Effective tax years beginning after December 31, 2009 the IRS has published regulations in regards to employee use of business cell phones. The IRS has specified that an employer provided cell phone issued to an employee “primarily for noncompensatory business reasons” will be considered by the IRS as business use of the employer issued cell phone and will be considered a working condition fringe benefit, while the personal use will be treated as a de minimis fringe. Please see IRS Notice 2011-72
For the full IRS publication issued September 14, 2011 please visit the IRS’ website: IRS Issues Guidance on Tax Treatment of Cell Phones; Provides Small Business Recordkeeping Relief