Telephone excise tax refund

[Questionguy101]

Please correct me if I am wrong here. From what I read, I think they only charged the excise tax on long distance calls. So what about if someone was billed for a cellular phone service between 03-06. But he has never make any long distance calls with it. Does he still qualify for the credit?

[BOB W]

If you........

..... use the standard credit you are the winner.

[Kram BergGold]

How I am looking at it

Compare the excise tax in April 2006 to September 2006. Whatever the difference is, that is an approximate amount that your client paid each month. Multiply by 40. If this is significantly more than his default amount he may want to pick up the exact amount from each month.

[Gretel]

..... use the standard credit you are the winner.

...but only if you incurred some long distance or bundled charges on your phone or cell phone, right? Someone, who uses phone cards doesn't qualify for the credit.

[Questionguy101]

...but only if you incurred some long distance or bundled charges on your phone or cell phone, right? Someone, who uses phone cards doesn't qualify for the credit.

Do you have to be sure that you have paid more than $30 for the excise tax during the 41 months in order to qualify for the standard credit? What about if someone had only make one single long distance call in that period and paid just a few cents of excise tax, is he still qualified for the $30 standard credit?

[jainen]

actual amounts.

>>paid just a few cents of excise tax<<

As long as you paid some tax, you can take the standard credit without calculating actual amounts.

[Joe Btfsplk]

ATX and telephone tax

ATX automatically places the refund on the Form 1040 whether you have ever had a telephone or not.

[Ken]

Phone tax

ATX automatically places the refund on the Form 1040 whether you have ever had a telephone or not.

The program I use (Taxslayer pro) also automatically put the correct amount according to the exemptions claimed.

[BOB W]

I .........

...... don't think it matters one way or another.... Take the credit.

[JON]

The credit is

is a result of your credits unless you overide for actual 8913.

[Brad Imsdahl]

Please correct me if I am wrong here. From what I read, I think they only charged the excise tax on long distance calls. So what about if someone was billed for a cellular phone service between 03-06. But he has never make any long distance calls with it. Does he still qualify for the credit?

Cellular phone service where long distance is included in the monthly fee is called "bundled service." The credit applies to long distance as well as bundled service.

[ChEAr$]

It does matter

...... don't think it matters one way or another.... Take the credit.

If a client didn't have a phone during the affected time period, he/she doesn't get the
credit.

At least Taxwise has a block to check, yes or no, to compute the credit. I set up
default to "yes", but do question client and override that if necessary.

BTW, did y'all see the IRS pronouncement about how they're scrutinizing this credit?
Seems like that are some people out there, preparers included, who are milking this
thing for all it's worth and for as much as they think they can get away with.
In many cases, it's apparent to IRS that people are using their total phone bills for
the period.

I'm wondering now if that's part of the reason why IRS announced just today at 2;50PM
ACK files are held up. Makes you wonder.

[Donanita]

?

The program I use (Taxslayer pro) also automatically put the correct amount according to the exemptions claimed.

I also use TaxSlayer Pro and there is a question Does the client quailfy for the credit. You have to answer yes or no. I haven't had it automatically put on the tax retrun without answering the questions.


Also I have some students that are now claiming their exemption and have lived at home and never paid a phone bill so I answer no to the credit.

[BOB W]

Yep.....

..... I just checked my program and there is a question that needs to be answered, sorry for my previous comment.

[DonPriebe]

Honest LOL

I had a client today who said she didn't want the $30 credit. She had read about it in the paper, but said that she absolutely did not make any long distance calls for the past five years, so she didn't deserve it.