published February, 2007
There seems to be some confusion about this.
To claim the refund for a business the “easy” way, you need the bill from April ’06 showing the amount of FET collected. There should be a line near the long distance charges that says “Federal Excise Tax.” You use this to compute the % of FET to total phone bill. Then we apply the % against the payments made to phone companies for the 41 months—so to calculate the credit, you need the April ’06 phone bill, and you need to know how much you spent on telephone in April ’06, September ’06, and the 41 months from March ’03 to July ’06.
Phone companies collected a tax from March ’03-August ’06 that was deemed unconstitutional, and they’re going to refund it on 2006 income tax returns.
Individuals can figure the exact tax, or do a “standard” of $30 for a single person, $40 for a couple, $50 or $60. This tax is refundable.