Federal Telephone Excise Tax Refund
The IRS has announced procedures for tax-exempt organizations (including local churches, annual conferences, and church agencies) to request a one-time credit or refund of certain federal telephone excise taxes. The credit or refund is for federal telephone excise taxes on long distance or bundled telephone service billed to the organization after February 28, 2003, and before August 1, 2006. The following links on the IRS website provide helpful background information regarding this tax and how to obtain a refund: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=164032,00.html (general information on the telephone excise tax refund) http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=164587,00.html (specific information for taxexempt organizations requesting a refund) In short, to request a refund of this telephone excise tax, the tax-exempt organization must timely file Form 990-T, Exempt Organization Business Income Tax Return, for the 2006 tax year and attach Form 8913, Credit for Federal Telephone Excise Tax Paid. Fortunately, the IRS has provided streamlined procedures for completing the Form 990-T in the situation where the tax-exempt organization is filing this form solely for the purpose of requesting the excise tax refund. Also, instead of requiring records of the actual amount of excise tax paid for all 41 months of the refund period, Form 8913 provides a formula tax-exempt organizations may use for estimating the amount of excise taxes paid during this period. Please see the instructions for Forms 990-T and 8913 (available on www.irs.gov) for specific information on how to complete and file these forms. (Note: For local churches, annual conferences, and other entities covered under The United Methodist Church Group Tax Exemption Ruling, the Group exemption number to enter in Block F of Form 990-T is: 2573.)