Some flight departments employ independent contractors as a way to keep their costs in check. However, with the IRS taking a new interest in the “independent contractor classification,” companies might want to take a closer look at this plan and its tax and liability implications.
Regulations and Government
News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA reauthorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.
September 21, 2006 - 6:14am
April 10 is the comment deadline for a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposal to require more detailed reporting of top executive compensation, including such perks as personal use of corporate aircraft. One of the proposals would lower the threshold at which perks must be disclosed. Companies currently must reveal perks if the total aggregate value is more than $50,000, or 10 percent of the total annual salary and bonus.
September 21, 2006 - 6:01am
First revealed publicly by AIN (December, page 20), but still not reported in other aviation media, the aerospace industry’s hitherto secret Project Mercury has, as forecast, now been acknowledged as a potential supplier of a turnkey nationwide ADS-B network for the FAA.
September 21, 2006 - 5:58am
FAA Air Traffic Organization (ATO) officials early last month briefed government and industry representatives on the cost-benefit analysis of nationwide ADS-B implementation, as requested by the agency’s top-level Joint Resources Council (JRC). The ATO is scheduled to submit the analysis to the JRC in early June.
September 21, 2006 - 5:41am
The FAA’s announcement last month that its GPS wide area augmentation system (WAAS) will support ILS-like 200-foot Category I approaches marks the agency’s third swing at this, the system’s Holy Grail. When WAAS was launched in 1995, Category I was promised by 1997, but the system’s rocky progress over the following years consigned Category I to the benches.
September 21, 2006 - 5:06am
FAA financing and the prospect of user fees to help pay for modernization of the ATC system is the primary issue facing general aviation in the coming year, said National Air Transportation Association (NATA) president Jim Coyne during an annual industry briefing to the media.
September 21, 2006 - 5:01am
Eleven years after the October 1994 crash of American Eagle Flight 4184 in Roselawn, Ind., the FAA proposed a revision to Part 25 certification regulations that aims to prevent such icing accidents. The comment period for the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) closed on February 2. Now the new rules will begin to wend their way through the FAA rulemaking process.
September 20, 2006 - 12:14pm
Europe’s EC2320 requirement for full passenger and crew security screening could be extended to aircraft weighing as little as 2.7 tons (5,952 pounds), according to Brian Humphries, chief executive of the European Business Aviation Association. This would include aircraft as small as some VLJs.
September 20, 2006 - 12:07pm
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is conducting a strategic review of business and general aviation and how these industries should be regulated. This will be put to the CAA board at its June meeting and, significantly, will be considered before the authority issues its final ruling on controversial changes to safety regulation charges.
September 20, 2006 - 12:05pm
The UK government is leading a campaign to delay the transfer of additional regulatory responsibilities to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) until the agency resolves existing management and budgetary issues.
