06-12-2009, 09:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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IRS Wants To Tax Citizens For Personal Use Of Company Phone
"The IRS is weighing a proposal to deem one-quarter of employees' use of work cell phones as personal use and therefore subject to tax as a fringe benefit." For those of you in the US of A, hold on to your wallet. The IRS wants to clamp down on personal use of your employer provided cell phone. Say your employer pays $100 per month for the phone you use and you have a 20% marginal rate. You'd pay an extra $60 in taxes each year ($1,200 X 25% usage X 20% tax rate). That may not sound like much, but it makes calling your spouse a few times a week to tell them you'll be late for dinner pretty expensive. I'm not sure about you, but my company provides drinking water for free and bathrooms with no charge for toilet paper or soap. Will the IRS try to tax us for personal use of our employer's facilities next?
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06-12-2009, 09:23 PM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 524
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That's Crazy!!!
I hope the government is ready to give ATT and Verizon stimulus money. They'll need it after they loose all their corporate accounts. About 9 out of 10 in my office were ready to give back their work phones when we saw that. Most of us have personal and work mobile phones.
Ok, no stimulus would be needed I'm sure the way the telcos can get away with ripping people off so badly.
I think your point Ed is great. When will they start taxing our use of tp and water!!!
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06-12-2009, 09:51 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 30
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Umm...
As usual with Faux News, the truth is buried after the attention-getting outrage.
"Current law already requires that the value of those cell phone services be included in a worker's gross income"
This change would simply make it easier for businesses and would actually cost the individual less on their personal income tax.
__________________
I never claimed to know everything... I'm just right about the things I know!
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06-13-2009, 02:22 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 69
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Interesting that the only mainstream site that was trying to spin this as a good thing for consumers was MSNBC. I don't want to get dragged into a political battle but there is a reason that network is often dead last of all the major news channels.
The Fox News article is actually just a syndication of the original Wall Street Journal article. The point of the article was not that this was a new tax, but that they are rewriting the way that it works. Right now if I use my work mobile for 1500 minutes in a month (ever been on a 12 hour conference call?  ) and for personal 100 minutes, then I'd pay taxes on 6.6% of my bill. This new bill says that it is too cumbersome for employers and employees to track those minutes (because the IRS really care about you... really... honest..., STOP LAUGHING!), so lets just assume that EVERYONE uses their business cell phone for personal use 25% of the time and call it a day.
An now my cell phone taxes went up by 380%.
Last edited by Cattle-Dog; 06-13-2009 at 02:25 PM..
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06-13-2009, 04:15 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by cweeks
As usual with Faux News, the truth is buried after the attention-getting outrage
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Hahaha.... oh, i cannot tell you that the spelling of Fox as Faux just never ceases to get a chuckle out of me, expecially given that if you have a clue as to how to pronounce it, you are saying "as usual with Foe News" which just absolutely makes no freaking sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cattle-Dog
The Fox News article is actually just a syndication of the original Wall Street Journal article. The point of the article was not that this was a new tax, but that they are rewriting the way that it works.
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Yeah, i wanted to link to the WSJ but the only article I could find required a subscription and I don't like linking to those, expecially since the meat of the article was unavaible to the public.
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06-15-2009, 01:26 AM
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Oracle
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 984
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This is always a tough issue because, like, say, company provided vehicles, some employees are given tools by their employers, paid for by their employers, that provide some private benefit that others who do not get these benefits enjoy. Looked at it that way, it seems completely fair to find a way to value these benefits that adds to an employee's reported compensation. At the same time, there is the ugly issue of employer provided healthcare benefits, which are very expensive - more so that any cell phone plan - are are provided tax-free to the employee.
Company cars are generally provided either to employees who work on the road rather than in an office, or as a perquisite to upper-level management, so it's easy to justify going after the big guys who bull in big bucks and could easily afford these automobiles on their salaries. Cell phones are very different, as I think their general effect is one that makes the employee work far more hours for the benefit of the company. In this particular case, it seems as if the company is benefiting far more than the employee who makes and receives a few personal calls.
All that said, the tax laws should be consistent, and it's hard to defend a tax-free benefit like health care while suddenly changing enforcement of cell phone policy which has been largely ignored lately. I'd hope that the IRS realizes that this is a dumb thing to go after and decides instead that it is a necessary tool of the particular employees, such as pencils and paper (which, let's face it, are often used for personal reasons), internet access at work, etc.
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06-15-2009, 03:06 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 30
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Faux
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
Hahaha.... oh, i cannot tell you that the spelling of Fox as Faux just never ceases to get a chuckle out of me, expecially given that if you have a clue as to how to pronounce it, you are saying "as usual with Foe News" which just absolutely makes no freaking sense.
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HAHAHA ... I never tire of guys with no sense of humor. The reference was more to the meaning of "faux" rather than to its pronunciation. But, hey, to each his own. Besides, F***s News is, though accurate, even worse.
__________________
I never claimed to know everything... I'm just right about the things I know!
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06-16-2009, 02:18 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 43
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Just 1 of the reasons I have a personal mobile
Reasons I have a personal mobile:
1. So I can have the tech and provider I want; not what someone dictates as acceptable to the company.
2. So no one can question my ethics regarding using company resources for personal benefit.
3. So I don't have to give everyone in my life that I don't work with a new number if I switch jobs.
4. So I have proof to keep the evil IRS out of my pockets any more than absolutely necessary.
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06-17-2009, 12:58 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 68
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IRS, Treasury want cell phone tax repealed
IRS, Treasury want cell phone tax repealed
http://federalnewsradio.com/?nid=27&sid=1697789
Quote:
IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman called the tax burdensome, confusing and "poorly understood by taxpayers." He acknowledged it was difficult to enforce consistently.
"The passage of time, advances in technology and the nature of communication in the modern workplace have rendered this law obsolete," Shulman said in a statement.
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06-17-2009, 01:33 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by follick
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Nice. A little bit of public outcry helps sometimes. 
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