Taxing the Cell Phone / Blackberry that Your Manager gave You to Work harder smarter

admin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:01:01 +0000

If its not bad enough that your boss is “up your ass” , monitoring your phone calls , emails and bathroom breaks you now have a “new partner” who wants into your life and pocket.

Join the line of the IRS or Revenue Canada who are “here to help you”

Guess that they just got their daily dose of WW 2 type fims – everybody out there is a crook. (but the bureaucrats), taking more and more. hello Obama. Obama to the rescue taking care of your GM and Chrysler car warranty. Just try calling. The government cannot even take care of your driver;s license and now…

Imagine this. Your boss / company gets you a cell phone phone so that you can do even more for the company ( like 22 1/2 hours a day is not enough). The phone lets you be more productive , contact more customers , make more sales / calls / contacts etc etc. On top of that these phones basically have a GPS with triangulation built in. If you boss cannot track you – well now he can down to millimeteres of distance. How fast is that car moving ? Is he / she / it / stick of meat with legs / driving fast enough or too slow ? No matter what just remember that no matter what you can never win – well at least not with these types.

Now it has come to that not only are you being given this tool of a cell phone or blackberry to make you even more productice and accountable to your boss or superior but the IRS now wants to tax you for using the company’s / firm’s cell phone. Imagine this !!!

Basically the American IRS ( Internal Revenue Service), has proposed taxing 25 % of all business cell phones as income

What this can mean is that a person / employee / slave / non-government bureaucrat who is in suppose a 28 % tax bracket currently. and whose work “cell phone” or blackberry communication device costs their company ( at commercial business as opposed to residential deal rates) will pay $ 70 a year more in federal income taxes.

While it is true that the IRS has a law way back on the books that use of business cell phones for personal use it never really was enforced due to the time and difficulties of companies tallying up the time use and charges.

Imagine if the IRS employees should have to pay a percentage of the cost of their desk phone and IRS phones as taxable benefits.

Imagine the tooth fairy.

It is noted by management consultant L. Isfeld that a penny saved is more than a penny earned. To earn that penny or in this case $ 70 to pay the IRS in extra taxes you have to earn a lot more gross income in order to collect that $ 70 in your pocket.

Will it ever end ?.

Yet the IRS defends this practice and suggested tax stream:

he IRS defended its proposals to enforce a law that taxes personal use of employer-provided cell phones, saying the changes are aimed at helping businesses comply, not taxing individuals.

Dow Jones Newswires reported Thursday that an IRS proposal released this week could wind up taxing employees on 25% of the value of their work cell phone. The IRS notice was meant to make it easier to enforce a 1989 law that treats employer-provided cell phones as a taxable fringe benefit.

A senior IRS official Friday said the agency is more concerned about making sure employers deduct the correct amounts for cell phone equipment and services provided to employees, than it is about taxing those employees.

“The motivation for the notice is to clarify how employers can justify a deduction. It wasn’t aimed at employees,” the official told Dow Jones in a telephone interview.

The IRS notice dated June 8 discusses tax implications of employer-provided cell phones both for the employer and the employee.

Marianna Dyson, a lawyer at Miller and Chevalier who specializes in the taxation of employee benefits, said that as a practical matter, the IRS proposals would affect both the business and the employee.

For instance, if IRS implemented its proposal to limit business deductions to 75% of the value of the employer-provided cell phones, and deem the rest personal use, the remaining 25% would have to be counted in an employee’s gross income.

That would trigger both income tax and payroll tax withholding requirements on the employee’s wages.

“If they decide 25% is personal use, guess what? It is a wage, and you have to withhold on it,” Dyson said. “For IRS to suggest this would have no impact on employees, is a little disingenuous.”

Dyson also noted that the IRS Notice doesn’t address how self-employed individuals should handle deducting cell phone expenses.

“Right now, self-employed people have to document every single business call. They are driving around with one hand on the wheel and one on the phone and one in the log book,” said Dyson. “This doesn’t do anything for them.”

The IRS official said the requirement that cell phones be treated as fringe benefits is outdated, and could place a burden on employers. The 1989 law provides that the value of cell phone services can be excluded from an employee’s gross income, and can be a deductible expense to the employer, only if the employee keeps strict records showing that the phone was used for work only.

“At the time this was enacted, every single call cost $4 or $5. That is not the world we live in anymore,” the official said. “We’ve been hearing from companies that [the requirement] is too burdensome. We needed to think about how we could make it less expensive,” the official said.

source: http://english.capital.gr/news.asp?id=755826

What is the answer- either refuse the company phone , don’t use the phone – leave it at the office in the desk , charged up GPS et all. Get your own personal phone . It can be a pay as you go phone . Purchase a small amount of time use allotment credit. Then never use your specific personal phone.

Or just never answer the phone as well. It may be your stupid boss or supervisor calling. Send your manager a poem by email or snail mail post.

Fire Your mean and incompetent boss

Dementia Bay Area Zodiac

www.jerkbossesihaveknown.com

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Taxing the Cell Phone / Blackberry that Your Manager gave You to Work harder smarter