VALPARAISO | Porter County attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger is among the county employees and elected officials who use a county-issued cell phone as part of the job.

While she purchased her phone and primarily uses it for county business, as is called for in the county policy book, she said she does receive and make the occasional private call.

As a result of those occasional private calls, she and 51 other county employees and officials who have been issued cell phones are being taxed on them as a fringe benefit as of last week.

Porter County Auditor James Kopp said he determined the personal call portion of the cell phone service is valued at $120 a year, which is the amount that will be added to the employees' W2 forms as taxable income.

The policy also labels take-home vehicles as a taxable fringe benefit to the tune of $3 a day, unless they fall under a list of exemptions identified by the county. Those exemptions include police officers with arresting powers, coroner vehicles, highway supervisors, animal control officers and others who are considered to be on 24-hour call.

The county has determined the fringe benefit tax does not apply at this time to any of its employees or officials with take-home vehicles.

The policy, which was adopted recently by the Porter County Commissioners, says it was created as a result of an audit of the county under way by the Internal Revenue Service.

No such policy is in place in neighboring Lake County, but county attorney John Dull said last week he planned to look into the matter and do whatever needs to be done to comply with the IRS.

An IRS spokeswoman said last week she was not permitted to discuss particular tax matters.

But various IRS tax documents on the matter define a fringe benefit as "a form of pay for the performance of services in addition to stated pay."

The government's list of fringe benefits extend beyond cell phones and take-home vehicles to include items such as educational assistance, meals and lodging. The list also includes a number of exceptions.

The rules involving fringe benefits apply not just to federal, state and local units of government, but also to private businesses, according to the IRS.