Tax Credit on Phone Bills

GuyWithGun

GuyWithGun

CAGiversary!
Just discovered this on Snopes and thought I'd pass it along.

Basically there was a Federal Excise Tax on all phone bills that started to help fund the Spanish-American war in 1898. It was against long distance calls based on distance and legth of time. This was before the flat fee/rate phone services.

The IRS recently lost many federal court cases and ordered the phone companies to stop collecting the 3% tax.

Taxpayers are now eligible to claim a refund of the long-distance tax billed for any phone service (cell, fax, computer, or land line) in the 41-month period from 28 February 2003 through 31 July 2006.


Here is the article on Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/excise.asp


And for those who want more information, (or think this is a scam), the IRS has a page dedicated to questions and answers:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161506,00.html


It's only going to be a $30-$60 refund, but hey, money's money. :)
 
I thought I'll just clear something up for anyone reading this.

[quote name='IRS site']For many individual taxpayers who want to take the standard amount, there are no additional forms to file, and they only need to fill out one additional line on their regular income-tax return.[/quote]

In order to get the $30 - $60 refund you simple need to check a extra line on your tax form. You do not need to provide proof of your long distance calls from the last 3 years. You don't even need proof you owned a phone.

To OP: Thanks for posting this BTW. I read about the IRS losing the court case a few months ago and promptly forgot all about it. It's nice to know I'm getting back some of the taxes I paid on long distance calls.
 
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