GOP Proposes Telecommuting Tax Breaks

Web Worker Daily mentions that Senator Brownback (R-KS) and Congressman Terry (R-NE) have introduced the Parents’ Tax Relief Act of 2007.

WWD mentions the following provisions that should be of interest to telecommuters:

• A vastly simplified flat rate home office deduction ($2500 or the profit from your home-based business, whichever is lower), replacing the current complex prorated system that requires exclusive use of part of the home.
   
• A telecommuting tax credit that gives employers up to $2400 credit for each employee who starts telecommuting during the year.
   
• An exclusion from employee income of employer-provided telecommuting equipment including computers and broadband access equipment, making such equipment a tax-free fringe benefit.

As an occasional telecommuter who has on occasion wondered if it was worth the hassle to itemize some of the equipping of my home office, this seems like welcome news.

Of course, as a GOP-sponsored measure in a Democratic Congress…I’ll be surprised if it goes anywhere. Perhaps if they bribed Al Gore to wax poetic on the environmental benefits of telecommuting….