buy plane or get instrument rating?

"T.Roger" wrote in message m...
There's a tax break that's about to expire December 31st. You can write-off
the entire cost of a new plane brought into service by years-end, used for
business. That means that if you have the income to protect, buying a new
C172 will chop off $250K from your gross income. There are planes that can
be had for half that, brand new. Alarus comes to mind. Upshot: you can have
a plane AND an instrument rating, courtesy of Uncle Sam.

I've heard that the tax break's recently been extended for another
year and signed into law. Note, I'm saying that this is hearsay.
Check it out. But I didn't want you to make a hasty decision based on
a 31 Dec 2004 expiration of this.

Also, as T Roger says, the plane needs to be "used for business".
This can be done through a lease-back arrangement. But if you do
that, you're contending for time in your plane with all the other
renters again. Not exactly what many of us want to buy a plane for.

You might want to think about lease-back and the depreciation tax
break as a side business. Not as a way for you to get a plane and
have it paid for.

-Malcolm Teas