Posted by: Michael Disabato
The IRS is at it again. According to the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, the IRS is working on "simplifying" a 20-year old rule that requires the value of employer-issued cellphones to be included in workers' gross income, unless an employee kept detailed records showing the phone was used only for work. The law was passed in the late 80's (last century) when mobiles were a comparative rarity. Since more business calls are now made on mobiles than landlines, and there are more mobiles than wired phone accounts in the U.S. (something that has existed in Europe for a long time), the law would seem to be antiquated.
According to the Journal:
"The Internal Revenue Service proposed employers assign 25% of an employee's annual phone expenses as a taxable benefit. Under that scenario, a worker in the 28% tax bracket, whose wireless device costs the company $1,500 a year, could see $105 in additional federal income tax."
This is going to cause a real mess for employers and employees alike. I strongly urge you to contact your Congress-critter, vent your displeasure, start blogging and tweeting about it, and generally raise a royal stink.
Michael
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