The Wall Street Journal brings us the new evidence of Treasury’s desperate need for cash:
The IRS is weighing a proposal to deem one-quarter of employees’ use of work cellphones as personal use and therefore subject to tax as a fringe benefit.
The proposal is one of several options the IRS put forward this week on the tax treatment of employer-provided cellphones. Current law already requires that the value of those cellphone services be included in a worker’s gross income, unless the employee keeps detailed records showing that the cellphone is used for work only.
Obviously, the IRS hasn’t thought much of the cost of enforcing such a law. Or maybe that’s the point. The need for enforcement will require hiring many, many, many IRS employees. What’s next, taxing the use of work computers?
Read this story here.
