Do you qualify for a refund of the telephone excise tax but aren’t required to file an annual tax return? It may be even easier for you to get a refund. The IRS has developed an even shorter form, the 1040EZ-T (try saying that quickly three times in a row) that you might be able to use. Copies of the federal form 1040EZ-T are available on http://www.irs.gov or over the phone at 1.800.829.3676.
Not sure if you qualify? You do if all of the following apply:
- You are not required to and do not file an individual income tax return.
- You paid federal telephone excise tax on long distance or bundled telephone service billed to you after February 28, 2003, and before August 1, 2006.
- You have not received or requested a credit or refund of the federal excise tax from your telephone service provider. (If you requested a credit or refund, you must have withdrawn the request.)
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I don’t think you need to have actually paid exceise taxes in order to claim the standard credit.
While I don’t quite understand how IRS will enforce it, they do require that you have paid the tax to qualify even for the standard refund: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161504,00.html