From: Ellen K. 

I'll take any tax refund I can get.   Thanks.    :)

On Fri, 1 Dec 2006 18:52:42 -0500, "Rich Gauszka"
 wrote in message :

>Snopes says this one is true. Nothing like being taxed to fund the
>Spanish-American War :-)
>
>http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/excise.asp
>
>Origins:   In November 2006, the snopes.com inbox began filling with
>forwards about a tax credit available in 2006 for overpayment of a federal
>tax charged on phone calls. For once, an Internet forward is on the
>up-and-up; there really is such a credit available to taxpayers filing their
>federal 2006 returns (which most people will submit to the IRS in 2007).
>
>The tax in question, the Federal Excise Tax, was first imposed in 1898 to
>help fund the Spanish-American War. One of the things it taxed was
>telephone service, which at that time was something only the very wealthy
>had, so this levy served as a luxury tax charged only to those who could
>easily afford it.
>
>The war ended and the bills for it were settled up, but the tax stayed in
>place. Over time, as telephone use spread to the masses, what had begun as a
>charge against the very wealthy for a frippery they could easily have done
>without became a charge against just about everyone for a service that had
>come to be regarded as vital.
>
>The tax was levied against charges accruing to long distance calls, which
>until recently were primarily determined by a formula based on call length
>and the distance between conversing parties. That mode of establishing the
>price of calls has mostly been supplanted by the practice of basing long
>distance charges on minutes alone, with no regard to the physical distance
>the calls travel. Opponents to the tax asserted that that shift made the tax
>invalid, and the courts finally agreed with them.
>
>In May 2006, after losing a series of federal court cases, the Internal
>Revenue Service said it would no longer collect the 3 percent tax and
>ordered telephone companies to stop charging it by 1 August 2006.
>
>Taxpayers are eligible to claim a refund of the long-distance tax billed for
>any phone service (cell, fax, computer or land line) in the 41-month period
>from 28 February 2003 through 31 July 2006.
>
>On its web site, the IRS explains the refund and how to apply for it.
>Additional information can be found by following the links offered on its
>Telephone Excise Tax page.
>
>http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161506,00.html
>
>http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=160214,00.html
>
>In a nutshell, rather than ask everyone to comb through their phone bills
>for that 41-month period to add up all the tax collected
>and then submit claims for those amounts, the IRS will offer taxpayers
>standard refunds of between $30 and $60 (the amount depends on the
>composition of the household) that they can apply for simply by entering the
>refund amount appropriate to them on a particular line on their 2006 tax
>returns. Those who wish to go it the long way by adding everything up to
>emerge with the precise figure owed them may do so, but in their case
>applying for the refund will require them to complete and file Form 8913
>with their returns.
>

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