Our son went to get his taxes done at a local H&R block, who constantly brags about the size of the rebate they will get you and their little "scratch-off" contest for discounts, free service, and other prizes on national TV. I specifically asked him to make sure he received the $30 credit for Federal Excise Tax charged on his telephone.
The lady who did his taxes acted like she was in a hurry and told him, "I'm sorry, you only get that if you had a telephone with, you can't get that with your telephone". My son has Nextel (AKA as Sprint now, but we still have the "walkie-talkie" function, so I refuse to call them Sprint). It is not "prepaid card" service, and he has paid Federal Excise Tax between 4 and 7. (Sprint, how about a suit against H&R Block because they are telling customers that Nextel and Sprint customers are not eligible for this Federal Excise Tax rebate?)
Last time I checked the IRS, EVERYONE who paid Federal Excise Tax on long distance or "bundled service", to include cellular telephones that do not separate local from long distance, is eligible for this tax refund, and even more if they itemize the actual costs and have 41 months of bills to prove it. The IRS did not limit the refund to only one company's service, and any "bundled service" (service that includes long distance in a package price or per minute usage or fixed rate plan) is eligble. Only local service, pre-paid card service, internet-only service and 3rd party services cannot collect this rebate.
Basically, as long as you are not using a prepaid card, you can collect for Federal Excise tax that is either specifcally charged to long distance service or to any "bundled" plan that includes long distance, even if that service also provides local, internet and even Voice over Internet Protocol service, as long as the Federal Excise Tax for long distance is also bundled into the bill. Normal cellular telephones are qualified for this program.individuals who have telephone service that is "pay as you go", "prepaid card", "3rd party billing" or break out the Federal Excise Tax between local and long distance and do not charge Federal Excise Tax on long distance phones are not qualified by the IRS in this program.
The bottom line is, if the Federal Excise Tax is seperated for Long Distance, you can claim only that amount. If the long distance service is bundled into other services and only one total is charged for the Federal Excise Tax, you can claim the total tax amount.
Instead of itemizing the deductions, single taxpayers can opt to select the one time payment of $30.00 instead of itemizing each month's tax for 41 months. Those with more than 1 dependent can take larger deductions.
It is obvious that at least one H&R Block tax preparer doesn't know anything about this year's tax law, and you are thinking about trusting them with your business??? If my tax preparer is this unprepared, she is not prepared to do my taxes!!! This is one more person that doesn't get my H&R Block's business!!!
H&R Block: If you miss this one simple bone-head deduction, how many more are you going to miss from my ADULT taxes??? I think you don't get the chance to find out. Keep your silly "lottery" games to see who gets a "discount coupon" for the next sucker. Stay tuned: I printed the IRS paper about the deduction and my son is taking it back to the H&R Block for his $30 and a refund for not getting him the biggest refund. I can't wait to see what excuse they give this time!
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