Telecommunications Excise Tax Refund
(American Bankers Insurance Group v. U.S., 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 8132 (11th Cir. May 10, 2005))

By law, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can charge a 3% telecommunications excise tax on long-distance telephone calls that are charged based on distance and duration. However, the IRS was improperly collecting this tax from customers that were charged for their long-distance calls based on duration only. Originally, the Telephone Excise Tax was imposed in 1898 to fund the Spanish-American War, which ended the same year. In 1902 this tax was lifted, but was reenacted not long after to fund World War I, and has been in place since then. Recently, the Court ordered the IRS to refund this wrongfully collected tax money, and taxpayers who bought telecommunications services during the three-year statute of limitations were eligible to file claims for refunds. We assisted taxpayers eligible for refunds in filing their claims.

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