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RitcheyRch
12-06-2006, 01:39 PM
This may have been posted before.
I checked the Snopes page and found that this tax was originally assessed to help finance
the Spanish-American War. WOW! Talk about overdue! Anyway, this appears to be a
one time thing. If a person misses out . . . . too bad,
I got this from a friend who says, This is true, I checked it with Snopes.com. The page to verify this is:
http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/excise.asp
Save this for your accountant so that when you file your taxes this year this one time credit won't be forgotten. I also checked this out with my tax guru and he said it was true .. He also said "Don't spend it all i one place". Hee, hee, not that there is much to spend ...
When it comes time to prepare and file your 2006 tax return, make sure you don't overlook the federal excise tax refund credit. You claim the credit on line 71 of your form 1040. A similar line will be available if you file the short form 1040A. If you have family or friends who no longer file a tax return AND they have their own land phone in their home and have been paying a phone bill for years, make sure they know about this form 1040EZ-T.
What is this all about? Well the federal excise tax has been charge 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.
The IRS has now conceded this argument. Phone companies have been given notice to stop assessing the federal excise tax as of Aug 30, 2006. You will most likely see the tax on your September cutoff statement, but it should NOT be on your October bill.
But the challengers of the old law also demanded restitution. So the IRS has announced that a one time credit will be available when you and I file our 2006 tax return as I explained above. However, the IRS also established limits on how BIG a credit you can get. Here's how it works.
If you file your return as a single person with just you as a dependent, you get to claim a $30 credit on line 71 of your 1040.
If you file with a child or a parent as your dependent, you claim $40.
If you file your return as a married couple with no children ,you claim $40.
If you file as married with children, you claim $50 if one child, $60 if two children.
In all cases, the most you get to claim is $60 - UNLESS you have all your phone bills starting AFTER Feb 28, 2003 through July 31, 2006 (do not use any bills starting Aug 1, 2006.), then you can add up the ACTUAL TAX AS IT APPEARS ON YOUR BILLS AND CLAIM THAT FOR A CREDIT.
Now if you have your actual phone bills and come up with an ACTUAL TAX AMOUNT, you cannot use line 71 on your tax return. You have to complete a special form number 8913 and attach it to your tax return.
Individuals using the special from 1040EZ-T will have to attach this form 8913 also.
One final point - this credit is a refundable credit. That means you get this money, no matter how your tax return works out. If you would end up owing the IRS a balance, the refund will reduce that balance you owe. If you end up getting a refund, the credit will be added and you get a bigger refund by that $30 to $60, depending on how many dependents are on your return.
Feel free to pass this on or make copies for family and friends who don’t have computers.

ChumpChange
12-06-2006, 01:42 PM
I get all my tax advice from snopes too! :)

RitcheyRch
12-06-2006, 01:52 PM
Received in an e-mail. Will be sending to my account this afternoon to see if he knows anything about it.
I get all my tax advice from snopes too! :)

Funky
12-06-2006, 02:48 PM
It seems the IRS agrees:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161506,00.html
But who wants to round up three years worth of old phone bills.

desertbird
12-06-2006, 02:50 PM
It's the real deal. I found it here on the IRS website.
IRS (http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161506,00.html)

desertbird
12-06-2006, 02:52 PM
You beat me to it Funky...
...read the whole article on the page:
Quote: The IRS is making it easier for taxpayers by offering a standard refund amount between $30 and $60, so they don’t need to gather old phone bills. Taxpayers who choose the standard amount will only need to fill out one line on their tax returns. The standard amount is based on actual telephone usage data and the amount applicable to a family or other household reflects the long-distance phone tax paid by similarly sized families or households. Using this amount is the easiest way for taxpayers to get their refunds and avoid gathering 41 months of old phone records.