A couple of people have spoken to me about this topic and asked me to put my thoughts to virtual paper. As you might know, our dear dear friends over at the US Internal Revenue Service...you know, those people whom you just LOVE to give your hard earned money to every couple of weeks, are thinking about changing the law on the value and benefit of a corporate liable device.
So the IRS now recognizes that the law is perhaps challenging to understand and that it needs to be updated. Well, President Obama has gone on the record to say that he thinks the law should be completely scrubbed. I couldn't agree more. Not that I am one to ever beat around the bush, but this law is up there with the craziness of tax code. Now in fairness, the original law was written in 1989 - that's 20 years ago if my math skills hold up. Me thinks that mobility has changed just a wee bit since then.
First of all, when you get a device from your company, let's be clear. They are NOT giving you a perk. They are giving you a work tool that just so happens to come home with you so you can work whenever your thumbs feel compelled to tap away on your (virtual) keyboard. Your boss can get a hold of you right when you're about to go out for dinner with friends or loved ones. You will check email on Sunday when you come home from Church. Yes my friends, I should be taxed for that convenience.
Second, in the last 20 years, there have been just a few changes in cell phone plans (note sarcasm). Let's just briefly touch upon pooled plans. You know, the ones where you can call anyone in your family, or if it's a device on a corporate plan, the people in your company. Take that now to the fact that all the major carriers have free mobile to mobile calls and that certain providers will allow you to pick select numbers regardless of where they "live" to be free. How on earth could anyone separate any of that?
Yes, you could use a nifty wireless expense management solution to track every single call a person makes, cross tab it with a master database to see who you are calling and then add the extra option of being able to snoop in on calls to make sure that when you are talking to a colleague, you ONLY talk about work...make sure you don't let the government catch you talking about what your plans are for the weekend, because that should be taxed as a benefit. What happens if you say during that call that you are taking your wife and kids to the beach, but you'll be checking emails and working on a proposal? Does that make it OK?
So that's just voice calls. What about data plans? The IRS should create a bot that carriers have to install to track every web site you go to to determine whether it was work related or not. I wonder how they'll do that with RIM's NOC that is based in Waterloo. Waterloo ain't (yes, I said ain't) in the US my friends...
Modern mobile communications and the associated rate plans make it a nightmare for companies to precisely track what percentage of a device is being used for work versus "personal" use. So please, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, please stick to your latest view when you asked Congress to completely repeal the law.
Then again, I'm one of those guys who thinks we need to completely scrub the way we approach taxes. Kill the income tax code and then just put a federal sales tax on EVERY purchase. But what the heck do I know?
