New legislation would simplify taxes on cellphones for business

The House passed a bill that would repeal the Internal Revenue Service requirement for employees to maintain detailed logs of cellphone and Blackberry use for tax-filing purposes.
The Modernize Our Bookkeeping in the Law for Employees CellPhone Act was sponsored by Sen. Sam Johnson (R-Texas), a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
“Picture a cellphone in 1989. Back then, cellphones were the size of a shoe, it required a suitcase to carry the battery, and each minute cost a small mint. Around that time, a law was put in place to require that detailed log sheets be kept by employees of their cellphone use in order to document their business use. Those rules made sense back then. Fast forward to today. Clearly, time and technology have marched on. It’s time that we update this outdated law,” said Johnson.
Johnson said one of his constituents — faced with having to forfeit the deduction for mobile phone and Blackberry business use unless detailed records were provided to the IRS — provided the inspiration for the legislation.
Johnson’s measure was rolled into a bigger bill, the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act of 2008. In odd twist, Johnson voted against that bill. The lawmaker said he did so because Democrats larded the tax simplification measure with unrelated items.