Listed Property
Beware the Tax Man! - TELL CONGRESS to TAKE ACTION TODAY - Help Protect Consumers and Small Business by Supporting the ‘MOBILE Cell Phone Act of 2009’
(Modernize Our Bookkeeping In the Law for Employee’s), or S. 144 and H.R. 690
Does your employer provide you with a wireless device? Do you ever use it to make a personal call? If you do, current law says you have to pay taxes on that use. Outrageous? Yes! However, there is still hope. The I.R.S., the Treasury Department, and Congress, all think it’s a good idea to support a critical update of the tax code. And MyWireless.org is helping organize America’s businesses and wireless consumers to fight the outdated I.R.S. taxation of wireless.
Please urge your Representative and Senators in Washington, D.C., to join their colleagues by cosponsoring S. 144 and H.R. 690, the ‘MOBILE Cell Phone Act of 2009,’ today.
Under current U.S. tax law, employees receiving a work-provided wireless device for day-to-day usage are required to keep a detailed phone call log on any personal use of that cell phone provided for under the work plan. These strict requirements were added at a time when cell phones were considered an expensive luxury item, only used by executives. Wireless today is of course less costly, more efficient, a necessity and a lifeline. It has unquestionably become the go-to device today for staying in touch, for written communication, for document sharing while on-the-go, for emergencies and for so much more in the day-to-day activities of business and government.
You may have recently read in the news that the I.R.S. and U.S. Treasury Department have even acknowledged that the current record-keeping tax requirements of this provision of the law is burdensome. In fact, on June 16th of this year, I.R.S. Commissioner Doug Shulman and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urged Congress to repeal this current law. “The passage of time, advances in technology and the nature of communication in the modern workplace,” Shulman said, “have rendered this law obsolete. [We] ask that Congress act to make clear that there will be no tax consequence to employers or employees for personal use of work-related devices such as cell phones provided by employers.”
Thankfully, more than 270 million American wireless consumers, and also millions of American companies and small businesses have hope. Congress has introduced legislation this year on both sides of the Capitol to fix this current situation, and to repeal this provision which would only increase bureaucracy, stifle businesses and employees, and create more unnecessary government red tape. The ‘MOBILE Cell Phone Act of 2009’ is overwhelmingly bipartisan legislation to modernize an outdated and archaic piece of the U.S. tax code, that if enforced would only further hinder wireless consumers’ and businesses’ efficiency and productivity. S. 144 and H.R. 690, pro-consumer legislation to remove cellular telephones, smartphones and similar wireless communications devices from application of the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) “Listed Property” rules under section 280F, will alleviate a burdensome tax measure imposed on business and employees because of their employer-provided wireless devices.
In the last session of 2008, the U.S. House repealed this outdate law, but it failed to pass the Senate even though 60 Senators co-sponsored the bill. Given the broad support of this proposal, it is clear Congress is ready and willing to act. And the Administration has certainly made its stance clear in the statements of Commissioner Shulman and Secretary Geithner. In these uncertain economic times, relieving American taxpayers and American businesses of an over-reaching, onerous and costly tax provision is certainly appreciated by all.
Join MyWireless.org today to strongly urge Congress to follow the Administration’s leadership, and urge your lawmakers to please support and co-sponsor this important pro-consumer and pro-business legislation, known as the ‘MOBILE Cell Phone Act of 2009” (S. 144 and H.R. 690), currently being considered before the Congress.
YOU CAN HELP TODAY by encouraging your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators in Washington, D.C., to support and co-sponsor S. 144, and also House companion bill, H.R. 690, the ‘MOBILE Cell Phone Act of 2009,’ which would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to remove cell phones from ‘listed property.’