Hey Bob,
The IRS rate went up to $.585 on July 1st.

[Bob Brown]

Originally Posted by Mel

Hey Bob,
The IRS rate went up to $.585 on July 1st.

Doh! That one got past me!

[breister]

Depending on your conscience, you can use Google Maps to calculate the miles (vs. GPS direct). This actually makes sense as you rarely go truly direct and also have to drive to the airport, fly approach, etc.. Of course, you may have a difficult time justifying a rental car if you already "drove there."

I don't think work can legally prevent you from charging the trip as car mileage, but would adopt a "don't ask / don't tell" policy anyway. I also don't see how they could prevent you from allowing a fellow worker to ride along. But then again, if you get canned they aren't always forthcoming with their real reasons, either...

Good luck!

[Mel]

Texas Instruments explicitly prohibits travel by private aircraft while on company business. They almost fired a Vice President over the issue. Anyone ever know Lee Kitchens?
He was pretty well known in engineering circles. He was President of Little People of America for some time. He flew a Tri-Pacer.
If you are a pilot and do ANY travel for the company, you will have the rules explained so that there is NO misunderstanding.