IRS Makes a Fuss About Personal Calls at Work

About a year ago, I wrote about how the IRS was attempting to revive an old rule to make people pay taxes on minutes spent making personal calls on work-issued cell phones. That rule was written in 1987, when cell phones were quite the fancy, bulky corporate perk. Of course, back in the halcyon days of August 2008, this seemed like the IRS deciding to be sticklers about an outdated rule, probably just for giggles. 

At the time, I quoted Hank Paulson as saying that a change in the rules seems "like the right idea to me." Paulson has since become distracted by a few other issues. And today's Wall Street Journal reports that our cash-strapped government may be gunning those nickles and dimes after all. 

The Journal article also highlights a potential unintended consequence:

It's one thing if the next Tom Daschle forgets to pay taxes on his company chauffeur. But it'll be quite another if the next nominee goes down for taking too many personal calls without giving the government its due.