The IRS Is Coming After Employee Work Phones

The IRS really wants to help businesses comply with tax laws regarding employee cell phones, so the agency has issued a new proposal that would have employers assign 25% of the cost of an employee's cell phone as taxable benefit.

This represents a shift to stricter enforcement of a rule that treats cell phones as a benefit to the employee, rather than an instrument of the employee's work.
The government says that this isn't targeted at the employees themselves, and claims that the proposal is instead a way for employers to simplify the process of determining what portion of the employee's cell phone bill is deductible and what is a taxable benefit for the employee.

"The motivation for the notice is to clarify how employers can justify a deduction. It wasn't aimed at employees," an unnamed IRS official told the Dow Jones Newswires.

Employees would still be taxed on the benefit, though.  "If they decide 25% is personal use, guess what? It is a wage, and you have to withhold on it," Marianna Dyson, an employee benefits attorney at Miller and Chevalier told Dow Jones. "For IRS to suggest this would have no impact on employees, is a little disingenuous."

See Also:
Tax Man's Target: The Mobile Phone (WSJ)
IRS Defends Tax Proposal for Employer - Issued Mobile Phones (WSJ)