IRS, Treasury want cell phone tax repealed

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration asked Congress today to repeal a widely ignored tax on the personal use of company cell phones after sparking an outcry last week when it sought ideas for enforcing the law.

The 1989 law says that personal use of a company cell phone should be taxed like other fringe benefits. The law, however, can be cumbersome for workers who increasingly use mobile devices for texting, e-mailing and browsing the Internet — sometimes for work, sometimes for personal use.

“The current law, which has been on the books for many years, is burdensome, poorly understood by taxpayers, and difficult for the IRS to administer consistently,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said in a statement. “The passage of time, advances in technology, and the nature of communication in the modern workplace have rendered this law obsolete.”