Tax requirements and business cell phone use. By Marianna G. Dyson and Michael M. Lloyd From the October 2006 edition of Thompson's Employer's Guide to Fringe Benefits Rules In the past 17 years, the number of cellular telephone users in the U.S. has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, federal tax rules have failed to keep pace with the business use of cell phones.
Accordingly, employers must document employee business usage in order to deduct the purchase and operational costs of the phones and to exclude the value of their business use from employee income as working condition fringe benefits under Section 132(d) or reimbursements under the accountable plan rules of Section 62(c). Cellular Telephones Are "Listed Property" Congress added cell phones to the definition of "listed property" in 1989. The amount of the expense or other item, the time and place of the use of the property, the business purpose of the expense, and the business relationship to the taxpayer using the property. The Real Exposure What Employers Can Do to Comply. Search Results. Cost Comparison of the Major Cell Phone Plans - Cellphones - Lif. Proposed Bill Would Allow Tax-Free Employee Cell-P. Taxpayer data at IRS remains vulnerable, GAO warns.