IRS, Treasury want cellphone tax repealed

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration asked Congress on Tuesday to repeal a widely ignored tax on the personal use of company cellphones, reversing its policy just a week after seeking comments on how to better enforce the law.

The 1989 law says that personal use of a company cellphone should be taxed like other fringe benefits.

"The current law, which has been on the books for many years, is burdensome, poorly understood by taxpayers, and difficult for the IRS to administer consistently," IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said in a statement. "The passage of time, advances in technology, and the nature of communication in the modern workplace have rendered this law obsolete."

Shulman said he and Treasury Commissioner Timothy Geithner were asking Congress to repeal the tax, which has been widely criticized as outdated by the cellphone industry and lawmakers.