IRS to Tax Employer-Provided Cell Phones

Curtis Dubay / June 15, 2009

The Obama Administration’s desperation for new revenue to feed its massive spending appetite is becoming more apparent every day.

The latest tax hike proposal, this time from the IRS, is to tax 25 percent of the value of employer-provided cell phones or Blackberries.

The rationale is that workers use employer-provided phones to make or receive personal calls, and Blackberries to send and receive personal emails. As such, they should pay taxes on the value of these personal usages, because they are a form of income.

It is unclear how the IRS determined that 25 percent of cell phone and Blackberry usage is personal. (more…)