$30-$60 2006 federal tax return credit

NovaKane · 01-31-2007, 04:42 PM

This seems to be on the up-and-up. That's a MB or almost a week's worth of comics. Sweet!

What is this all about? Well the federal excise tax has been charged to you on your phone bill for years. It is an old tax that was assessed on your toll calls based on how far the call was being made and how much time you talked on that call. When phone companies began to offer flat fee phone service, challenges to the excise tax ended up in federal courts in several districts of the country. The challenges pointed out that flat fee/rate phone service had nothing to do with the distance and the length of the phone call. Therefore, the excise tax should/could not be assessed.

Check out the full article here:
http://snopes.com/business/taxes/excise.asp

Gatekeeper2Hell · 01-31-2007, 07:45 PM

I can confirm this info. The following is from the "News" section of my July 22 AT&T bill:

"EXCISE TAX MESSAGE
The U.S. Treasury Department has announced that it will no longer collect a 3% excise tax on long-distance plans and services. Eligible Customers will be able to file for refunds on their 2006 tax returns on taxes paid since March 2003. More details will be available from the IRS later this summer. Please check www.irs.gov for more information."

Unfortunately, I didn't start paying for a phone until the house I bought was completed and moved into in February of 2005. I have all my old bills, and have only paid $1.72 in Federal taxes.

I use my cell phone is for long distance unless I'm faxing an order in to Bowen, which now has online ordering.

Zurbaran1 · 01-31-2007, 07:50 PM

Someone posted this information here a while ago.

Gatekeeper2Hell · 01-31-2007, 07:57 PM

Oh good. According to the IRS website, they don't care.

Quote:

Originally Posted by IRS

How do I decide if it’s better for me to use the actual or take the standard amount?

You can use whichever method gives you the larger refund. The standard amount is based on actual telephone usage data. It is an amount applicable to a family or other household and reflects the tax on long-distance or bundled service paid by similarly sized families or households. Using this amount may be the easiest way for taxpayers to request their refund and avoid gathering old phone records. However, for some taxpayers, requesting a refund based on the actual amount of tax paid may be more beneficial.