Actually, Now IRS Wants Congress To Repeal Tax On Work-Provided Mobile Phone
from the wow,-public-response-worked dept
Earlier this week, we wrote about how the IRS was exploring how to enforce an old law that required people whose mobile phones were paid by their employers to pay taxes on the phone service as a "fringe benefit." That got quite an uproar, and it appears the IRS is now saying that it agrees it's a really stupid idea and hopes that Congress will repeal that old law. Of course, it's not clear why it was even explored late last week as a possibility if the administration is so against the idea.![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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Filed Under: fringe benefits, irs, mobile phones, taxes
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Ridiculous
You can get some good updates to the tech world on http://www.oshishtech.com
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Re: Ridiculous
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The people doing the exploring and the people doing the policy making aren't always the same people. How many people at the IRS? How many people in the administration? Do you really think it is possible for everyone one of them to have exactly the same plan?
It depends on the sources - who is the source for the first report, and who is the source for the second report? I suspect they don't even know each other.
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It is the IRS's job to enforce the laws that congress tells it to enforce. However, it's Congresses job not to pass stupid laws like this. If Congress does pass a stupid law then blame congress, not the IRS. I'm not saying I agree with this law, just that it's congress to blame for passing it.
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Re: Not enforced for twenty years .....
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I would rather most government institutions evaluate ideas on their merits, rather then dismissing them based on a single belief. The investigation validates the dismissal.
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The Reasonable Answer
For once our government is proactive about repealing unneeded laws.
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RE:
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Do the math
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I once worked for a company that gave each employee a PIN number for making long-distance calls. the day I started my manager gave me hers since the PINs came from corporate and took several weeks to assign them. I used her PIN the ENTIRE time I worked there and she never once asked me about any calls I made, and since she was a manager nobody was going to question any of her calls.
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Is it any surprise they are looking for money?
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IRS and taxing cell phones
Are we saying professional journalists are often wrong, but bloggers are "often wrong but never in doubt?"
Personally, I buy the "reported the IRS position incorrectly" version. Nothing against bloggers (I love the TechDirt blog, in spite of the obsession with leisure time problems (ie, the entertainment industry) - read, relatively unimportant stuff. to the detriment of things that are actually important), but hey, it isn't just professional journalists that are human - live with it, bloggers!
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Tax on company supplied cell phones
Does the Speaker of the House pay taxes for the Government Airplane she uses?
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