{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/trump-administration-refuses-to-close-tax-loophole-exploited-by-private-jet-owners/", "Trump Administration Refuses to Close Tax Loophole Exploited by Private Jet Owners", "2026-09-03", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "RI", "Sheldon Whitehouse", "W000802", "www.whitehouse.senate.gov", "whitehouse", "https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release", "scraper", "Trump\u2019s Beautiful-for-Billionaires Bill extended a major tax break for ultrarich private jet owners\n\nNew letter denies Senators\u2019 request to close loophole because doing so would be \u201cburdensome\u201d\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) today blasted the Treasury Department\u2019s refusal to close the Standard Industry Fare Level (SIFL) loophole, which has long been abused by private jet owners to substantially undervalue the taxable cost of personal travel on a corporate private jet. The Trump Treasury Department\u2019s pro-billionaire pronouncement came in a response to a July 24 request from the senators.\n\nThe Treasury Department argued in its new letter that calculating the true market value for employer-provided flights taken by employees for personal purposes, rather than using the existing SIFL method, would be \u201cadministratively burdensome\u201d for taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service. The Department also claims that the SIFL method is intended to produce consistent results \u2013 regardless of the staggering gap between the SIFL rate and the actual charter market rates.\n\n\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s 2017 tax law and Big, Beautiful-for-Billionaires bill handed billionaires and big corporations massive tax breaks on private jets. The Trump administration now says it would be \u2018burdensome\u2019 to close the private jet tax loophole because this is an administration hell-bent on using the powers of government to make the ultra-rich even richer, and they don\u2019t care if middle-class taxpayers get stuck with the tab,\u201d said Whitehouse.\n\n\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s priorities revolve around enriching himself and his billionaire friends. While working families struggle to afford groceries, housing, and gas, this Administration focuses on tax breaks for billionaires \u2013 including tax breaks for private jets. What a disgrace,\u201d said Van Hollen.\n\nPassage of President Trump and Congressional Republicans\u2019 Big, Beautiful-for-Billionaires Bill made permanent an egregious tax provision allowing 100 percent bonus depreciation for the purchase of corporate aircraft, which the senators argued exacerbates the tax giveaway created by the SIFL loophole, letting the ultrawealthy skirt the true cost of personal private jet travel on corporate aircraft.", 1, "2026-09-04T09:19:37Z", "2026-09-04T09:20:58Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/trump-administration-refuses-to-close-tax-loophole-exploited-by-private-jet-owners/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1890169698745012, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}