Cell phone bill from the IRS

This editorial is from the Chicago Tribune:

In 1989, when cellular phones were as big as bricks, sold for thousands of dollars and cost up to a dollar a minute to use, Congress added them to the list of executive perks that count as taxable compensation if used for personal business. Today almost 6 million people carry cell phones provided by their employers, and we don't know a single person who's complying with the federal requirement to log personal vs. work calls.

Do you? Chances are you didn't even know you were supposed to keep track.

And your boss -- who'd surely frown if you treated your houseguests to dinner on the corporate credit card -- couldn't care less if you use the company cell to call your mom, your kids or your local Chinese takeout place. Mega-minute calling plans are the norm these days, and those personal calls likely don't cost your employer a dime as long as you're under your limit. Who cares if you treat them like your own? The Internal Revenue Service, that's who.

The IRS recently socked UCLA for $239,196 and UC San Diego for $186,471 for back taxes on the value of cell phone service provided to employees. State universities are among the first victims of an IRS crackdown on executive compensation at tax-exempt institutions. But businesses are worried that they'll soon be in hot water for blowing off a rule they thought had gone the way of the telegraph.

That's why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Federation of Independent Business and other groups are lobbying Congress to change the outdated law. The House has already passed a bill that would remove cell phones from the list of taxable perks; a similar bill is now before the Senate.

Businesses and governments say the law's record-keeping requirement is an unreasonable burden. There's a lot of overlap between the personal and professional lives of today's worker bees, and cell phones are now a necessary business tool, not an executive toy. And there are no such laws governing the use of land-line calls.

"Nowadays (cell phones) are a dime a dozen, and the cost is way down," says Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, who sponsored the bill in the House. "If you don't log all your telephone calls, you're going to have some IRS weenie after you. . . . It just doesn't make sense anymore."

Put simply, a cell phone is now an employee benefit right up there with free coffee in the break room. It's time for the law to stop treating it like a company car.