IRS Warns: Don't Get Carried Away with Phone Tax Refund

As I mentioned in Tax Tip Reminder: Don't Forget to Claim Your Phone Tax Refund, we're all due a small tax refund this year from an old phone tax that was improperly collected. There are two ways to claim this refund -- either take the "standard deduction" or calculate your phone bills during the years in question and then claim a percentage of those on your taxes.

Well, it seems like a few people in the latter category have gotten a bit carried away -- so much so that the IRS has issued a recent warning to them. The highlights:

"People requesting an inflated amount will likely see their refunds frozen, may have their entire tax returns audited and even face criminal prosecution where warranted," IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said.

The agency said some taxpayers appeared to be asking for refunds of their entire phone bills rather than for the 3 percent tax on long-distance and bundled service they are entitled to. Others were making requests for thousands of dollars, indicating they had phone bills of more than $100,000.

Some people just try to take advantage of everything. Sheesh!

Me? I'm simply going to take the standard deduction. Why? First of all, we never spend that much on our phone so I'm guessing the standard deduction is going to be at or above what we'd get the other way. Second, I really don't want to track down my phone spending for several years in order to save an extra $3.24.

How about you? What's your plan?

Comments

[cory]

I tediously save-and-file all of my bills and have for the past few years, so I went through and totalled up my Excise Taxes. I came up with about $24, so naturally I'm taking the standard deduction.

[tinyhands]

I had dropped the last 2 years worth of statements into the shredder about a month before I heard about the tax refund. (Having switched carriers, my new carrier obviously doesn't have my old statements). I was kind of upset until I did a back-of-the-envelope estimate and figured it was about the same as Cory. Standard deduction for me.