Your Taxes are being lowered !!!!!

[shrubber]

The Treasury Department announced this morning that after losing in five circuit courts of appeals, the Government is throwing in the towel and will no longer seek to enforce the 3% excise tax on long-distance telephone calls enacted during the Spanish-American War of 1898 as a "luxury" tax on wealthy Americans who owned telephones. The IRS will will issue $15 billion in refunds to consumers for long-distance telephone service taxes paid over the past three years.


It's a nice reminder of how long "temporary" taxes can last, and of how taxes targeted at "the rich" often turn out to reach others.

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2006/05/irs_to_give_15_.html

 

[Christine]

I heard this on the news last night.

Also heard that if you want the refund you will have to "ask" for it on this year's (2006) tax forms. I assume there will be a box to check for this.

Also, I wonder how they will determine the amount of refund. Will everyone get the same amount?

 

[Ted and Holly]

Whoohoo!!!! I'm rich!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jimmiej]

Any tax cut is a good thing!

 

[lbgraves]

How ironic that today I got a notice from AT&T that they will now have a $5 monthly usage minimum charge for their one rate simple plan. ARG!!! Does anyone know of a LD company that doesn't do this so we can just have them listed. We only use onesuite for our LD calls so refuse to pay to have a name down.

 

[bballmom56]

How ironic that today I got a notice from AT&T that they will now have a $5 monthly usage minimum charge for their one rate simple plan. ARG!!! Does anyone know of a LD company that doesn't do this so we can just have them listed. We only use onesuite for our LD calls so refuse to pay to have a name down.

I just recently got rid of AT&T as my long distance carrier because of that fee and we have had AT&T for as long as I can remember. I called my local provider (Sprint) and they offered me 30 minutes free of local toll or long distance calls, plus reasonable per minute rates after that (I think it's .13 or .15 per minute which is less that AT&T was charging) so I switched. And we are NOT Sprint fans, but I had to go with that deal. So thanks, Sprint - oops forgot, they are now becoming Embarq.

 

[lbgraves]

LOL! Yes, that is what I ended up doing. I was on hold for AT&T for 30 minutes & hung up. I don't like Sprint either and will stick with onesuite for LD calls but at least that is saving us $60 per year. I am thinking about trying their internet package too...but not sure about that one. We are paying 40 per month for cable & would be saving $15 per month & we would get caller ID & call waiting (if we want it) included. I will have to think about that though.

 

[RachelEllen]

I heard this on the news last night.

Also heard that if you want the refund you will have to "ask" for it on this year's (2006) tax forms. I assume there will be a box to check for this.

Also, I wonder how they will determine the amount of refund. Will everyone get the same amount?

From what I've been reading, the refund won't do much good for individual consumers. You need precise records of the amounts you are claiming. It's kind of small potatoes unless you have kept your phone bills for years and did a lot of long distance talking. If you have records for all three years, you'll get about one month's long distance bills refunded.

 

[Charade]

How ironic that today I got a notice from AT&T that they will now have a $5 monthly usage minimum charge for their one rate simple plan. ARG!!! Does anyone know of a LD company that doesn't do this so we can just have them listed. We only use onesuite for our LD calls so refuse to pay to have a name down.

If you have DSL or cable for your internet, try looking into one of the VoIP (Vonage is one) phone companies. I've been their customer (Vonage) for almost 2 years and have been very satisfied. I pay $24.95/month which includes unlimited calls within North America AND several European countries. My dgf has a friend in Holland and now those calls are INCLUDED! It was really cheap before but now it's even better!