The Short Answer
There is no single best way to own a business jet. The four common structures are direct ownership (an individual or operating company holds title), a single-member LLC that holds title for liability isolation, an owner trust (used mainly for non-U.S. owners or lender requirements), and a management arrangement where a professional company operates the aircraft. The right one depends on who flies the aircraft, who pays for the flights, who holds operational control, your liability tolerance, and your tax picture.
The decisive issue is rarely the title — it is operational control. Under 14 CFR §1.1, the operator is whoever exercises authority over initiating, conducting, or terminating a flight — not necessarily the registered owner. The structure that quietly becomes illegal is the flight department company trap: a single-purpose entity whose only business is owning and flying the aircraft for the people who fund it, which the FAA can treat as carriage for compensation or hire requiring a Part 135 certificate.
The FAA structure and the tax structure must be designed together — a structure built to capture a tax benefit can collapse if the operating assumptions underneath it are wrong. That reconciliation is the job of an aviation attorney working with a tax advisor. FileFlo does not pick the structure or give legal or tax advice; it classifies and version-tracks the ownership, registration, and operational-control records so whichever structure your counsel chooses is organized and provable on demand.
This overview is the map — not the route
This page is a TOFU orientation to the structures and the trade-offs, so you walk into your attorney’s office knowing the right questions. It is not a recommendation to adopt any structure, and it does not replace counsel. The one structure we tell everyone to understand before doing anything is the flight department company trap — it is the failure mode every option below is trying to avoid.
Why Ownership Structure Is an FAA Question, Not Just a Tax One
Most first-time buyers approach aircraft ownership the way they approach any other expensive asset: through the lens of liability and tax. They ask their corporate attorney to set up an entity that isolates the asset, and they ask their CPA how to depreciate it. Both are doing their jobs. But an aircraft is not a building or a piece of equipment — it is a federally regulated vehicle whose operation is governed by the FAA, and the entity you choose to hold and fly it can change which set of federal regulations applies to every flight.
That is the part the liability-and-tax lens misses. A structure that is flawless for asset protection can be an illegal commercial operation in the FAA’s eyes. A structure that captures a beautiful depreciation benefit can unravel if the entity claiming it turns out not to be a lawful operator. The three questions — liability, tax, and FAA operational control — are entangled, and optimizing any one in isolation routinely breaks another. The whole discipline of aircraft ownership structuring is reconciling all three at once, which is why it is a specialized field for aviation attorneys rather than general corporate counsel.
Liability
Isolate a multi-million-dollar asset and its operational risk from the operating business. This is the instinct that produces the LLC — and, taken too far, the single-purpose entity that springs the trap.
Tax
Sales and use tax on purchase, annual property tax, depreciation, and personal-use rules. A tax-driven structure can conflict with the FAA-driven one — they must be reconciled, not chosen separately.
FAA operational control
Which entity initiates, conducts, and terminates flights determines whether the operation is legal Part 91 or requires a Part 135 certificate. This is the question general corporate counsel often does not see.
Title and operation are two different questions
Throughout this guide, keep the two questions separate. Who holds title (the ownership structure) and who operates the aircraft (who has operational control under 14 CFR §1.1) can be the same party or completely different parties. Almost every structuring mistake — and almost every structuring solution — lives in the gap between those two questions. The deep treatment is in what is operational control in Part 135.
Related aviation compliance reading
The Four Common Ownership Structures
These are the structures aviation attorneys discuss most often. Each is presented as orientation — what it is, what it is good at, and where it goes wrong — not as a recommendation to adopt it. None is inherently right or wrong; the fit depends entirely on your facts, and several can be combined (for example, a holding LLC inside an owner trust, or an LLC that dry-leases to an operating company).
Direct ownership
An individual or the operating company holds title directly
What it is good at
Simplest possible structure. No separate entity to form, fund, or maintain. When the operating company that owns the aircraft uses it incidentally to a real, separate business, the flying stays comfortably within Part 91.
Where it goes wrong
No liability isolation — the aircraft and its operational risk sit on the same balance sheet as the rest of the business. Personal ownership also commingles a high-liability asset with personal assets. Tax treatment may be less flexible.
Single-member LLC
A dedicated LLC holds title; member is the owner or operating company
What it is good at
The workhorse of aircraft ownership. Isolates the asset and its liability, simplifies title and registration, and can hold the aircraft cleanly for a single owner. Entirely legitimate when the LLC merely owns and registers the aircraft while operational control sits in a real operating business.
Where it goes wrong
Becomes the flight department company trap when the LLC both owns AND operates the aircraft as its only business, flying the people who fund it. With no other business, the flying cannot be incidental — and the FAA can treat it as compensated commercial carriage requiring Part 135.
Owner trust
A U.S. trustee holds legal title for a beneficial owner
What it is good at
Keeps an aircraft on the U.S. registry when the true owner cannot register directly — classically a non-U.S. citizen or entity, since FAA registration generally requires U.S. citizenship or qualifying status. Also used in certain financing and lender structures. The trustee is typically a bank or specialized aircraft-trust company.
Where it goes wrong
Solves a registration or financing problem only. It does not by itself answer who has operational control or whether the flying is for compensation or hire. The trust agreement, registration, and operating arrangement underneath must all line up — a legal-structuring exercise, not a form to fill in.
Management arrangement
A professional management company operates the aircraft
What it is good at
A management company can handle crewing, maintenance oversight, scheduling, and — where structured as such — operate the aircraft, sometimes placing it on the company’s Part 135 certificate for charter when the owner is not flying. Offloads operational burden to professionals.
Where it goes wrong
Operational control becomes the central, contested question: depending on how the arrangement is papered, control may sit with the owner or the manager, and that determines the regulatory regime. A poorly structured management deal can recreate the same compensation-or-hire problems it was meant to solve.
Part 91 has narrow cost-sharing tools — but they are not a structure
For large and turbojet-powered multiengine airplanes, Part 91 Subpart F (14 CFR §91.501) permits specific arrangements — time-sharing (leasing the airplane with crew, charging only limited enumerated costs), interchange (trading equal time on each other’s airplanes), and joint-ownership (registered co-owners sharing a furnished crew and costs). These are narrow, defined tools with strict cost limits, not a general way to monetize an aircraft, and they do not rescue a single-purpose entity from the trap. Their use is fact-specific and belongs with counsel.
Several of these paths get their own deep treatment elsewhere on the site: aircraft management company vs charter, dry lease vs wet lease aircraft, and aircraft leaseback and Part 135. If your use is genuinely commercial, the honest path may be a certificate — see do I need a Part 135 certificate to charter my plane.
Can you prove who actually owns — and controls — your aircraft?
Whatever structure your attorney lands on, the proof lives in documents: the formation or trust documents, the FAA registration and title records, the operational-control evidence, and the insurance that matches the real use. FileFlo classifies and version-tracks that record so it is organized and producible on demand. Check where you stand with the free FAA Readiness Score, or start organizing the record today.
The Question That Decides Everything: Operational Control
If you take one idea from this entire guide, take this: the regulatory regime that applies to your aircraft is determined far less by who holds title than by who exercises operational control. Two operators with identical LLCs can be in completely different regulatory worlds depending on who actually decides when and where the aircraft flies.
The definitions, in the FAA’s own words
Two definitions in 14 CFR §1.1 carry the weight:
Operate, with respect to aircraft, means “use, cause to use or authorize to use aircraft … for the purpose … of air navigation including the piloting of aircraft, with or without the right of legal control.”
Operational control, with respect to a flight, means “the exercise of authority over initiating, conducting or terminating a flight.”
Notice the phrase “with or without the right of legal control.” You can be the operator without owning the aircraft, and you can own the aircraft without being the operator. That single fact is what makes a dry lease, an owner trust, and a management arrangement work — and what makes a sloppy version of any of them fail.
This is also why the applicability rule for the air-carrier regime — 14 CFR §119.1 — looks at the operation, not the title. Part 119 applies to each person operating as an air carrier or commercial operator in air commerce; whether your entity is doing that depends on who controls the flights and why they are being paid for, not on whose name is on the registration certificate.
Control and title aligned
An operating company owns the aircraft and controls its flights, using it incidentally to a real, separate business. Title and operational control sit together, and the flying stays Part 91. Clean, common, defensible.
Control and title split
A holding LLC or trust owns the aircraft, but operational control sits with a lessee (under a dry lease) or a certificated operator. Done correctly, this is legitimate. Done sloppily — control drifts back to the title holder — it collapses into the trap.
Because operational control is the hinge of every structure, the evidence of who actually exercised it on each flight is among the most important records you keep. For the full concept, see what is operational control in Part 135, and for the broader compensation-or-hire frame, Part 91 vs Part 135: compensation or hire.
The Mistake Every Structure Is Trying to Avoid: The Flight Department Company Trap
The single most common way a thoughtfully built ownership structure becomes illegal is the flight department company trap — a term coined by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA). It is worth understanding before you choose any structure, because it is the failure mode all four options above are maneuvering around.
How the trap springs
You place the aircraft in a single-purpose entity — usually a clean new LLC — whose only function is to own and fly it for the parent company and its principals. The entity does nothing else: no other product, no other service, no separate business. The flying is not incidental to anything; the flying is the entity’s entire enterprise.
The commercial-operator test in 14 CFR §1.1 asks whether the carriage by air is “merely incidental to the person’s other business or is, in itself, a major enterprise for profit.” A sole-purpose entity has no other business — so when the affiliates pay it (or capitalize it to fund the flights), the FAA can treat those flows as compensation for transportation, making the operation commercial carriage that requires a Part 135 certificate the entity does not hold.
It is not a “holding out” problem — which is why it catches careful owners
Owners reason: “We only fly our own companies, we never offer the aircraft to the public, so we are not a common carrier, so Part 91 is fine.” The first clauses are usually right; the conclusion does not follow. The trap is a compensation-or-hire problem, not a common-carriage one — even private carriage for compensation generally must run under Part 135. You can be nowhere near holding out and still on the wrong side of the line. That is exactly the conceptual frame in Part 91 vs Part 135: compensation or hire.
The consequences reach past the FAA. Aviation insurance is frequently underwritten on the assumption the operation is a lawful Part 91 flight; if it is actually an uncertificated commercial one, a carrier may dispute a claim. Aircraft loans and leases commonly require lawful operation, which an illegal structure can breach. And the tax posture layered on top can unravel if the operating assumptions underneath were wrong. None of these are FileFlo determinations — they are the exposures practitioners warn about, and each is a reason to settle the structure with counsel before the first flight.
This overview vs. the dedicated trap guide
This page is the ownership-structures overview — the menu of options and how they fit together. The flight department company trap is the dedicated deep dive on the one specific illegal structure: how it forms, why Part 91 will not hold it, the insurance and finance fallout, and the structures attorneys use to avoid it. Read this for the map; read that for the most dangerous hazard on it. The unifying concept beneath both is operational control, and the leasing path runs through truth-in-leasing records (§91.23).
The Tax Side: Real, Large, and a Question for Your Advisor
Tax is the other half of why ownership structuring is hard — and it is squarely a matter for a CPA or aviation tax advisor. Nothing in this section is tax advice. It is a map of the issues people most often underestimate, so you know to raise them. The recurring theme is that a structure optimized for one tax outcome can conflict with the FAA structure, and a tax benefit can evaporate if the operating assumptions beneath it are wrong.
State sales & use tax on purchase
Often the largest single tax exposure — six or seven figures on a business jet. It varies dramatically by state and by how, where, and when the aircraft is delivered, based, and first used. Fly-away exemptions, occasional-sale rules, and use-tax accrual in the home state are all in play. This alone is a reason to involve a tax advisor before closing, not after.
Annual personal-property tax
Many states and localities impose an annual property tax on aircraft based on value and where the aircraft is hangared or habitually based. Where you base the aircraft can materially change the recurring tax bill, and the answer interacts with the sales/use-tax analysis above.
Depreciation & bonus depreciation
Federal depreciation, including bonus depreciation when available, can be significant — but it is heavily scrutinized and constrained by qualified-business-use and listed-property rules. The entity claiming the deductions must actually be a lawful operator using the aircraft for a qualifying business purpose; if the operating structure is flawed, the deductions can be challenged.
Personal-use & imputed-income rules
Personal (non-business) flights by owners and employees trigger entertainment-use disallowances and imputed-income or SIFL valuation rules. Mixed business/personal use is one of the most common audit triggers, and it must be tracked flight-by-flight. The FAA structure and the tax treatment of personal use are linked.
Design the FAA structure and the tax structure together
The cardinal rule practitioners repeat is that the FAA structure and the tax structure cannot be designed in isolation. A pure-holding LLC that solves a tax problem can create an operational-control problem; a structure that nails the FAA question can forfeit a depreciation benefit. The only way through is an aviation attorney and a tax advisor working the same set of facts together. FileFlo does not give tax advice and does not pick the structure — it keeps the documents that evidence whatever your advisors design.
The Record That Proves Your Ownership Structure Is What It Claims to Be
Whichever structure your advisors choose, it is only as defensible as the documents that evidence it. A direct, LLC, trust, or management structure each lives or dies on whether you can show who owns the aircraft, who exercises operational control, how the entity is funded, and that the operation matches its paper. None of these is an operations, maintenance, or tax system — they are the record that proves your ownership and operational-control posture. Keeping that record complete, consistent, and current is a document-management discipline, and it is exactly what FileFlo is built for.
Formation, Trust & Governance Documents
Entity structure itselfWhat it proves
The LLC operating agreement, trust agreement, ownership records, and any management or services agreements define what the entity is, what it does, and how it is funded. These establish whether the flying is incidental to a real business or is the entity’s whole enterprise — the exact question the §1.1 commercial-operator test asks.
How FileFlo tracks it
FileFlo classifies the formation, trust, and governance documents as versioned records and retains every amendment with its effective date, so the entity’s stated purpose and funding are documented, not assumed.
FAA Registration & Title Records
14 CFR Part 47 (aircraft registration)What it proves
The Aircraft Registration Application, the registration certificate, bills of sale, and any International Registry / lien records establish who holds title and that registration is valid — including the U.S.-citizenship or trust basis where an owner trust is used.
How FileFlo tracks it
FileFlo indexes the registration and title chain as dated records so the legal-title story is complete and current, and any lapse or pending re-registration is visible.
Operational-Control Evidence
14 CFR §1.1 (operational control)What it proves
Documentation showing who actually exercised authority over initiating, conducting, and terminating each flight — crew assignment, dispatch and release records, and the operating relationship behind the structure. This is the evidence that operational control sits where the structure says it does, the most contested point in any ownership analysis.
How FileFlo tracks it
FileFlo indexes the operational-control evidence against the structure it supports, so substance and paper match — and any gap is visible before someone else finds it.
Lease & Truth-in-Leasing Materials (if applicable)
14 CFR §91.23 (large aircraft)What it proves
If the structure uses a dry lease, the signed lease — and, for U.S.-registered large civil aircraft subject to §91.23 with its exceptions, the truth-in-leasing clause, the FAA mailing, the carried copy, and the FSDO notification — proves the lease type and who holds operational control under it.
How FileFlo tracks it
FileFlo keeps the lease and its §91.23 notification evidence linked and version-tracked, with effective dates intact, so the leased structure is provable on demand.
Insurance Certificates
Per policy — named insureds & operation typeWhat it proves
The policy and certificates must name the right parties and cover the operation as it is actually conducted. A policy written for a Part 91 flight when the operation is really commercial is the gap that surfaces — disastrously — at claim time. Matching coverage to the true operation is part of getting the structure right.
How FileFlo tracks it
FileFlo version-tracks each certificate with effective and expiration dates and flags renewals before coverage lapses against the use the structure requires.
Airworthiness & Maintenance Records
Inspections · AD compliance · airworthinessWhat it proves
Regardless of structure, the aircraft’s airworthiness record — annual and required inspections, airworthiness-directive compliance, and component/time tracking — must be current. A lapsed inspection grounds the aircraft no matter how clean the entity looks on paper.
How FileFlo tracks it
FileFlo tracks each inspection and AD as a dated record and surfaces the next-due item before it lapses, so the airframe does not quietly fly out of airworthiness.
Related reading: Part 91 corporate flight department records · Truth-in-leasing aircraft lease records (§91.23) · International operations documents & records · RVSM altimeter & transponder inspection records
FileFlo is the proof layer, not the structure or the advice
FileFlo is a compliance document intelligence platform — it classifies, indexes, version-tracks, and surfaces expirations on the documents that prove your aircraft-ownership structure’s compliance posture: the formation and trust records, the FAA registration and title chain, the operational-control evidence, any lease and its §91.23 materials, the insurance certificates, and the maintenance history. It does not structure your entity, set up your trust, decide who has operational control, draft or negotiate your lease, obtain a certificate, assess your enforcement, coverage, or tax exposure, or give legal, tax, or insurance advice. Choosing the structure is your aviation attorney’s and tax advisor’s job; keeping the resulting record complete, consistent, and audit-ready is the document job FileFlo solves. That separation is deliberate — the record that proves your compliance has to be maintained independently from the judgment calls that create it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best business jet ownership structure?
There is no single best structure — the right one depends on who will fly the aircraft, who pays for the flights, your liability tolerance, and your tax picture, which is why this is a question for an aviation attorney and a tax advisor working together rather than a template. The common options are direct ownership by an individual or operating company, a single-member LLC that holds title, an owner trust (frequently used when there is a foreign owner or a lender requirement), and a management arrangement where a professional company operates the aircraft. The critical mistake people make is choosing a structure to optimize liability or taxes while accidentally creating an entity whose only business is flying the aircraft for the people who fund it — the flight department company trap — which can turn a Part 91 private operation into an illegal commercial one. The FAA question (who exercises operational control and whether the flying is for compensation or hire) and the tax question often pull in opposite directions, so the structure has to reconcile both. FileFlo does not pick the structure; it keeps the resulting ownership and operational-control records organized and provable once your advisors choose.
Should I buy a private jet in an LLC?
An LLC is one of the most common ways to hold aircraft title, and there are sound liability and registration reasons to use one — a single-member LLC walls off a multi-million-dollar asset from the rest of your business. But buying a jet "in an LLC" answers only the ownership question, not the operation question, and the operation question is where the FAA trouble lives. If that LLC becomes a single-purpose entity that both owns and operates the aircraft as its entire business, flying the people who capitalize it, the FAA can treat the flying as carriage for compensation or hire that Part 91 does not permit — the flight department company trap. A holding LLC that merely owns and registers the aircraft, with operational control sitting in a genuine operating business that uses the plane incidentally to its real work, is a very different and generally safer posture. Whether your LLC structure is fine turns on the specific facts; confirm it with an aviation attorney before relying on it, and have a tax advisor weigh the income, sales, use, and property-tax consequences.
What is an aircraft owner trust and when is it used?
An owner trust is an arrangement in which a U.S. trustee holds legal title to the aircraft for the benefit of a beneficial owner. It is most often used to keep an aircraft on the U.S. registry when the true owner cannot register it directly — classically a non-U.S. citizen or entity, because FAA registration generally requires U.S. citizenship or specific qualifying status. Trusts also appear in financing structures where a lender or a special-purpose vehicle wants title held a particular way. The trustee is typically a bank or a specialized aircraft-trust company, and the trust agreement defines who may direct the trustee and, importantly, who exercises operational control of flights. An owner trust solves a registration or financing problem; it does not by itself resolve the operational-control and compensation-or-hire questions that determine whether your flying is Part 91 or Part 135. The trust agreement, the registration documents, and the operating arrangement underneath it all have to line up — which is a legal-structuring exercise for counsel, not a do-it-yourself form.
Can an LLC own and operate my airplane under Part 91?
An LLC can certainly own an aircraft — that is routine. Whether it can operate it under Part 91 depends entirely on what else the LLC does and how it is funded. The danger appears when the LLC is a single-purpose entity whose only business is owning and flying the aircraft for the affiliated companies or individuals who pay it or capitalize it. At that point the carriage by air is not incidental to any other business — it is the entity's whole enterprise — and under the commercial-operator test in 14 CFR §1.1 the FAA can treat it as a commercial operation requiring a Part 135 certificate the LLC does not hold. By contrast, an LLC that owns the aircraft while operational control and a real operating business sit elsewhere, or an LLC that itself runs a genuine separate business and uses the aircraft incidentally, can be a legitimate Part 91 operator. The line is fact-specific and turns on operational control, funding, and what the entity actually does, so it belongs with an aviation attorney rather than a blog checklist.
Who is considered the operator of an aircraft?
Under 14 CFR §1.1, to operate an aircraft means to use, cause to use, or authorize to use the aircraft for the purpose of air navigation, with or without the right of legal control. The operator is therefore not necessarily the registered owner — it is whoever exercises operational control, which §1.1 defines as the exercise of authority over initiating, conducting, or terminating a flight. This distinction is the entire game in aircraft ownership structuring: title can sit in an LLC or a trust while the operator is a different party entirely. When an aircraft is dry-leased, operational control and operator status are supposed to move to the lessee that supplies its own crew; when it is on a management company's certificate, the certificated operator may hold operational control. Getting the documents to show who actually initiated, conducted, and terminated each flight is the crux of proving your structure is what it claims to be, which is why operational-control evidence is one of the most important records to keep.
What are the tax pitfalls of corporate aircraft ownership?
The tax side of aircraft ownership is at least as complicated as the FAA side, and this is squarely a question for a CPA or aviation tax advisor — nothing here is tax advice. In broad strokes, the issues people underestimate include state sales and use tax on the purchase (which can be six or seven figures and varies enormously by state and by how and where the aircraft is delivered, based, and used), annual personal-property tax in many states, the federal income-tax treatment of depreciation and bonus depreciation (which the IRS scrutinizes and which can be limited by personal-use rules), the disallowance of deductions for personal entertainment use of the aircraft, and the imputed-income or SIFL rules for personal flights by employees. A structure built to capture a tax benefit can collapse if the operating assumptions underneath it are wrong — for example, if the entity that claims the deductions turns out to be an illegal Part 91 operator. The FAA structure and the tax structure must be designed together, by an aviation attorney and a tax advisor, not in isolation.
What is the flight department company trap and how does it relate to ownership structure?
The flight department company trap — a term coined by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) — is the single most common way a well-intentioned ownership structure becomes illegal. It happens when an aircraft is placed in a single-purpose entity (often an LLC) whose only function is to own and fly the aircraft for the parent company and its principals. Because that entity does nothing else, the flying cannot be incidental to any other business; under the commercial-operator test in 14 CFR §1.1, the FAA can treat the affiliated companies' payments as compensation for transportation, making the operation a commercial one that requires a Part 135 certificate the entity does not hold. It is not a holding-out or common-carriage problem — flying only your own affiliates is usually not holding out — it is a compensation-or-hire problem, and even private carriage for compensation generally must run under Part 135. This is why ownership structuring cannot be separated from operational control: the entity that holds title and the way it is funded directly determine whether the operation is legal. We cover the trap in depth in a dedicated guide; the short version is that it is the failure mode every other structure on this page is trying to avoid.
What records prove my aircraft ownership structure, and what does FileFlo do?
Whatever structure your advisors choose — direct, LLC, trust, or management arrangement — the same families of documents prove the structure is what it claims to be: the entity's formation and governance documents (operating agreement, trust agreement, management or services agreements), the FAA registration and title records, the evidence of who actually exercises operational control of each flight, any lease and its truth-in-leasing materials where applicable, the insurance certificates naming the right parties for the actual use, and the airworthiness and maintenance records. FileFlo is the compliance document intelligence platform for that record. It classifies, indexes, version-tracks, and surfaces expirations on each of these documents so your ownership and operational-control posture is organized and provable on demand. FileFlo does not structure your entity, set up your trust, decide who has operational control, draft your lease, obtain a certificate, or give legal, tax, or insurance advice — those are jobs for your aviation attorney and tax advisor. Keeping the resulting record complete, consistent, and audit-ready is the document job FileFlo solves.
Whatever structure your counsel chooses, keep it provable
FileFlo classifies and version-tracks the full aircraft-ownership document set — the formation or trust documents, the FAA registration and title chain, the operational-control evidence, any dry lease and §91.23 materials, the insurance certificates, and the maintenance and AD history — and surfaces every expiration before it grounds the aircraft or weakens your position. AI document classification. 600+ document types. One-click readiness binder. Starter at $89/mo, Professional at $299/mo. No credit card required for the 5-day free trial.
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Continue your aircraft-structure, leasing & Part 135 reading
Reviewed by Chad Griffith, Founder, FileFlo — compliance document intelligence. Last reviewed June 15, 2026. Regulatory citations verified against the Cornell Legal Information Institute (14 CFR §1.1 “operate” and “operational control” definitions and the commercial-operator test, §119.1 applicability, §91.23 truth-in-leasing, and §91.501 Subpart F time-sharing / interchange / joint-ownership) as of publication date; the “flight department company trap” is a term coined by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA). This is general compliance-document information, not legal, tax, or insurance advice; choosing an aircraft-ownership structure is fact-specific — consult an aviation attorney for the legal and FAA questions and a CPA or aviation tax advisor for the tax questions before adopting any structure. FileFlo is the records layer, not a legal, tax, structuring, or certification service.