Last month, in Golf, Private Jets, and Executive Perks: Where Are the IRS and SEC?, we blogged the wonderful research by Wall Street Journal reporter Mark Maremon, who compared USGA golf handicap records available on the Internet (which list rounds played by golfers at particular courses and their scores) with flight records from commercial aviation services to track how often CEOs used corporate jets to ferry them on golf excursions.  The post noted that golfing execs "pay only the income tax assessed on the value of personal flights. The tax usually amounts to just a few hundred dollars per flight, and is determined by a complex IRS formula [Reg. §1.61-21(g)] that takes into account the distance traveled and the employee’s position in the company."

The Wall Street Journal reports (Senate Aims Tax At Executive Use Of Corporate Jets) that the Senate tax bill would eliminate this perk:

The U.S. Senate, in a measure aimed at curbing a controversial corporate perk, approved a provision that would require executives to pay significantly higher income taxes when they take personal trips on company jets. The amendment was added just before midnight Thursday to a broader tax bill approved by the Senate. The jet-tax provision isn’t part of a tax bill pending in the House of Representatives. After the House passes its version, the two bills will go to a conference committee to be reconciled before becoming law.

The provision would require executives and other employees to pay tax on the company’s actual cost of providing them personal travel on corporate jets. Under current law, such personal jet travel is valued with a formula that is loosely related to the price of first-class airfare. The measure would raise an estimated $95 million in extra taxes over the next decade, according to Congress’s joint tax committee.