Congress Urged To Drop IRS Cellular Rule
A long list of colleges and universities want Congress to fix what they believe is an outdated Internal Revenue Service record-keeping requirement governing use of employer-provided cell phones and other electronic communication devices. Current IRS rules impose an onerous burden on higher education and other employers across the country, they wrote in recent letters to leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee, which have bills to overhaul the policy pending before them.
Reps. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., and Sam Johnson, R-Texas, and Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and John Ensign, R-Nev., introduced the legislation to change the regulation, which treats employer-provided phones as a taxable fringe benefit. A similar proposal was approved by the House in April 2008 but was never enacted. When Congress created the rule in 1989, cellular technology was in its infancy and devices were "big and bulky, expensive and rarely used," they wrote. Now they are "practically an appendage."
The IRS recently began enforcing the rules requiring employees to maintain detailed records of their business and personal use of phones, BlackBerrys and similar devices but has also acknowledged the law is burdensome. In June, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said he would work with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to urge Congress to repeal current law.
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