Tax breaks for businesses in the President’s 2011 budget are fairly meager, though they include the much-touted elimination of the capital gains tax for small businesses for certain stock held for more than five years, and the permanent extension of the research and experimentation (R&E) credit, which expired at the end of last year.

Mr. Obama is also asking Congress to repeal a law that treats employee use of employer-provided cell phones as a taxable fringe benefit. Currently, companies are required to keep detailed records of employees’ use of cell phones, Blackberrys, and similar equipment for both business and personal calls, and employees are liable for income tax on the value of any personal use.

If any tax law was ripe for the scrap heap, this would be it. The IRS took a stab at reforming the rules last summer, as I blogged about here, but quickly backed off in the face of opposition from businesses worried that the agency intended to tighten up enforcement.

Since many businesses ignore the rules anyway, nobody’s going to be tempted to see this as a huge tax break, but it’s a move in the direction of common sense. And it would be a welcome reduction in the overall tax compliance burden for more conscientious companies.

Other goodies in the budget are few and far between, but there are one or two bright spots for business — more on that in my next blog. ###