03/09/2026
TENNESSEE AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND MRO’s. YOUR HELP IS NEEDED TO EXEMPT GA AIRCRAFT FROM TN SALES TAX
For anyone that owns an airplane in Tennessee or operates a Maintenance Repair Organization (MRO) you know the Sales Tax in Tennessee is a major thorn in our side for owners to pay, for retaining business within the state, and, bringing business in from other states.
Currently there are two bills introduced in the current state legislative session that look to equalize Tennessee’s sales tax to that of our neighbors. Senate Bill SB2143 and House Bill HB1997. https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.
I am urging you to call and email your state representatives and senators to pass this very important legislative change to help support and grow General Aviation in the great state of Tennessee. Here is where you can go to get the names, emails and phone numbers
https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/LegislatorInfo.
Not only will this level the playing field with our neighbors but it will also give the General Aviation community the same tax breaks that large aircraft (12,500 lbs and over) within the state have been enjoying for about 30 years! This is unfair to the General Aviation community especially when you consider that large aircraft only make up about 10% of the aircraft registered here. It has been suggested that this could be considered unfairly biased.
If we can convince the state legislators to amend the existing tax law to simple remove the words “large” and “transport category” aircraft from the current tax law, then all aircraft owners can benefit from this exemption. This will also incentivize aircraft owners from out of state to come here for repairs and upgrades, in turn generating additional fuel sales & excise tax which otherwise the state of Tennessee would never receive.
We need as much support as possible to get this through. The current opinion of the politicians is they don’t want to lose approximately $6 million in the tax revenue that they currently collect from non-large aircraft owners. This amount represents approximately 0.02% of the current budget for the state!
Time is of the essence so please make your voice heard today!