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Print Edition StoriesThursday, July 2, 2009
Policy Tracker
Baby boomers as entrepreneurs; Obsolete work cell phone tax
By Kent Hoover, ACBJ Wire Service
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Baby boomers may produce new ‘entrepreneurship boom’
Aging baby boomers aren’t headed out to pasture — they’re starting new businesses, according to a Kauffman Foundation study that predicts the U.S. may be “on the cusp of an entrepreneurship boom.”
Over the past decade, Americans between 55 and 64 years old had the highest rate of entrepreneurship. The 20-to-34- year-old bracket had the lowest rate, despite the attention lavished on youthful founders of companies such as Facebook or Google.
IRS to Congress: repeal tax on use of ‘work’ cell phones
The Internal Revenue Service has decided it doesn’t want to tax personal use of cell phones provided by employers. The agency created an uproar when it proposed ways to simplify compliance with tax law, which treats personal use of work-supplied cell phones as personal income. To simplify compliance, the IRS sought comment on several options, included treating 25 percent of the cell phone’s use as personal use. That created an uproar, and some reports “incorrectly implied that the IRS is ‘cracking down’ on employee use of employer-provided cell phones,” Shulman said.
In response, the IRS and the Treasury Department have asked Congress “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,” Shulman said. “The passage of time, advances in technology and the nature of communications in the modern workplace have rendered this law obsolete.”
“The 1989 law is outdated, and does not reflect the the reality of business or the nature of communication today,” said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. “There is no reason why Congress can’t quickly act to put this relic to rest.”
The House passed legislation last year to repeal the cell phone tax, but it failed to pass the Senate.
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a subcommittee chairman on the House Ways and Means Committee, said the law should be repealed and promised “to address this issue once again. … Cell phones and BlackBerrys are a part of the modern workplace where employees are always on call.”
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