A Novel New Tax

[Jogeephus]

Heard today that the IRS will now be taxing cell phones this year if you are required to have one for your work. As I understand it, your tax will be 25% of what your employer has to pay for your phone each month. Based on my bill there are a lot of taxes already on here so I guess you will have to pay 25% on the taxes your employer is charged. Also, since all the gov't employees I know are given cell phones I guess they too will have to pay this tax. Or maybe they will be exempt. It will be interesting to see how many loopholes they will put in there for themselves.

One down just a few more to come. :banana:

 

[kenny thomas]

Hope you are wrong on this one. The truck was part of the package when I was hired and now I have to pay to drive it but can not take it off for taxes. All I need now is to have to pay a tax on the phone bill also.

 

[1982vett]

You didn't really believe the campaign tax promises did you? But I guess cell phone usage isn't earned income.

 

[RD-Sam]

The taxacrats are in charge, get ready for the Carter years all over again! :roll:

 

[chrisy]

well I couldn't believe my eyes on reading this TAXING phones, I thought Oh! no that will happen here now once Brown gets to hear of it. So I looked it up and found this http://www.thompson.com/public/headlines.jsp?id=39 sure hope it doesn't come to this for you all, but if it does hope it stays Stateside. :frowns:

 

[john250]

If you drive a truck
I'll tax the street
If you try to sit
I'll tax your seat
If it gets too cold
I'll tax the heat
If you take a walk
I'll tax your feet

 

[grannysoo]

The taxacrats are in charge, get ready for the Carter years all over again! :roll:

Carter was in the minor leagues compared to the team that we've got now....

 

[mnmtranching]

The taxacrats are in charge, get ready for the Carter years all over again! :roll:

Carter was in the minor leagues compared to the team that we've got now....

The team will coast through the first term. :nod: But LOOKOUT if they get a second term. Talk about taxes :shock: You ain't seen taxes. All this stuff will have to be paid for. :cry2:

 

[1982vett]

Yep, they moaned about Republicans kicking the deficit can down the road, only difference is they are kicking a #3 washtub and carrying 2 - 5 gal. mandatory donation buckets.

 

[MO_cows]

Jogee, where did you hear that? Is there actually a bill pending? 'Cuz that is insane. Most people who get a cell phone for work don't carry around 2 of them, a personal one and the business one. So the gov't is going to tax people checking on their kids, intimate conversations with their spouses, etc?? And, if the company pays the cell phone bill, how does the employee know how much it is in order to pay the tax? Oh, wait, let me guess, it will be another withholding. Make the employer the tax collector. The federal and state taxes have tables, you can check that your withholding is accurate. And social security and medicare are a percentage, so you can tell if they are correctly withheld. But how do you know if the right amount of cell phone tax is withheld if you never saw the bill to begin with? And that's just off the top of my head, there's many more holes in this harebrained scheme.

 

[Jogeephus]

I heard it on the news yesterday. There was a paper in Florida that had a write up on it. I agree with you. Lots of holes in it. I understood there was a simple way to figure it which would be 25% of the phone bill. This seems like double taxation to me - another hole. But Chrissy's post showed there would be other ways to figure this too. Its crazy. What if I work in the international arena and I have a lot of overseas calls. Phone bill could be in the thousands. And why stop at cell phones? Why not charge on the land line phones in the office cause these are also used for personal reasons. Bottom line is that we have too many people with their hands out. I'm really beginning to think Jimmy Buffet had a point.

Here is a link that I think sumes up the 25% deal. BTW - the IRS says they are doing it to help us out. :shock:

http://www.reuters.com/article/technolo ... RP20090612

 

[john250]

The taxacrats are in charge, get ready for the Carter years all over again! :roll:

Carter was in the minor leagues compared to the team that we've got now....

The team will coast through the first term. :nod: But LOOKOUT if they get a second term. Talk about taxes :shock: You ain't seen taxes. All this stuff will have to be paid for. :cry2:

2010 comes first.
The House of Reps is the ultimate democratic institution (small d). If your congressman is supporting the stuff going through the House, and you don't like it, vote (and contribute and support) an alternate. You can make a difference in one Congressional District. Representatives are easy to meet and they respond pretty quickly to their constituents opinions, or they get beaten in the next election. Let the voters punish incumbents in the House for their sins ;-) and you will see a new tone in DC.
OK, that's my political rant for the day. :welcome:

 

[MO_cows]

The whole concept is flawed. Because the elected representatives get backlash when income taxes are raised, they come up with all these other taxes that are easier for the public to swallow. But for every new tax and surcharge, there comes an administration or bureau to oversee it. So more of the money probably goes to administration than straight into the treasury.

 

[1982vett]

Actually it is already law, just not enforced.

Using business property for private use is and has always been considered income to the person using the business property. The tax would not apply to your personal cell phones as they were not considered an expense for your business or the business you work for to deduct.

Same applies to the lawn tractors that are purchased to keep the grass mowed around barns that were bought as farm equipment and depreciated. If you are mowing your yard around you house with it you are breaking the law and a tax cheat. It is not illegal to do so if you are so inclined to keep a massive amount of paperwork documenting and apportioning such use of the equipment as personal use and business use then take the tax deductions only for the business use of such items.

Obama, said he was going to close loop-holes as one of the means to increase tax revenew. This is one of them.

 

[Jogeephus]

Actually it is already law, just not enforced.

After reading some of the links I saw this was the case. I've said it several times if not a hundred the gov't has a bunch of teeth most people don't even know are there. I'm afraid they are fixing to show them to us.

 

[grannysoo]

The House of Reps is the ultimate democratic institution (small d).

Actually not. Walmart is the ultimate democratic institution.

When you go to Walmart, you can choose among 50 - 100 different brands and tastes of toothpastes. The only difference in the House or Reps is one tube is marked R and the other tube is marked D.

Same color, same results, just a little different taste in your mouth.

The days of voting "change" have been over for many years...

 

[john250]

The House of Reps is the ultimate democratic institution (small d).

Actually not. Walmart is the ultimate democratic institution.

:lol2: :lol2: I don't think I can argue with that. :lol:

 

[jedstivers]

This is the first administion to fulfil it campaign promise. Change. I didn't like the idea then and I don't like it now.