The wireless industry applauded the introduction of a new bipartisan bill to repeal the Internal Revenue Service’s requirement that employees keep records of cellphone calls and mobile e-mail usage for deduction purposes.
The measure, co-sponsored by Reps. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) and Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), targets an IRS provision that critics decry as outdated and long overdue for elimination.
“Thanks to wireless technology, the days of the desk-bound employee are long gone. Today’s worker carries ‘the office’ in the palm of his or her hand and has the freedom to conduct business on the go. The tax code should be written and enforced in a way that enables, rather than discourages, businesses to embrace the benefits of wireless technology,” said Steve Largent, president of cellular industry association CTIA.
Time for a change
Johnson pressed Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at a hearing why the current law should stay on the books. Paulson, according to Johnson’s press office, agreed it was time to change the statute.
“Because airtime minutes are often unlimited and are free after certain hours, employers generally have no interest in keeping track of employee cellphone or Blackberry use,” Johnson stated at a hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee.”Yet there are now IRS auditors questioning employers’ normal and ordinary business deductions for cellphones and Blackberries because employers have not been keeping records on employee cellphone or Blackberry use.”
Johnson continued: “The IRS wants employers to track employees or be forced to give up the normal deduction for cellphones and Blackberries. Right now, the law does not require employers to track use of the phone at an employee’s desk or the use of e-mail or computers for personal purposes. I think the law needs to be changed to bring it up to date with the fact that their office cell and Blackberry is just an extension of their desk phone and computer.”
CTIA’s Largent said he would like to see the legislation, Modernize Our Bookkeeping in the Law for Employee’s Cell Phone Act, become law this year.
