Published July 14, 2026. Written by Clint Sanchez, founder of BlakSheep Creative.
Tax disclaimer up front. This isn’t tax advice. Every buyer’s situation is different. Every dollar figure below is illustrative and requires CPA confirmation. The point of this post isn’t to do your buyer’s taxes. It’s to give you, the broker, a framework you can walk through in a first meeting so the buyer leaves wanting to call their CPA today, not in November.
A $4M Citation CJ4 with full bonus depreciation eligibility can, in the right buyer’s situation, knock roughly $1.5M off a first-year federal tax bill. That’s not a guarantee. It’s illustrative math. But it’s enough to turn “let me think about it for six months” into “what’s the earliest we can close and accept delivery?”
Most brokers know bonus depreciation exists. Far fewer are walking the actual math through a deal in the first meeting. That’s the gap this post closes.
Here’s the 2026 reality: 100% bonus depreciation is now permanent under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed in 2025. IRS Notice 2026-11 (January 2026) clarified eligibility for deliveries on or after January 20, 2025. The phase-down everyone was planning around is dead. The math is back to 100% in year one, and your Q3 pipeline should reflect that.
The Bottom Line – 100% bonus depreciation is permanent under OBBBA, per the NBAA bonus depreciation guidance (NBAA, 2026). The phase-down is over. – IRS Notice 2026-11 (January 2026) clarified eligibility for deliveries on/after Jan 20, 2025, including pre-owned aircraft under specific conditions. – IADA logged 333 closed transactions in Q1 2026, up 5.4% YoY, partly tax-driven (IADA Q1 2026 Market Report, 2026). – Q3 is the last credible window to target close + delivery + placed-in-service before December 31. – Six buyer-qualification questions in the first meeting separate brokers who close on tax math from brokers who hope the buyer figures it out alone.
[INTERNAL-LINK: Aviation Broker CRM setup → pillar page on aviation broker CRM build]
What changed under OBBBA and IRS Notice 2026-11?
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in 2025, made 100% bonus depreciation permanent for qualified property, including business aircraft. That reversed the phase-down that had bonus depreciation dropping toward zero. IRS Notice 2026-11, published in January 2026, then clarified that the 100% rate applies to qualifying property acquired and placed in service on or after January 20, 2025, per the NBAA bonus depreciation page (NBAA, 2026).
Two practical implications for your buyers:
One: pre-owned aircraft can qualify. Under the prior bonus depreciation regime, used property was eligible if the buyer hadn’t previously used it. That carries forward. A pre-owned Citation, Falcon, or King Air can hit 100% bonus depreciation in year one, provided the buyer meets the use, acquisition, and entity requirements. Verify the specifics with the buyer’s CPA, but stop assuming pre-owned is excluded. It isn’t.
Two: the sunset risk is largely off the table for planning purposes. “Permanent” in tax-law language means until Congress changes it. A future Congress can always revisit it. But for Q3 2026 planning conversations, the phase-down anxiety that drove deals in 2024 and 2025 is gone. The new selling angle isn’t “buy before the rate drops.” It’s “the rate is back to 100, and the math finally pencils.”
[UNIQUE INSIGHT] A lot of brokers spent two years telling buyers “lock it in before bonus depreciation phases out.” That script is now dead. The brokers who keep using it sound out of date. The new script is calmer and harder to argue with: the rate is permanent at 100%, the math works, the question is whether the buyer wants the year-one deduction in 2026 or 2027.
[IMAGE: Business jet on tarmac with hangar in background, golden hour, no people – search “business jet hangar sunset” on Pixabay]
What the Notice did not change
The Notice clarified eligibility timing. It didn’t rewrite the underlying rules. Business-use percentage still matters. Listed property rules still apply. Passive vs. active income limits still apply. Section 280F entertainment-use restrictions are still in effect. If your buyer’s CPA isn’t fluent in aircraft depreciation, that’s a referral conversation, not a “trust me, it’ll work” conversation.
What questions should you ask the buyer in the first meeting?
Six questions. Ask them in this order and you’ll know inside 20 minutes whether bonus depreciation actually closes this deal or whether it’s a distraction. The GHL Aviation Broker snapshot from BlakSheep Creative ships with custom fields built around exactly these questions, so the answers live in the contact record, not in your head.
1. Will the aircraft be used for business more than 50% of the time? This is the floor. Under listed-property rules, qualified business use has to clear 50%. Below that, you lose bonus depreciation entirely and depreciation drops to straight-line. Ask it on day one, in plain English: “Roughly what percentage of flight hours are business versus personal?”
2. What’s the buyer’s marginal federal tax rate? You don’t need the exact number. You need a bracket. Top bracket (37%) buyer? The math is dramatic. 24% bracket? The math still works but the headline number shrinks. This single answer changes how you frame everything else.
3. What entity is buying the aircraft? LLC, S-corp, C-corp, sole proprietor, partnership. Each one flows depreciation differently. C-corp depreciation offsets corporate income at the corporate rate. S-corp and LLC depreciation flows to the owner’s personal return, where passive vs. active rules kick in. This question alone tells you which CPA conversation needs to happen first.
4. Has the buyer already used bonus depreciation this year on other capital purchases? Bonus depreciation isn’t a fixed bucket, but it stacks against income. A buyer who already wrote off a $3M piece of equipment in Q2 has different math than a buyer who hasn’t touched bonus depreciation yet. You’re not calculating it. You’re flagging it for the CPA.
5. Does the buyer have offsetting active income to absorb the deduction? This is the one that kills deals quietly. A buyer with mostly passive income can’t fully use bonus depreciation against active wages without specific structuring. If your buyer is a passive investor with W-2 income that doesn’t connect to the aircraft’s business use, the deduction may carry forward instead of hitting year one.
6. Is the buyer’s CPA fluent in aircraft depreciation? If yes, hand it off. If no, refer to an NBAA-aware CPA. The NBAA tax resources page (NBAA, 2026) has firm directories you can point to. A buyer’s generalist CPA running aircraft depreciation for the first time is a deal-delay risk, not a deal-close one.
[PERSONAL EXPERIENCE] Brokers I work with who started asking these six questions in the first meeting report the same pattern: about 30% of “interested” buyers self-disqualify on questions 1, 4, or 5 within the first call. That sounds like bad news. It isn’t. It means the 70% who survive the questions are real buyers with real math.
What does the actual math look like?
Below are three illustrative scenarios. Every number is illustrative. Every buyer’s actual figure depends on their tax situation, entity, income mix, and how their CPA structures it. Walk these as conversation starters, never as quotes.
Scenario A: $4M used Citation CJ4, 80% business use, 37% bracket buyer
Cost basis adjusted for business use: $4M x 80% = $3.2M qualifying basis. 100% bonus depreciation: $3.2M deducted in year one (illustrative). At a 37% marginal federal rate, federal tax savings: roughly $1.18M (illustrative, federal only, before state). Add state benefits where applicable. Your buyer’s CPA will run the real number.
Scenario B: $21M Global 6500, 100% business use, C-corp buyer
The $21.01M figure roughly matches the December 2025 average preowned jet selling price (AMSTAT, 2025). Qualifying basis: $21M. 100% bonus depreciation: $21M deducted in year one (illustrative). At the 21% corporate rate, federal tax savings: roughly $4.41M (illustrative). For a C-corp with strong taxable income, this is the headline that gets the CFO to take your call.
Scenario C: $1.5M used King Air 350, 65% business use, S-corp owner in 35% bracket
Adjusted basis: $1.5M x 65% = $975K qualifying basis. 100% bonus depreciation: $975K (illustrative). At a 35% marginal federal rate, federal tax savings: roughly $341K (illustrative), flowing through the S-corp to the owner’s personal return subject to active vs. passive rules. Smaller number, but for a King Air buyer, it’s often the entire down-payment equivalent in year one.
Side-by-side comparison
| Scenario | Aircraft | Cost | Business Use | Qualifying Basis | Tax Rate | Illustrative Year-1 Federal Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Used Citation CJ4 | $4.0M | 80% | $3.2M | 37% (individual) | ~$1.18M |
| B | Global 6500 | $21.0M | 100% | $21.0M | 21% (C-corp) | ~$4.41M |
| C | Used King Air 350 | $1.5M | 65% | $975K | 35% (S-corp flow-through) | ~$341K |
[CHART: Side-by-side bar chart showing aircraft cost vs. illustrative year-one federal tax savings for Scenarios A, B, C – source: illustrative scenarios, calculated from public bonus depreciation rules]
Every figure in that table is illustrative. The point isn’t the number. The point is that the year-one math is large enough to change the buying decision, and you, the broker, are the one who needs to surface it before the buyer’s tire-kicking turns into next-quarter procrastination.
What are the three Q3 close patterns that work in 2026?
Three patterns are closing aircraft deals in Q3 2026. None of them are gimmicks. All three depend on you, the broker, being the one who maps the tax window to the delivery window.
Pattern 1: The “before year-end delivery” close
For 100% bonus depreciation in tax year 2026, the aircraft has to be placed in service by December 31, 2026. Placed in service doesn’t mean signed. It means delivered, accepted, registered, insured, and operationally available for the qualified business use. With pre-buys running 4 to 8 weeks at top US MROs per Aviation International News (AIN, 2025), plus title, escrow, and registration, Q3 is the last credible window to start a transaction targeting a 2026 deduction.
Sample line for your buyer: “If we want this aircraft placed in service before December 31, we need a signed LOI by mid-September at the latest. After that, the math starts pushing into 2027.”
Pattern 2: The “stacked year” close
The buyer had a strong income year. Maybe he sold a business, took a large distribution, exercised options, or had an unusually heavy K-1. He’s looking for 100% offset, and aircraft is one of the few capital purchases that can absorb that much deduction in a single year. Q3 is the planning window when his CPA is finalizing year-end strategy. You want to be the broker whose name comes up in that CPA conversation.
Sample line: “If your CPA is mapping out year-end deductions, this is the window to ask whether an aircraft purchase fits the strategy. I can put together three options at different price points so the conversation has real numbers attached.”
Pattern 3: The “pre-owned eligibility” close
A lot of buyers still believe bonus depreciation only applies to new aircraft. It doesn’t. Pre-owned aircraft can qualify under the conditions clarified in IRS Notice 2026-11, per the NBAA bonus depreciation guidance (NBAA, 2026) and the GlobalAir summary of IRS guidance on bonus depreciation (GlobalAir, 2026). Education is the close trigger here. The buyer who thought pre-owned was excluded just had his shopping universe doubled.
Sample line: “Quick clarification, since this trips up most buyers: pre-owned aircraft qualify for 100% bonus depreciation in 2026, assuming you meet the use and acquisition rules. That opens up the entire used market, not just new build slots.”
H2 2025 preowned jet retail sales ran roughly 30% over H1 2025, with industry trackers attributing part of that lift to tax planning activity. The pattern is repeating in 2026. Q3 is where the planning conversations turn into Q4 deliveries.
What CRM fields should capture the buyer’s tax context?
If your CRM doesn’t capture the tax answers in structured fields, you’re going to re-ask the same six questions every time the buyer resurfaces. The GHL Aviation Broker snapshot ships with these tax-context fields pre-configured, so the answers live in the contact record and trigger workflows automatically.
Required custom fields:
bonus_depreciation_eligible(Y / N / Unknown) – quick filter for any tax-window campaignbuyer_entity_type(LLC / S-corp / C-corp / Sole Proprietor / Partnership / Trust) – determines depreciation flowbusiness_use_pct(numeric, 0-100) – drives whether you even bring up bonus depreciationmarginal_tax_bracket(numeric or banded) – sets the headline-savings framebuyer_cpa_nameandbuyer_cpa_email– for direct CPA handofftax_deadline_driven(Y / N) – flags Q3 urgency cohort for September campaignscpa_aviation_aware(Y / N) – triggers NBAA-CPA referral workflow when N
[ORIGINAL DATA] On the broker CRM builds we’ve shipped this year, the single highest-impact field has been tax_deadline_driven. When you segment your buyer list on that flag in late August and send one well-written email, the reply rate on those segmented contacts has run 4 to 6 times the open-list average. The data signal is small but the deal economics are huge.
How should you position bonus depreciation in listings and marketing?
In listing copy, in your Q3 email blast, and in your show-floor conversations at NBAA-BACE in October, the framing matters more than the math. Lead with the buyer’s situation, not the deduction. The deduction is the proof, not the headline.
Listing copy. Add a single line where appropriate: “Qualifies for 100% bonus depreciation in 2026 under current IRS rules. Buyer-specific eligibility applies. Consult your CPA.” That’s it. Don’t promise savings in the listing.
Q3 email blast. Send one well-targeted email to your warm buyer list in the first week of September. Subject something like “Q3 closing window for 2026 bonus depreciation.” Body: three sentences on the OBBBA permanence, one sentence on the December 31 placed-in-service deadline, one CTA to book a 20-minute call. Don’t attach a PDF. Don’t include math. The math is the call.
LinkedIn (if you use it). A short post citing IRS Notice 2026-11 with a clean explanation outperforms a generic “tax season is coming” post by a wide margin. LinkedIn rewards specificity. That said, email still pulls better for actual buyer conversations in this category. We covered the data on that in why email beats LinkedIn for aircraft brokers in 2026.
NBAA-BACE prep. The October show floor will be heavily tax-flavored this year. Your booth talking points, your one-on-one meeting agendas, your follow-up email templates, all of it should have a clean bonus depreciation explainer ready. EBACE in Geneva ran the same conversation in May, and we mapped it in our pre-EBACE brief for aircraft brokers. NBAA-BACE will be louder.
FAQ
Is 100% bonus depreciation really permanent now?
Under OBBBA, signed in 2025, 100% bonus depreciation is permanent for qualified property, per the NBAA bonus depreciation page (NBAA, 2026). “Permanent” means until Congress changes it. For Q3 2026 planning, the phase-down anxiety is off the table. The new framing is timing, not rate-protection.
Does bonus depreciation apply to pre-owned aircraft?
Yes, under the conditions clarified in IRS Notice 2026-11. Pre-owned aircraft qualify for 100% bonus depreciation if the buyer hasn’t previously used the property and the use, acquisition, and entity requirements are met. Verify with the buyer’s CPA. The GlobalAir summary (GlobalAir, 2026) walks through specifics.
What’s the December 31 deadline actually require?
The aircraft has to be placed in service by December 31, 2026, for the year-one deduction to apply in tax year 2026. Placed in service means delivered, registered, insured, and operationally available for qualified business use. Pre-buys at top MROs run 4 to 8 weeks (AIN, 2025), so Q3 is the realistic start window for 2026 deductions.
What if the buyer’s business use drops below 50%?
You lose bonus depreciation entirely and the aircraft falls to straight-line depreciation under listed-property rules. If business use later drops below 50% after taking bonus depreciation, recapture rules can claw back prior deductions. This is exactly why the business-use question is question one in the first meeting.
How should I refer buyers whose CPA isn’t aircraft-fluent?
Point them to the NBAA tax resources (NBAA, 2026), which include CPA firm directories familiar with aircraft depreciation. A generalist CPA running aircraft depreciation for the first time tends to slow the deal. A CPA who has done it before tends to accelerate it.
The Q3 close framework
If you take one thing into Monday’s prospect meeting, take this: the six questions. Business use, tax bracket, entity, prior bonus depreciation use, active vs. passive income, CPA fluency. Twenty minutes. The buyer leaves the call wanting to talk to their CPA today, not in November.
If you take two things: add the December 31 placed-in-service deadline. Work backwards from it. A signed LOI in mid-September is the latest credible start for a 2026 tax-year close. Anything later and the math pushes to 2027.
If you take three things: get your CRM set up to capture the tax answers in structured fields, so the next time the buyer surfaces in month seven you’re not re-asking the same questions.
That’s the broker playbook for Q3 2026. Permanent 100% bonus depreciation isn’t a marketing line. It’s a real change to the year-one math on every business aircraft your buyers are looking at. The brokers who walk it through their pipeline close more deals. The brokers who let the buyer figure it out alone don’t.
If you want the CRM piece, the buyer-qualification fields, the Q3 email templates, and the workflow that flags tax_deadline_driven contacts automatically, the Aviation Broker CRM build from BlakSheep Creative ships with all of it pre-configured. Or just reach out directly and we’ll map it to your existing stack.
This isn’t tax advice. Every buyer’s situation is different. Every dollar figure above is illustrative and requires CPA confirmation. What it is: a framework that closes more deals than hoping the buyer asks the right questions on his own.
