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Is it too late to contribute to the Revolutionary War so that I can have my name included on the Declaration of Independence as a booster?

Check this out. If you’ve ever paid a phone bill, you have contributed to the financing of the Spanish-American War. You know, the one that ended over a century ago.

So…yeah. Apparently, Congress issued an excise tax on long-distance telephone service back in 1898 to help finance the war and when the war ended, well, they just kept taking our money anyways. So every month, three percent of your long-distance bill has gone to the feds as part of this tax. From land line bills and cell phone bills.

But all that’s over. And you can actually thank the big telco’s for this one. The tax actually costs them a lot more than it costs Joe and Jane Taxpayer, so they sued the feds to have the tax repealed, which is what has led to its end. And the IRS is taking it a step further, offering a 2006 tax credit to cover any such contributions you inadvertently made over the last three years. That credit will either be for some predetermined but not yet determined amount, or you can dig through your old phone bills and claim the actual amount you paid.

Of course, the whole thing creates a nice balance, since our grandkids and great-grandkids will probably still be paying for our current war efforts.

Posted by Seth on May 31, 2006 | Comments (1)