Telephone Tax Refund

[dyne]

IRS just announced rules for claiming the personal telephone tax refund. $30 for one person with one exemption, $40 for two exemptions, $50 for three exemptions, $60 for four or more exemptions. Telephone bills are not required. A special line will be added to the tax return for this amount. Business telephones requires receipts unless IRS comes up
with a standard amount. New form 8913 must be attached to the tax return if the
standard amount is not claimed or allowable.

[Jiggers]

Telephone tax refund

This is a tax refund, not a tax deduction. Big difference. Everyone will get the refund, even those that do not have to file. I am going back over my list of clients who do not have to file and then see what the simple IRS form is going to be to get that refund for them. If it can be done in a few minutes, and I can charge about $7.50 - $10, I might get my secretary to contact those and crank them out.

[veritas]

Hopefully they come up with a simplified method for business also.

[Bird Legs]

Form 1040-EZ T

The form has been developed for those people not required to file a tax return
that want to claim the telephone tax refund. Form 1040-EZ T.
However, will it be worth it? for a refund of $30. - $40. for 1 or 2 people?

[wv112]

Worth a tank of gas! ( in some vehicles )

[veritas]

3 tanks in my Harley

[Black Bart]

It's all in

... will it be worth it? for a refund of $30. - $40...

how you look at it, boys. You just have to look at these things with a (ha-ha) positive attitude. Forty bucks is a day's pay for some people hereabouts.

[S T]

Q & A

Here is a link to the questions and answers from the IRS site. http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/...161506,00.html

I can see where I will probably charge the clients that want to go through 41 months of billings, and then see where there will be some of my Seniors that I probably won't charge at all.

Next question is, what is our responsibility for confirmation that the t/p paid the tax. Most individual clients do not keep their bills, so then they are to go to their provider and request proof???

IRS just announced rules for claiming the personal telephone tax refund. $30 for one person with one exemption, $40 for two exemptions, $50 for three exemptions, $60 for four or more exemptions. Telephone bills are not required. A special line will be added to the tax return for this amount. Business telephones requires receipts unless IRS comes up with a standard amount.

From IRS website

What if I don’t know whether I paid this long-distance tax and I don’t have my phone bills?

To get the telephone tax refund, you must have paid the tax. If you don’t have your telephone bills, the only way to be sure if you paid the tax for long distance is to check with your service provider.

One of the obvious questions is, will IRS have a list of taxpayers that did pay the tax and have a matching program? A $10 billion dollar refund program.


Sandy

[sea-tax]

how you look at it, boys. You just have to look at these things with a (ha-ha) positive attitude. Forty bucks is a day's pay for some people hereabouts.

Agree BB, " Penny Saved is Penny Earned" or something like that. In all seriousness I think this is why our country is having such a hard time saving money. They forget that 40 dollars compunded for 15 years is alot of money.

Question? How many of you have clients who spend $5 bucks a day on lattes or cigs but yet have less than $10k saved in the bank or IRA? I personally have probably like 20-30% of my clients who have nothing saved for retirement or a rainy day. In my opinion that is really sad.

[Gretel]

I was wondering too, how taxpayers can proof that they paid the tax if no bills are required. One month of payment should be sufficient than. This is almost the situation I am in (maybe 4 months), since I switched to phone cards two years ago.

Does the phone card include this tax? I guess it does but you don't have proof.

[jainen]

The IRS rule

The IRS rule that "you must have paid the tax" refers to tax protesters who have for years withheld it from their monthly payments while their case wound through the courts. This is one time when the tax protesters were absolutely right--the tax was illegal.

[Black Bart]

Matching program?

I don't think there'll be any matching at all done for individuals. You'll fill in the line, sign the return, and that'll likely be the end of it. IRS can't afford to spend millions checking this out and there's no material amount of money involved if they did. Almost everybody has a phone and it's a safe bet the phone company billed them for the tax. Since nobody wants their phone cut off, they usually would pay those bills. It would take an enormous amount of time and money to cross-check them and it wouldn't be anywhere near cost-effective.

[veritas]

Five dollars a day on cigs, five dollars a day on lottery, 5 dollars a day on cell phones for the entire family, 5 dollars a day on cable and internet, 5 dollars a day on beer. Thats about 25 dollars a day. But can't afford health care.

[Black Bart]

Hey,

You know what they say -- "first things first."

[Jim R]

Will you prepare a 1040-EZ T

The form has been developed for those people not required to file a tax return
that want to claim the telephone tax refund. Form 1040-EZ T.
However, will it be worth it? for a refund of $30. - $40. for 1 or 2 people?

My question is it worth preparing 1040-EZ T and how much can you realisticly charge and the people still have a refund left. I know we have to wait until November when the from proof comes out to see how complex it is.

Anouther thought is what do we charge if a client comes in with 3 years of phone bills. You know a few will.