For you folks that do your own taxes: You might recall back in April the goverment said the Long distance exise tax should have been repealed a long time ago. Actually, it was a tax to support the Spanish American War. Hmmmmm. Just where did all that money go? Well the goverment decided it was time to reimburse the money for a couple of the last years back to the people. The goverment will give a person a standard tax: Knowing it's like pulling teeth to get anything from the goverment, I decided to see if this was a reasonable amount. Well I'm single, have my two sons as exemptions, have a cell phone and a land line. From above, I'm entitled to $50.00. 2003,4,and some of 2005 MCI was my long distance provider. mid 2005 until today I have a Verizon bundle. Now I can fill out a 8913 if I want to dig out my bills and itemize the Federal Exise tax for the given dates. So let's do it; Year, Land Line, Wireless 2003 - $10.63 2004 - $10.02 2005 - $18.44, $7.51 2006 - $8.58, $5.89 Grand total = $61.07 Notes: 1) I only picked up a cell recently. You folks who have had it the whole period will have higher charges. 2) My long distance charges were very low. Very! so my tax was low. If you have long distance bills say > $40 then itemize! 3) I only bundled my service recently. A bundle charges you more and hence your Exise tax (30%) IS MORE! Itemize! Was it worth the hour it took me to do the research? The goverment is betting no. If you like supporting your goverment, then don't itemize. If this type of tax just urks you, then itemize!
