Many Iowans will soon be wading into the taxing task of completing their tax returns and most of us will be able to claim a new refund this year. Internal Revenue Service spokesman Christopher Miller says it’s for just about anybody who has a telephone. Miller says people can request a refund for federal telephone excise taxes collected over the past three years.
In general, he says anyone who paid long-distance telephone tax will get a refund on their federal returns. He says the amount you’ll get back in the refund is varied. He says the standard amount you can request is based on the number of exemptions you claim on your return. If you claim one exemption, the refund is 30-dollars, while if you are married filing jointly and have two dependent kids, that’s four exemptions or 60-dollars.
Nationwide, it’s expected 146-million people will request the telephone excise tax refund. The federal government stopped collecting the tax on long-distance service last August and announced plans to provide refunds of these taxes billed after February 28, 2003, and before August 1, 2006.