Cell phones qualify for telephone excise phone tax refund
From the IRS:
You may be one of the nearly 160 million phone customers who can request a refund of the 3% federal excise tax paid on long-distance and bundled phone service billed after Feb. 28, 2003 and before Aug. 1, 2006. Federal long-distance excise taxes paid on cell phone, land line, fax, Internet phone service and bundled service all qualify for the refund. Phone plans that provide both local and long-distance service for either a flat monthly fee (the charge for local service is not separately stated) or a charge that varies with the time for which the service is used are considered bundled services.
You can request the refund in one of two ways: Calculate the actual amount of tax you paid, as shown on your phone bills and other records, or request a standard amount, ranging from $30 to $60, based on the number of personal exemptions you claim.
It’s not a tremendous amount of money but every bit counts. My accountant factored this one right in and I’ll take it.
Don’t settle for just $30-$60. The refund, with interest, is almost 1.5 times your average monthly pre-tax long distance and wireless usage. If you’re on a $79.99/month plan, you’ll get back almost $120. And for cell phones, you don’t necessarily need to have your bills handy. Check out www.PhoneTaxRefundCalculator.com and read the FAQ’s for more insight.
Hi,
I read your recent article on the telephone excise tax and would like
to point you to a website that may be of interest to your readers…
http://www.refundsforgood.org
The website explains, in great detail, the phone excise tax. There is
an interactive timeline where you can learn about the tax and how it
came to become part of American history in 1898.
There are step-by-step instructions on how to get your full phone tax
refund amount back as well (via the full-audit method).
Businesses and non-profits can calculate their precise returns on the “Tell Your Boss†section of the web site. They can even download the forms, fill in the proper amounts, then print off the actual IRS 8913 form and file for a refund. Depending on phone usage, this could be tens of thousands of dollars.
http://www.refundsforgood.org/business_refund.php
All of this information is provided for free. Our hope is that some
people, who are able to, will contribute their phone excise tax to
one of the worthwhile non-profits on the portal.
We have celebrity endorsements on the site such as Martin Sheen,
Larry Hagman (“JR”), Ed Begley Jr. and Nate Corddry (from the Daily
Show) — along with 13 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates from the Dalai
Lama to Bishop Tutu.
For a PDF version of a recent Press Release that describes the launch of this public service web site please go to:
http://www.refundsforgood.org/downloads/PressRelease_031807.pdf
If you’d like to learn more — please feel free to contact me
directly at 203.387.7625 or email jon@refundsforgood.org
Kind Regards,
Jonathan Gorham
Refunds for Good
Managing Partner
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