« Ind. Decisions - "Lawyers and Employers Take The Fight to 'Workplace Bullies'" | Main | Ind. Courts - "It's time to open up our Hoosier courts to cameras: Technology has changed the meaning of having a public trial" »
Monday, August 04, 2008
Law - Employee cellphones a fringe beneifit, per IRS
From a July 28th story by Jim Puzzanghera of the Los Angeles Times:
Times and technology have changed. Federal tax rules have not. The Internal Revenue Service still considers cellphones to be a pricey fringe benefit and has started enforcing regulations beginning in 1989. That's when Congress decided that mobile phones should be treated like company cars and other executive perks: Their personal use qualifies as extra compensation.The law requires employees to keep detailed records of all calls made on their work-issue cellphones, indicating whether they were business or personal. If they don't, the phone and wireless service are deemed a perk that must be listed as taxable income to the employee.
Most employers were unaware of the rules until the last few years, when the IRS began cracking down and requiring additional taxes to cover the value of the cellphone service provided to employees.
UCLA, for example, was hit with a $239,196 bill this year after IRS auditors found that employees with cellphones were not keeping logs. UC San Diego had to shell out $186,471 for the same reason.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 4, 2008 10:15 AM
Posted to General Law Related