(The Center Square) – When Congress returns from recess in September, senators will have to decide whether to advance an aircraft safety bill that could also provide a tax haven for private jet owners.
A last-minute amendment tacked onto the House-passed ALERT Act would prohibit using aircraft transponder data “to identify aircraft for the purpose of obtaining revenue from the owner or operator” without permission.
Airports could no longer use the Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) data to collect landing fees, which supporters of the amendment say is a misuse of a safety tool originally created to prevent mid-air plane collisions.
“There is strong support for putting an end to this practice,” Jim Coon, senior vice president of government affairs and advocacy at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said.
He noted that “airports and state and local tax collectors can still collect fees, they just wouldn’t be able to use an aircraft collision avoidance device to do so.”
The amendment is controversial, however, because it goes beyond forbidding airports from using the data to charge pilots; it also forbids the use of ADS-B data for state and local tax enforcement.
Opponents of the plan fear it would effectively create a tax shelter for private jet owners, putting tens of millions dollars of state and local tax revenue at risk.
In Texas, some residents who are private jet owners will evade property taxes on their aircraft by registering it in another state, oftentimes Montana. Access to aircrafts’ publicly accessible ADS-B is one of the few tools state and local governments have to combat aircraft tax evasion.
If the U.S. Senate approves the ADS-B amendment, Texas alone could lose as much as $70.2 million in annual tax revenue at a time when multiple counties are pursuing millions from delinquent aircraft owners, according to publicly available tax rolls accessed by The Center Square.
The bipartisan ALERT Act was introduced in February as a direct response to the deadly midair collision of an U.S. Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) on Jan. 29, 2025. The crash led to 67 deaths; no person in either aircraft survived.
Originally published on thecentersquare.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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