My mother who owns a private company asked me if I could fly her to a convention. She asked if it was possible if the costs of the plane rental could be invoiced to her company. Since I only posses a PPL (EASA) I was wondering if I was allowed to perform this flight since you're not supposed to do commercial flights. I won't get paid anything for this flight so I don't think there would be a problem but just want to make sure.
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$\begingroup$ Hi GillesDB. I edited the title of your question to try to better summarize what you are asking. If you feel my edit changed your intent in any way, feel free to Edit further, or to roll back the edit. $\endgroup$– userAug 18, 2019 at 13:52
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$\begingroup$ The body of the question doesn't match the title. What do you mean by "invoice"? Because this typically means to bill, to get paid... $\endgroup$– Michael HallMar 8, 2021 at 15:17
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2 Answers
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In the UK, at least, the rules specifically state:
Privileges and limitations: A holder of a PPL may, for compensation or hire, act as a crewmember of an aircraft in connection with any business or employment if—
a. the flight is only incidental to that business or employment; and
b. the aircraft does not carry passengers or property for compensation or hire.
Despite what this may sound like, this means you are not allowed to be paid for flying unless you happen to be an employee and flying for work -- e.g. an archaeologist (with a salary from University X) flying yourself and a colleague to a dig site (while employed at the University of X -- thus flying for compensation [because you are paid, indirectly, to do this] but incidental to the employment [the University of X is not an airline, and the colleague you are with is not a co-pilot or paying passenger]).
I have always been taught that the safest thing to think is this: As a PPL, you cannot fly for compensation, and each of your passengers at most has to contribute not more than their "fare" share of the cost of the flight.
By invoicing your mother for the cost of the plane rental you would not be contributing that value in kind, and thus would be in violation of this rule (with rather unpleasant consequences, should you be caught -- ranging from losing your license to a minor criminal conviction). Moreover, the fact that you mentioned the word invoice makes me think that your mother's company would be expecting you to provide a service -- all of these are commercial terms, and alarm bells would be ringing in the mind of any examiner looking at this from the outside, as it starts to really sound like you're providing a service for hire.
Ignoring for the moment that many organisations have rules about doing just the following with family members, I suggest instead keeping all of the receipts of your legitimate expense for aircraft hire -- Hobbs hour fees, fuel, landing, whatever -- and then getting your mother to claim exactly half their value as a business expense. That at least makes it very explicitly clear that you are paying your fair share of the cost of the actual flight, and highlights the nature of the compensation as covering an expense, not a fare.
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$\begingroup$ Does EASA have a "common purpose" requirement like the FAA does? In the US, I can't split expenses with a passenger if the passenger's purpose is to attend a conference and my purpose is to get a sandwich. $\endgroup$ Aug 18, 2019 at 22:32
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$\begingroup$ @TannerSwett: As far as I can tell, no. Paragraph 7 of the Air Navigation Order states " For the purposes of this Order, “commercial operation” means any operation of an aircraft other than for public transport— (a)which is available to the public; or (b)which, when not made available to the public, is performed under a contract between an operator and a customer, where the latter has no control over the operator, in return for remuneration or other valuable consideration." $\endgroup$– LandakAug 18, 2019 at 23:51
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$\begingroup$ My understanding of the question is that the invoice would be issued by the owner of a rental plane, or in other words, that OP's mother's company would rent a plane and OP would then fly it. $\endgroup$– TooTeaAug 19, 2019 at 11:29
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$\begingroup$ So if the OP's mother would employ him in her company and require him to go the same convention, the OP could "incidentally" fly both of them there, correct? $\endgroup$– DeltaLima ♦Mar 8, 2021 at 15:10
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1$\begingroup$ @Landak, I completely understand intent, which is precisely why I get so frustrated when the rules ninja pendulum swings so far to the hyper conservative side that people are afraid to take a friend somewhere for a burger. There would probably need to be extenuating circumstances for the FAA to haul you into court over a question of which of two friends had the best reason for taking a trip... $\endgroup$ Mar 9, 2021 at 5:35
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In the UK at least if you were flying yourself to the convention for the purposes of legitimately taking part for the purposes of busines then yes, you could get paid for the flight. If you are flying someone else for the purposes of their business then no, you can't. I believe EASA has the same criteria, however every country may have a different interpretation, so you'd have to be more specific, the country being the issuer of your license.
You could fly her to the convention and she could pay half the costs, reimbursed by her company as a legitimate expense, you'd have to pay the other half out of your own pocket. Still, that's half the costs paid.