{"id":102,"date":"2017-01-16T03:27:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T08:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/?p=102"},"modified":"2024-11-23T08:31:59","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T13:31:59","slug":"personal-calls-on-business-cell-phones-is-it-time-to-pay-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/?p=102","title":{"rendered":"Personal calls on business cell phones. Is it time to pay up?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;\">The IRS is looking to revamp a 2o year old law regarding employee use of company cell phones.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The law requires employers to track the amount of time employees spend on personal calls.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>This is considered benefit income and can be taxed.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>This law was not very popular because of the tedious task of tracking employee personal phone calls.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But now the IRS is receiving increasing inquires on reviving this law.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>From now until September 4<sup>th<\/sup>, the IRS is accepting comments regarding the proposed changes.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The IRS has come up with three possible methods of how this law will work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;\">The methods are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0in;\" type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN;\">Minimal Personal Use Method:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><strong><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN;\"> This method requires that employers limit calls to minimal use and track the minimal use by employees.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN;\">Safe Harbor Substantiation Method:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><strong><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN;\"> This method requires an employer to use a percentage to determine the portion of time considered business use and non business use.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN;\">Statistical Sampling Method:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><strong><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN;\"> Employers would use a statistical sampling method to determine the amount of time considered business and non business use.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;\"><strong><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><strong><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">For more information, visit the IRS website at <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><strong><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.irs.gov\/govt\/fslg\/article\/0,,id=209572,00.html\"><span style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">http:\/\/www.irs.gov\/govt\/fslg\/article\/0,,id=209572,00.html<\/span><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-size: small;\">.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><strong><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><strong><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">What are your views on these proposed changes?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;\"><strong><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The IRS is looking to revamp a 2o year old law regarding employee use of company cell phones.\u00a0 The law requires employers to track the amount of time employees spend on personal calls.\u00a0 This is considered benefit income and can &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/?p=102\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-savings","category-taxes","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}