Special One Time Federal Excise Tax Credit

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Somebody at work sent me this and Snopes confirms it to be legitimate.

For some reason, I can't copy and paste the text but here's the link...

http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/excise.asp

[YuAndDan 153]

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SPECIAL ONE TIME TAX CREDIT ON YOUR 2006 TAX RETURN

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 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.

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.

http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/excise.asp

[one...two...tree 2,762]

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SPECIAL ONE TIME TAX CREDIT ON YOUR 2006 TAX RETURN

Thanks! How'd you do that?

Edited November 28, 2006 by Steven_and_Jinky

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

It dates back to the Spanish American War in 1898.

"After losing several court battles, the U.S. Treasury on Thursday said it would provide refunds to consumers for a federal excise "luxury" tax on long-distance service, the origins of which date back to 1898 to help pay for the Spanish-American War.

The refund will apply to the 3 percent excise tax billed to them on long-distance service since Feb. 28, 2003 and will include interest. Consumers will be able to claim it on their 2006 tax returns, which they will file in 2007."

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/25/news/telephonetax_refund/

[PurrSuede 0]

The refund will apply to the 3 percent excise tax billed to them on long-distance service since Feb. 28, 2003 and will include interest. Consumers will be able to claim it on their 2006 tax returns, which they will file in 2007."

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/25/news/telephonetax_refund/

Sheesh... considering all the calls I made Long Distance to Russia since 2003, now I wish I'd kept all those phone bills...

Oh -well-

-- Dan

[YuAndDan 153]

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SPECIAL ONE TIME TAX CREDIT ON YOUR 2006 TAX RETURN

Thanks! How'd you do that?

They had some sort of Java script blocking cut and paste. Though viewing the source HTML I could just copy out the info, and delete the few HTML tags.

The phone company is no stranger to charging for unnecessary things.

Lord, won't you lease me a rotary phone?

My friends all use push-buttons - I must make amends

By Andrew Orlowski → More by this author

Published Thursday 21st September 2006 20:18 GMT

Get The Register's new weekly newsletter for senior IT managers delivered to your inbox, click here.

Letters More than a few people suspect that Mrs E Strogen, the lady who rented a rotary phone for 40 years racking up thousands of pound is a made up name.

"Was she married to Mr I.C Wiener?" asks Murad Talukdar

But Strogens are everywhere you look. The Associated Press isn't allowed to make up stories, and in any case we read it on the internet - so it must be true.

A few of you wondered if the practice continues here in the UK. Billing people for ancient phones, that is, not making stuff up:

I suspect BT make a fortune charging people this rental fee for handsets they probably threw away decades ago, and just haven't noticed the charge on their bill.

Adrian Barnett

Andrew Moore shares this story:

In a similar vein- when I moved into my current house five years ago I found I was being billed for a phone which I didn't have- I fitted a DECT phone when we moved in because there was no phone.

I rang the telco about this and asked them to stop billing us for a phone that we did not have.

Their answer was in order to stop billing us I would have to take the old phone down to the nearest telephone centre. I tried to explain again that I did not have the phone but there was no budging at their end. Obviously, the old phone was some form of priceless antique and they needed to have it back.

So I searched all over the house and found the phone in an old box in the attic. It was an old bakelite rotary phone with an giant phono plug on the end that wouldn't have even fitted into the current phone connection. So I took it down to the phone centre and they very reluctantly cancelled my monthly rental (no refunds).

As I got up the leave the girl shouted "excuse me sir- you left your phone behind"...

I still have that phone.

"Captain Cretin" says that back in the Spangles era, the practice was rife:

I can top that with two examples from Great Universal Stores.

1/ Uni-rent got really embarrassed about collecting the rental every week for many years (at least 10 years) on a single wooden plank used on a scaffold tower that they gave GUS the plank for free.

2/ While knocking down a wall in the basement of a GUS subsidiary in the early 1990's I found a room full of IBM typewriters circa 1970 that were all on rental.

I have no idea how much they were being charged per typewriter as the accounts department would not say; but multiply your $14k by about 75 typewriters and I would guess you would be close.

PS During the power cuts in the 70's GUS bought the maintenance staff torches so that they could find their way round in the dark; well at least until they found out how much the batteries were costing, then they took them all back and stuffed them into the same room they were hiding the typewriters in; they have this thing about not telling senior management about their #######-ups; even when it ends up costing millions.

CC

I played cricket against GUS once, Captain.

Back on-topic. The most significant aspect of the story, Tom Watson and others remind us, is that it was still working:

The story is nice, but consider this: The phone ALWAYS worked.

It wasn't one of those $10 (or less) throw-away's that we have now. The nice "500" sets (or "300" sets if you go back to the 50's) were BUILT TO LAST.

The phone company didn't want to service the items, and had high standards for quality and workmanship. You could probably do all the things described in another story about disk drives and the phone would come out smiling, still operational. This can't be said for the phones of today. Yes, they have more features (one button dialing, etc.) but they just don't last. I suspect that the grandma was quite correct in wanting her old phone back. How much would a quality phone that lasts 30+ years cost?

Maybe the rental wasn't so much of a rip-off!!

Tom

Quite right.

And our dodgy maths? We're working on it.

There's a nice page on old Bell rotaries, here, at David Massey's Bell System Memorial site. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/21/ro...ip_off_letters/

Edited November 28, 2006 by YuAndDan

[pj1959us 0]

There was also a decision not to apply the tax to wireless, voice over Internet Protocol service, prepaid telephone cards and other bundled services.

You will probably still see the Federal Excise Tax on the phone bills since the last portion of the tax, pertaining only to local telephone service, remains in effect. Verizon and other telecom companies are urging Congress to repeal the tax in total this year.

[UmmSqueakster 54]

Spiffiness! What should I spend my extra $40 on?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

They had some sort of Java script blocking cut and paste. Though viewing the source HTML I could just copy out the info, and delete the few HTML tags.

Aha! SOB! I got a prompt yesterday to get an upgrade on my Java and I clicked 'Ok'! Dammit!

[Ban Hammer 13,633]

For some reason, I can't copy and paste the text but here's the link...

maybe ewok is trying to tell you something

good info on the tax refund, however, they just turned around and found another way to tax us, it seems

[one...two...tree 2,762]

For some reason, I can't copy and paste the text but here's the link...

maybe ewok is trying to tell you something

No worries, Charles...I don't think I'll ever catch up to your number of posts.

[Ban Hammer 13,633]

For some reason, I can't copy and paste the text but here's the link...

maybe ewok is trying to tell you something

No worries, Charles...I don't think I'll ever catch up to your number of posts.

not very likely