Telephone Tax Refund

A few days ago I got the monthly magazine put out by my Electric Co-Op. In it was an article about a 1 time tax refund for anyone who had long distance phone service after Feb. 28, 2003 and before Aug. 1, 2006. That quickly caught my attention. It said to go to the IRS website & do a search for telephone tax. I did so, here is what I found out.

1st of all just about everyone is eligible for this refund regardless of the type of phone service you have, be it landline, wireless, or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). As long as you had long distance service between those dates & your phone company hasn't already refunded the tax.

To get the refund is simple, you can either take the standard refund based on the number of exemptions you claim (up to 4) on your Federal Income Tax. Or you can get out your old bills & fill out a special form that you attach to your Federal return. The refund is either credited to the income tax you you or will be added onto the amount you will be refunded. They even have a special 1040 form for those who don't have to file a return but had phone service for the period covered.

For more info check out the Telephone Tax Refund Questions and Answers page on the IRS website.