How
to Claim Telephone Excise Tax Refund -- In Plain English
This page has easy-to-understand instructions on how to claim
your Telephone Tax Refund. It is practical and sufficient
for most people. If you need the full details, visit
IRS's Qs
& As for Individuals and Qs
& As for Businesses and Tax-Exempt Organizations.
Step
Zero: Determine Whether You Are Eligible to Claim the Telephone
Tax Refund
If you answer Yes
to the first and second questions below, and "No,
I have not" to the third question, then you are eligible
to claim the Telephone Tax Refund.
Q1: Did you have
long distance or bundled service billed after Feb. 28, 2003,
and before Aug. 1, 2006?
(Most
people have either long distance or bundled service on their
phones. Unless you specifically requested the phone company
to remove long distance service, most likely you have it
because it usually comes with your phone service.)
Q2: Did you pay
ALL of the federal telephone excise taxes billed by your
telephone service provider during the period mentioned in
Q1?
Q3: Have you
received or requested a refund or credit of the federal
telephone excise tax from your telephone service provider?
Step
One: Determine the refund amount
You can take a
standard amount from $30 to $60 based on the number
of exemptions you are claiming on their 2006 tax return.
- 1 exemption:
$30
- 2 exemptions:
$40
- 3 exemptions:
$50
- 4 exemptions
or more: $60
Add up the following
to determine your exemptions:
1 for yourself, if you're not claimed by others as dependent,
1 for your spouse, if he/she is not claimed by others as dependent,
1 for each dependent you're eligible to claim.
(You can also request
refund of actual amount of tax paid. But you'll need
to spend time looking for up to 41 months of old phone bills
and adding up the taxes. And it isn't necessarily more than
the standard amount. So it may not be worth doing.
Refer to IRS Web
page mentioned earlier for further instruction on this method.)
Step
Two: Write
the amount you determined in Step One on ....
- Line 71 of Form
1040,
- Line 42 of Form
1040A,
- Line 9of Form
1040EZ,
or
- Line 1a of 1040EZ-T
(for individuals who are otherwise not required to file
taxes.)
Here's an example
of what the line would look like on a form 1040 for a person
filing with one exemption:
If you have already
filed your taxes and forgot to claim the telephone tax refund,
you can use 1040X and one of the first three 1040 forms.
This
material is provided for general and educational purposes
only, and is not intended to provide legal, tax or investment
advice. Individuals who wish to invest in retirement plans
should contact their tax and financial advisors regarding
their specific legal or tax situation.
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