Don't forget to claim your War Tax Refund

Congress has authorized a refund of your Federal Telephone Excise Tax. This was originally a tax enacted to fund the Spanish-American war - it's about time to get rid of it.

The hitch is that your only chance to get it back is this year in your 2006 taxes.

"The telephone tax refund is a one-time payment available on your 2006 federal income tax return, designed to refund previously collected federal excise taxes on long-distance or bundled service. It is available to anyone who paid such taxes on landline, wireless, or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service.

Several recent federal court decisions have held that the tax does not apply to long-distance service as it is billed today. The IRS is following these decisions and refunding the portion of the tax charged on long-distance calls. The IRS is also refunding taxes collected on telephone service under plans that do not differentiate between long distance and local calls including bundled service.

The telephone tax continues to apply to local-only service, and the IRS is not refunding taxes charged on local-only service.

The IRS will refund the taxes paid on long-distance or bundled service billed to taxpayers for the period after Feb. 28, 2003, and before Aug. 1, 2006. Taxpayers should request this refund when they file their 2006 tax returns.

In general, any individual, business or nonprofit organization that paid the tax for long distance or bundled service billed after Feb. 28, 2003, and before Aug. 1, 2006, is eligible to request the refund."

You can take the standard deduction, which goes up to $60 if you have 4 dependents. Or you can opt for the full audit option and deduct the exact amount which you were charged

The IRS has provided a line for this on the basic tax forms. Do not forget to claim your deduction this year. You'd be a nincompoop to pay more taxes than you have too.

Full details from the IRS!