IRS Updates, March 2007: Telephone Tax Refund and Free Training on Changes in Exempt Organizations Tax Law

February 2007

Note: The following discussion is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal or tax advice. For specific information about the telephone tax refund and the provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 affecting exempt organizations, consult your attorney or tax advisor.

Telephone Tax Refund

Uncle Sam wants you to know that your organization may be entitled to a refund of long-distance taxes paid between March 1, 2003, and July 31, 2006. More than 160 million individuals, businesses, and exempt organizations qualify for this one-time payment.

To request the refund, complete Form 8913, Credit for Federal Telephone Excise Tax Paid, and attach it to Form 990-T. Don't worry if your organization normally does not file a 990-T; submitting a 990-T solely to request a telephone excise tax refund does not mean that your organization will owe unrelated business income tax. The IRS has added a line (44f) to the form to make requesting the refund easier.

To determine the amount of your refund, you can either add up the amount paid during the 41 months in question or calculate the refund amount using an IRS formula based on your April and September 2006 bills.

For more information, see:

Free Training on Changes in Exempt Organizations Tax Law

The IRS is offering two free programs on the impact of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 on exempt organizations:

March 13, 2007, 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET—Tax Talk Today, "Exempt Organizations: Emerging Issues."
March 21-22, 2007—Phone forum, "Exempt Organizations: Impact of Pension Protection Act of 2006 on Form 990."

See more information on either event >

More Information on the Pension Protection Act of 2006

Suzanne E. Coffman, March 2007
© 2007, Philanthropic Research, Inc. (GuideStar)

Suzanne Coffman is GuideStar's director of communications and editor of the Newsletter.