Topeka ? Flight logs and company records show that relatives of former top Westar Energy executives accompanied them on company planes free of charge and without the executives paying taxes on the value of the flights.

Family members’ flights on corporate aircraft are typically treated as a taxable fringe benefit for the employee. But Westar, according to an internal memorandum in 2000, shifted the tax cost to the company by not taking a corporate deduction for the value of the flights.

As a result, Westar’s tax bill rose, and executives weren’t taxed for the flights of family members.

Tax experts questioned the tactic, saying it appeared to be contrary to Internal Revenue Service regulations.

“That’s not how it works,” said Michelle Cecil, a University of Missouri-Columbia law professor specializing in corporate taxes.

The memorandum on the tax treatment was among documents Westar released last week in response to a request from Kansas Industrial Consumers, a group of commercial electricity customers.

The documents, including passenger lists for five years of flights on Westar planes, showed family members of executives were passengers on as many as five dozen flights a year.

The heaviest users were the families of David Wittig, the company’s former chief executive officer, and Douglas Lake, a former executive vice president. Both left the company last year, Wittig after being indicted on a bank fraud charge involving a private property transaction unrelated to Westar.

“The documents raise many red flags,” said James Zakoura, a lawyer for Kansas Industrial Consumers.

Wittig’s attorney declined to comment, and Lake could not be reached.

The flights were often to New York-area airports near where Wittig and Lake had homes. Last August Wittig, his wife and two children took a 10-day trip to Europe on Westar’s Citation X jet.

The estimated market value of flights by nonemployees on the company’s jets increased from $50,000 in 1997 to $210,000 in 2001.

The use of Westar’s aircraft is part of a grand jury investigation, as well as an investigation by a committee of the Westar board. Westar spokesman Jim Ludwig would not elaborate on the released documents, including the tax treatment of the flight value.

Last week Westar released a new policy on the use of corporate aircraft establishing new procedures for approving flights and recording more information on the purpose of each trip, but without mention of any change in tax treatment of flights by family members.

The company returned the Citation X at a cost of $5 million for terminating the lease early, leaving it only with the smaller Cessna Citation VII.

An executive on a domestic trip taken primarily for business is on the company’s tab and owes no tax on the value of the flight.

But if the trip isn’t mainly for business, then part or all of its value is reported as income on the executive’s W-2. Spouses and children are almost always considered as being on corporate aircraft for personal use, although there are exceptions for a spouse who is also a company employee.

A July 17, 2000, memorandum from Mike Stadler, Westar’s executive director of tax policy, said personal use of the company’s aircraft by family members was to be shown as income for the employee.