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Saturday, October 22, 2016

Travel Expenses And Your “Tax” Home



I have a friend who used to commute from northern Kentucky to San Francisco.

He has a unique skill set, and the California employer wanted that skill set badly enough to allow him to work a  week there and a week here.

While his employer paid for his commute - and his lodging and meals while in California - let us frame a tax question for more ordinary taxpayers like you and me:

   Can you deduct your expenses while working out of town?

We will use the Collodi decision to walk through this issue.

Mario Collodi lived in northern California - Paradise, California, to be precise. In 2011 he was working for an employer in southern California. He would work a week of 12-16 hour workdays, and then he would return home for a week off. His wife and children lived in Paradise year-round. He was not trying to find work closer to home.

When he filed their 2011 tax return he claimed almost $30 thousand in travel expenses.

The IRS pulled their return and disallowed his travel expenses.

Off to Tax Court they went.

Let's go through Collodi's argument:
  • He was a motor hand on an oil rig, meaning that he took care of the motors on the rig.
  • The uncertainty of his job made it unreasonable to relocate the family.
  • Which meant that he had to travel for work.

He makes a certain amount of sense. 

The IRS fired back with the following:
  • The Code allows a taxpayer to deduct ordinary and necessary expenses, including traveling expenses while away from home.
  • Which means that one has to determine the location of the taxpayer's home.
  • Which is not what you would immediately think. The Code considers your tax home to be where you work, not where you live. For most of us, that is one and the same, but that was not the case for Collodi. He lived in northern California but worked in southern California.
COMMENT: It is odd to think of one's tax home that way, but it makes more sense if you consider that the term "home" is being used in an income-tax context. If one's purpose to tax your income, then it makes sense that “home” would be redefined to where you earn that income.
  • Collodi immediately had a problem, as his work-home was in southern - not northern - California. He cannot be away from home under this definition.
  • But there is an exception: if you can expect to start and end that out-of-town job in a year or less, the IRS will consider you to be temporarily away from your home, now defined to mean where your wife and kids are. That would cover, for example, the consultant constantly on the road.
  • The flip side is that - if you expect to be there more than a year - then you are hosed. You are considered "indefinitely" away from home, meaning your tax home moved with you and there are no travel deductions.

It all came down to this: how long was Collodi in southern California?

He started in 2010, worked all through 2011 and ended in October, 2012.

More than a year, way more than a year. He was not "temporary." He was "indefinite" and did not qualify for any travel deduction.

At least the Court did not pop them for penalties, reasoning that they relied on a tax professional to prepare the return.
OBSERVATION: The professional should have known better, though. While not said, I wonder whether he/she drew a preparer penalty.
Circling back to my commuting friend, he would not have been able to deduct his northern Kentucky - California travel expenses as he worked there for well over a year. He would have been deemed "indefinite," meaning his tax home moved with him when he traveled to San Francisco.

Why did he not move?

His wife refused.

How did the story turn out?

He changed jobs eventually. The commute and hassle wasn't worth it.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Tax Break For Wealthy (Federal Government) People


Let's talk about a tax break; some may even call it a gimmick. It will never affect your or me, unless we go into the federal government.

Here is Code section 1043:
Sale of property to comply with conflict-of-interest requirements 
(a) Nonrecognition of gain
If an eligible person sells any property pursuant to a certificate of divestiture, at the election of the taxpayer, gain from such sale shall be recognized only to the extent that the amount realized on such sale exceeds the cost (to the extent not previously taken into account under this subsection) of any permitted property purchased by the taxpayer during the 60-day period beginning on the date of such sale.
(b) Definitions
For purposes of this section -
(1) Eligible person
The term "eligible person" means -
(A) an officer or employee of the executive branch, or a judicial officer, of the Federal Government, but does not mean a special Government employee as defined in section 202 of title 18, United States Code, and
(B) any spouse or minor or dependent child whose ownership of any property is attributable under statute, regulation, rule, judicial canon, or executive order referred to in paragraph (2) t a person referred to in subparagraph (A).
Let's say that you are pulling down several million dollars a year from your day job. You have the opportunity to head-up the EPA or the National Park Service. It is almost certain that your paycheck will shrink, and the Congressional committee investigating you may request you sell certain investments or other holdings to avoid conflict of interest concerns.


Folks, this is an uber-elite tax problem.

To ease your decision, the tax Code will allow you to sell your investments without paying any tax. To do so you are required to buy replacement securities within 60 days, and the non-taxed gain will reduce your basis in the new securities.
OBFUSCATION ALERT: To say it differently, your "basis" in the old securities sold will carry-over as your basis in the new securities.
By way, it is not necessary to have Congress to tell you to unload your investments. There is a more lenient "reasonably necessary" standard that might work for you. I am reasonably certain I could come up with some necessary argument so I would not pay tax.

While sweet, Section 1043 is not a complete escape clause. If you think about it, all you have done is delay the taxable gain until you sell the new securities. I suppose an escape clause is to die without selling, but I generally do not consider dying to be a viable tax strategy.

The numbers can add-up, though. It is estimated that Paul O'Neill, a former Treasury Secretary, sold approximately $100 million of Alcoa stock when he took the position. I do not know what the gain would have been (as we do not know the cost), but the tax he deferred must have been eye-opening.

By the way, you can get the same break by drawing a judicial appointment.

I do have a question: do you wonder why the politicos never mention Section 1043 whenever they rail against "tax breaks" used by wealthy people?

Nah, there is no wonder at all.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Do You Have To Register To Be Considered A College Student?


I cannot believe this case made it to the Tax Court.

Granted, it is a "pro se" decision, which means that the taxpayer represented himself/herself. It sometimes is the professional wrestling of tax literature.

I will give you the facts, and you can tell me how the case was decided.

Through 2012 Brittany was a student at Saddleback College (Saddleback) in Mission Viejo, California. Our story takes place in the spring, when Brittany registered for a five-hour physiology course.  She also attended (for eight weeks, at least) a contemporary health course, although she never registered or enrolled in the course.

She filed her 2012 tax return and claimed a $2,500 American Opportunity tax credit. This is the credit for the first four years of college.

The IRS bounced the return. It pointed out the following from Code section 25A:
(B) Credit allowed for year only if individual is at least 1/2 time student for portion of year
The Hope Scholarship Credit under subsection (a)(1) shall not be allowed for a taxable year with respect to the qualifies tuition and related expenses of an individual unless such individual is an eligible student for at least one academic period which begins during such year.
The term "eligible student" in turn is defined as one carrying at least half the normal full-time workload at school.

The IRS saw a five-hour load and did not see an eligible student.

Brittany did not see it that way. She saw a five-hour load and her sitting-in on a three-hour course. That added up to eight hours, which was more than half-time.

What did the Tax Court decide?

We do not need Apple's tax department for this one.

The Regulations require that a student enroll at the school. And the course. Each course.


Five hours was not enough to be half-time. She did not qualify for the credit.

Friday, September 30, 2016

Benefitting Too Much From A Charity

I suspect that many of us know more about public charities and foundations than we cared to know a couple of years ago.

What sets up the temptation is that someone is not paying taxes, or paying extraordinarily low taxes. For example, obtain that coveted 501(c)(3) status and you will pay no taxes, barring extreme circumstances. If one cannot meet the "publicly supported" test of a (c)(3), the fallback is a private foundation - which only pays a 2% tax rate (and that can be reduced to 1%, with the right facts).

We should all be so lucky.


Let's discuss the issues of charities and private benefit and private inurement.

These rules exist because of the following language in Section 501(c):
No part of the earnings [of the exempt organization] inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual….”
In practice the Code distinguishes inurement depending upon who is being benefitted.

If that someone is an “insider,” then the issue is private inurement. An insider is someone who has enough influence or sway to affect the decision and actions of the organization.

A common enough example of private inurement is excessive compensation to a founder or officer.  The common safeguard is to empower an independent compensation committee, with authority to review and decide compensation packages. While not failsafe, it is a formidable defense.

If that someone is an “outsider,” then the term is private benefit.

Here is a question: say that someone sets up a foundation to assist with the expenses of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Several years later a family member is so diagnosed. Have we wandered into the realm of private inurement or benefit?

The Code will allow one to receive benefits from the charity – if that individual is also a member of a charitable class. In our example, that class is breast cancer patients. If one becomes a member of that class, one should sidestep the inurement or benefit issue.

The “should” is because the Code will not accept too small a charitable class. Say – for example - that the charitable class is restricted to the families of Cincinnati tax CPAs who went to school in Florida and Missouri, have in-laws overseas and who would entertain an offer to play in the NFL. While I have no problem with that charitable class, it is very unlikely the IRS would approve.

By the way, the cost of failing can be steep. There may be penalties on the charity and/or the insider. Push it too far and the organization's exempt status may be revoked altogether.

Or you may never be exempt to begin with. Let’s look at a recent IRS review of an application for exempt status.

A family member has a rare disease. You establish a foundation to "assist adolescent children and families in coping with undiagnosed and/or debilitating diseases."

The Code allows you to operate for a while and retroactively apply for exemption, which you do.
Sounds good so far.
You and your spouse are the incorporators.
This is common. You can still establish an independent Board.
Your organizing paperwork does not have a "dissolution" clause.
Big oversight. The dissolution clause means that - upon dissolution - all remaining assets go to another charity. To say it differently, remaining assets cannot return to you or your spouse.
The charity is named after your son, who suffers from an unidentified illness.
Not an issue. I suspect many foundations begin this way.
Your fundraising materials specifically request donations to help your son.
You are stepping a bit close to the third rail with this one.
Since inception, the only individual to receive funds is your son. Granted, you have said you intend to make future distributions to other individuals and unrelated nonprofits with a similar mission statement. Those individuals and organizations will have to apply, and a committee will review their application. It just hasn’t happened yet.
Problem.
The IRS looked at your application for exemption and bounced it. There were two main reasons:

First, the problem with the paperwork, specifically the dissolution clause. The IRS would likely have allowed you the opportunity to correct this matter, except that ...

Secondly, there were operational issues. It does not matter how flowery that mission statement is. The IRS reserves the right to look at what you are actually doing, and in this case what you were actually doing was making your son's medical expenses tax-deductible by introducing a (c)(3). Granted, there was language allowing for other children and other organizations, but the reality is that your son was the only beneficiary of the charity's largesse. The rest was just words.

The IRS denied the request. All the benefits of the organization went to your family, and the promise of future beneficiaries was too dim and distant to sway the answer. You had too small a charitable class (that is, a class of one), and that constitutes private inurement.

And you still have a tax problem. You have an entity that has collected money and made disbursements. The intent was for it to be a charity, but that intent was dashed. The entity has to file a tax return, but it will have to file as a taxpaying entity.

Are the monies received taxable income? Are the medical expenses even deductible? You have a mess.

The upside is that you would only be filing tax returns for a year or two, as you would shut down the entity immediately.

Friday, September 23, 2016

Worst. Tax. Advice. Ever.


Dad owned a tool and die company. Son-in-law worked there. The company was facing severe foreign competition, and - sure enough - in time the company closed. For a couple of years the son-in-law was considerably underpaid, and dad wanted to make it up to him.

The company's accountant had dad infuse capital into the business. The accountant even recommended that the money be kept in a separate bank account. Son-in-law was allowed to tap into that account near-weekly to supplement his W-2. The accountant reasoned that - since the money came from dad - the transaction represented a gift from dad to son-in-law.

Let's go through the tax give-and-take on this.

In general, corporations do not make gifts. Now, do not misunderstand me: corporations can make donations but almost never a gift. Gifts are different from donations. Donations are deductible (within limits) by the payor and can be tax-free to the payee, if the payee has obtained that coveted 501(c)(3) status. Donations stay within the income tax system.

Gifts leave the income tax system, although they may be subject to a separate gift tax. Corporations, by the way, do not pay gift taxes, so the idea of a gift by a corporation does not make tax sense.

The classic gift case is Duberstein, where the Supreme Court decided that a gift must be made under a "detached and disinterested generosity" or "out of affection, respect, admiration, charity or like impulses." The key factor the Court was looking for is intent.

And it has been generally held that corporations do not have that "detached and disinterested" intent that Duberstein wants.  Albeit comprised of individuals, corporations are separate legal entities, created and existing under state law for a profit-seeking purpose. Within that context, it becomes quite difficult to argue that corporations can be "detached and disinterested."

It similarly is the reason - for example - that almost every job-related benefit will be taxable to an employee - unless the benefit can fit under narrow exceptions for nontaxable fringes or awards. If I give an employee a $50 Christmas debit card, I must include it in his/her W-2. The IRS sees an employer, an employee and very little chance that a $50 debit card would be for any reason other than that employment relationship.   

What did the accountant advise?

Make a cash payment to the son-in-law from corporate funds.

But the monies came from dad, you say.

It does not matter. The money lost its "dad-stamp" when it went into the business.

What about the separate bank account?

You mean that separate account titled in the company's name?

It certainly did not help that the son-in-law was undercompensated. The tax Code already wants to say that all payments to employees are a reward for past service or an incentive for future effort. Throw in an undercompensated employee and there is no hope.

The case is Hajek and the taxpayer lost. The son-in-law had compensation, although I suppose the corporation would have an offsetting tax deduction. However, remember that compensation requires FICA and income tax withholding - and no withholdings on the separate funds were remitted to the IRS - and you can see this story quickly going south. Payroll penalties are some of the worst in the tax Code.

What should the advisor have done?

Simple: have dad write the check to son-in-law. Leave the company out of it.



Thursday, September 15, 2016

The Goose And Gander Tax Bill

Here is something that will catch your eye:
It is undisputed that the Debtor failed to file its tax returns for the years 2006 to 2008; and that for such failure, the Debtor incurred penalties totaling $3,662,000."
It is a bankruptcy case from Delaware.
COMMENT: You may wonder how a tax case wound up in bankruptcy court. Bankruptcy law keeps its own beat, and a bankruptcy court can have near-extraordinary powers. For example, the court can determine the amount or legality of any tax, any fine, or any penalty relating to a tax. That is what happened here. The IRS assessed a penalty, the taxpayer protested, the IRS decided it was right (surprise) and submitted the penalty as a claim to the bankruptcy court.
And I find the IRS position so extreme as to constitute bad faith. I further think the IRS should be required to reimburse the professional fees incurred defending against its reckless behavior. You miss a filing deadline by a day or two and one would think the Treasury underpinnings of the nation are in mortal throes. Have the IRS bankrupt you while enforcing some capricious tax argument, however, and you are expected to be a good sport.

I would like to someone (ahem, US Senator Paul) take up the cause. It could be called the Good For The Goose, Good For The Gander - Time For The IRS To Take Responsibility - Act. If the IRS can penalize you for unreasonable positions, then the IRS should also be subject to penalties for unreasonable conduct.  The penalty would be paid to the affected taxpayer.


Our protagonist (Refco Community Pool) formed in 2003 as a partnership. It was an investment group, and their thing was to track the S&P Managed Futures Index. To do this, they needed an investment advisor. They found one in the Cayman Islands (Sphinx Managed Futures Fund). The advisor (Sphinx) in turn used a clearinghouse (Refco, LLC) to execute trades and whatever.
OBSERVATION: Right off the bat, we have two Refco's going - "Pool" and "LLC." Set this aside, as it is not relevant to our story.
Here is what happened:
  1. In 2005 Refco LLC filed for bankruptcy. This caused a run, meaning that ...
  2. Sphinx yanked out $312 million. However, ...
  3. Sphinx had to return $260 million as was deemed a "preference" action.
  4. In 2006 Sphinx went into liquidation. As part of the process, the Court appointed two liquidators.  
  5. The liquidators soon found very serious accounting issues. They in fact advised that they could not assure the accuracy of tax and accounting information provided investors.
  6. Refco Pool wanted its money from Sphinx, but all they received was something called "special situation shares." They were special because no one knew what they were worth until the liquidation was complete, a process which stretched into 2013. 

The IRS noticed that Sphinx was not filing tax returns and issuing K-1s. The Sphinx liquidators explained that it would cost between $5 and $7 million to reconstruct records to even approach a tax return. The two sides came to an agreement, and Sphinx was absolved of filing K-1s from 2005 to 2007.

Let's back up a bit. Who invested in Sphinx? It was Refco Pool. The IRS next went after Refco Pool for not filing its tax return and issuing K-1s.
COMMENT: Here we have a conundrum. Refco Pool has one main asset - special situation shares (whatever that means) in a bankrupt entity with accounting problems severe enough that its liquidators advise against using any numbers. A tax return requires numbers. What to do?
           
Refco Pool argued reasonable cause for abatement of the penalty. You may as well have Refco Pool discover a new planet as get a tax return out of whatever information they could pry from Sphinx.

No, no, no, said the IRS. Refco Pool could have used selected files and summaries and reports and disbursement statements and a receipt from its last visit to Dairy Queen to reconstruct records that Sphinx should have provided but did not because the IRS said it was OK not to and then Refco Pool could have filed its own partnership tax return....

Well ... yes, Refco Pool could. However, the information was unreliable if not completely inaccurate. In fact, the matter went further than that. Even if Refco Pool could do some Harry Potter alchemy, it would not know how to separate the separate tranches, meaning it could not determine its share. And, since we are talking about it, Refco Pool would have no idea what to do with the "special" part of its share - which was certainly less than 100% but not certain to be more than 0%.

The Bankruptcy Court explained:           
As an accrual method taxpayer, the Debtor cannot recognize income until 'all the events have occurred which fix the right to receive such income and the amount thereof can be determined with reasonable accuracy.'"

One could persuasively argue that Refco Pool could not meet this threshold.

The IRS persisted that Refco Pool could have assembled numbers - however fragile - and filed a tax return had it really wanted to.
ANALYSIS: The judicial standard however is not whether Refco Pool exhausted all possible alternatives. The standard is whether Refco Pool exercised the level of care that a reasonably prudent person would under the same circumstances. 

The Court pointed out the tax risk that Refco Pool would have assumed by filing a tax return:
By knowingly filing inaccurate returns, the Debtor had a reasonable cause for concern given the specter of accuracy-related penalties it might incur ...."

The IRS could have penalized Refco Pool if the numbers proved to be substantially inaccurate.

Wait, there is more.

Refco Pool had approximately 1,600 partners to whom it was obligated to issue K-1s. Had those K-1s gone south, the partners too could have gone after Refco Pool.

The Court was unconvinced whether Refco Pool could even sign a tax return:           
Based on this knowledge, a reasonable person would likely be concerned with signing the jurat clause at the bottom of Form 1065..." 
COMMENT: The jurat clause is the one at the bottom of the tax form that reads "... to the best of my knowledge and belief, it is true, correct, and complete."

The Court concluded: 
Based on the evidence presented, the Debtor proved that it carefully considered its filing obligations and undertook appropriate steps in an effort to avoid the failure. Accordingly, the Court holds that the debtor acted in a responsible manner both before and after the failure to file occurred."

The Bankruptcy Court disallowed the IRS penalties.

I grant you, this is an extreme case, but perhaps it takes the extreme case to spotlight outrageous government behavior.

Tax penalties can generally be abated for "reasonable" cause. The problem is that the IRS has redefined "reasonable" in a completely unreasonable way. Why? Many suspect that it wants to keep the penalties to supplement its Congressional funding. Is that really what we want: for the IRS to self-fund by automatically assessing penalties and then imperiously decreeing that any request for abatement of said penalties is not "reasonable"?

I propose a compromise if we cannot get the Goose & Gander bill passed: all IRS penalties are to be returned to Treasury. They are then to be re-budgeted as Congress determines, with no assurance that the monies would return to the IRS.  Perhaps that would cool the IRS jets a bit.

Friday, September 9, 2016

When Does A Business "Start"?

There is a category of deductions that the tax Code refers to as “start up” or “pre-opening” expenses.

For the most part, you do not want to go there.

An active trade or business is allowed to deduct its normal and operating expenses (as defined and limited by the Code, of course). There is a trap in that description, and the trap is the word “active.”

What does it mean be active?

It means the business is up and running.

How can a business not be up and running?

Let's say that you are opening a Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurant. You have all kinds of expenses - in addition to building the place - before you open the doors. You have to turn on the lights, hire and train employees, establish suppliers and receive inventory, and so forth.

All this before you sell your first hamburger.

The problem is that you cannot deduct these expenses, because you have not yet started business. You have to be in business before you can deduct your expenses. There is a Kafkaesque absurdity to the whole thing.

The Code however does step-in and provide the following safety valve in Section 195:

(a)Capitalization of expenditures
Except as otherwise provided in this section, no deduction shall be allowed for start-up expenditures.

(b)Election to deduct 
(1)Allowance of deduction If a taxpayer elects the application of this subsection with respect to any start-up expenditure
(A)the taxpayer shall be allowed a deduction for the taxable year in which the active trade or business begins in an amount equal to the lesser of

(i) the amount of start-up expenditures with respect to the active trade or business, or
(ii) $5,000, reduced (but not below zero) by the amount by which such start-up expenditures exceed $50,000, and
(B) the remainder of such start-up expenditures shall be allowed as a deduction ratably over the 180-month period beginning with the month in which the active trade or business begins.

I do not consider it much of a safety valve, as the best you can get is $5,000. Let the expenses go over $55,000 and you lose even that. You deduct the balance over 180 months.

That is 15 years. Think about it: you can start a kid in first grade and almost put him/her through college before you get to fully deduct your Five Guys start-up and pre-opening expenses.

And that is the problem: the period is so long that it effectively is a penalty. It is one thing when Walmart opens a super store, as they are towing the resources (and cash flow) of a Fortune 500. It is a different issue when a budding entrepreneur heads out there with a hope and a prayer.

Let’s look at the Tizard case.

Julie Tizard graduated from Baylor and entered the Air Force as a 2nd lieutenant. While serving at Wright-Patterson in Dayton, Ohio, the USAF announced that women would be allowed to apply for pilot positions. Julie was all over that, becoming a pilot and rising through the ranks as instructor pilot, flight commander and wing flying safety officer.

In 1990 she started working as a full-time commercial pilot with United Airlines, where she flew 737s, 757s, 767s and the Airbus 320.

The FAA requires commercial pilots to retire at age 65.

Knowing that, she looked for things to do after she turned 65. She decided to start an aviation business in Arizona. She selected an airplane model (the Slingsby T-67C “Firefly”), a single engine propeller model that is fuel-efficient, has excellent visibility, is responsive and is “acrobatic.” Acrobatic apparently has a different meaning to pilots than to ordinary people – think of intentionally rolling or stalling the plane. You have as much chance of getting me on that plane as the Browns have of winning the Super Bowl this year.


She purchased the plane for $54,200. It turned out that the guy selling the plane was a real estate developer with a development in Phoenix. He expressed interest in her services. She was off to a promising start.

She posted a picture of herself with the plane on Facebook. She received 50 “likes.”

The same day she got the plane home, she took out an acquaintance whom she considered a potential client. Being promotional, Julie did not charge her.

Julie set-up an LLC (Tizard) for the business.

She worked up a business plan. She would start by offering aerial land surveys, flight charters and aviation photography, as well as professional aviation and safety consulting. The Firefly was well-designed for this use, and to the best of Julie’s knowledge she was the only person in central Arizona offering this menu of services.

She crunched the numbers and figured that she would break-even at 2.5 aviation hours per month. At 15 hours she was earning a meaningful profit.

Sounds like Julie knew what she was doing.

Time came to prepare her 2010 tax return. She had no income from the airplane and over $13 thousand of expenses.

The IRS bounced her return. They said she had not yet started business.

There are several factors that one considers in determining whether business activities have started:

         (1) Sales

         This is the best evidence, but she did not have any.

         (2) Advertising and marketing
She posted on Facebook and had approached both the seller of the plane as well as an acquaintance as potential customers.
         (3) Business Plan
She had given the matter some thought. She researched potential competition and had analyzed costs to the extent she knew how many flight hours per month were required to break-even.
Seems to me that she had one solid (factor (3)) and one so-so (factor (2)).

Problem is that factor (1) is the elephant in the room. Nothing gets the IRS to back off more than a real person handing over real money.

The Court seemed to like Julie:
The Court found the petitioner's testimony to be credible and forthright."
But the Court was not impressed with Julie's marketing:
However, other than the picture and short statement (that makes no mention of her aviation business) that she posted on her personal Facebook page ..., petitioner did nothing in 2010 to formally advertise to the general public ... or describe the various services that Tizard would offer to its clients."
That left a lot of pressure on factor (3). It was too much pressure, unfortunately:
Petitioner's ... efforts ... do not impress the Court as evidence that Tizard was actually functioning and performing the activities for which it was organized."
The Court decided she had not started business in 2010.  She had to run her expenses through the Section 195 filter. The best she could deduct was $5,000, and the balance would be allowed over the next 15 years.

Is there something she could have done differently?

She could have tried harder to line-up that first paying customer. To be fair, she acquired the plane late in the year, which allowed her little time to react.

Absent revenues, marketing became a critical factor. The Court wanted more than a hopeful conversation or Facebook photo of her next to her new plane. 

I am thinking she should have set-up a business website - including history, services, photos - for the airplane business. Perhaps that, with her business plan, would have been enough.