Four Questions About Tax Law’s Fringe Benefit Changes (Corrected)

Employee perks like a cell phone, company car, or job-related education aren’t subject to tax under the new law—or maybe they are. The answer isn’t clear, and practitioners say the IRS is unlikely to provide guidance anytime soon.

“The IRS isn’t going to have the manpower to address these little points of confusion, because they’ve got very large points of confusion and, honestly, statutory fixes, where they need to figure out whether or not they can do something administratively,” said Christa Bierma, principal in Ernst & Young LLP’s National Tax Department and former attorney-adviser in the Treasury Department’s Office of ...