My company was reimbursing a portion of employee cellphone bills bc we use our personal phones for work, but they decided that will stop after this month. The rationale they gave was we can claim our cellphone bills on taxes and thus them reimbursing is a double benefit for employee. 🙄
My understanding is that with TCJA, employees could not claim a deduction for cellphones (at least through 2025) except for specific circumstances which I don’t think I meet (I’m in home healthcare).
Regardless of the changes in my net income between tax-free reimbursement and a deduction, will I be able to claim an unreimbursed employee expense on my taxes for 2026 on or has TCJA been further codified?
Thanks for any insight.
Posted by StylixG
4 Comments
What state are you in?
Yeah, that seems so odd that they think you can get reimbursed by taxes! For several reasons. One, a tax deduciton is nowhere near the same as reimbursement, if they reimburse you you can’t get the tax deduction (even pre 2017 rules), and there is currently no federal deduction even. Are they a really small employer?
Tell them you look forward to receiving your company-issued cellphone for work use.
Unreimbused employee expense are not deductible. The TCJA got rid of that and the OBB made it permanent.
If you are on an unlimited plan and would be on that plan regardless of where you work, then using the phone for work isn’t really costing you anything. However if you are a non-exempt employee, they may need to compensate you for your time spent on work related calls.