OK, I got my 2006 Federal tax book this week and here’s what it says about claiming credit for the Federal Telephone Excise Tax: Line 71 Credit for Federal Telephone Excise Tax Paid If you were billed after February 29, 2003, and before August 1, 2006, for the federal telephone excise tax on long distance or bundled services you may be able to request a credit for the tax paid. You had bundled service if your local and long distance service provided under a plan that does not separately state the charge for local service. You can not request the credit if you have already received a credit or refund from your service provider. If you request the credit, you cannot ask your service provider for a credit or refund and must withdraw any request previously submitted to your provider. You can request the standard amount or the actual amount you paid. If you believe you paid more than the standard amount, it can be to your benefit to request the actual amount. If you request the actual amount paid, you must attach Form 8913 showing the amount paid and keep records to substantiate the amount. If you were a sole proprietor, farmer, or lessor of rental real estate, you may be able to estimate your actual expenses. See Form 8913 for details. Standard Amount: 1 Exemption - $30 2 Exemption - $40 3 Exemption - $50 4 or more Exemption - $60 _______________________________________________________________ Now remember this only applies to the FTE paid on Long Distance or for bundled services. On your home phone bill, they usually separate the two but on your cell phone they don’t. So on your home phone bill you can only claim the amount for Long Distance but on your cell bill you can claim it all. In my case the home phone bill the LD FTE was about .86 cents a month. On my cell it was $1.42. So the more cells you have the higher the actual amount can be. Infor the first 5 months in 2006 this amount for me was $10.65. Overall it should be somewhere around $70, almost double the $40 Standard deduction for us. You have to have your old bills to show the amount you want to claim if you are going for the exact amount where with the Standard deduction you don’t. Also remember that you have to deduct any refund your got from the phone company already. Just so that everyone is clear, I am not a CPA or Tax Consultant so please check this out for your personal situation. Jamie
