My company is allowing me to fly myself in a small plane instead of me traveling on the airlines. They will reimburse me up to $10k per year.

A guy I know is willing to lease me 100 hours/year in his plane, but the cost would come out to be about $16k/year with the fuel.

The company that sold the guy his plane (let's call it Company X) is willing to pay the $6k I'm over budget in turn for my company doing some free marketing for them, which my bosses are fine with.

This is great, but here's the potential problem: For tax purposes, Company X wants to pay me and have me then pay the aircraft owner. If I claim this $6k as an itemized deduction, will I have to pay any taxes on this money?

Currently I use the standard deduction.