IRS Calls for Ending Taxation of Employer-Provided Cell Phones
Two weeks ago the Internal Revenue Service raised the hopes of many campus business officers by suggesting ways it might relax federal rules governing how employers must account for usage of cell phones they provide to workers, regulations that have proved vexing (and expensive) in some federal audits of colleges and universities. But Tuesday it went even further, as Commissioner Doug Shulman announced that the agency would no longer consider employees' use of employer-provided cell phones to be a taxable benefit. "Secretary Geithner and I ask that Congress act to make clear that there will be no tax consequence to employers or employees for personal use of work-related devices such as cell phones provided by employers," Shulman said. "The passage of time, advances in technology, and the nature of communication in the modern workplace have rendered this law obsolete." (Hat tip to TaxProf Blog.)
