The Internal Revenue Service has announced it’s taking additional steps to prevent abuse by tax preparers and help taxpayers make accurate requests for the one-time telephone excise tax refund.
IRS Criminal Investigation special agents and IRS revenue agents conducted special site visits with tax preparers across the nation the week of Feb. 7 to prevent inflated requests made for the one-time telephone tax refund. Visits began this week to 22 different tax preparers who have handled more than 1,500 tax returns.
“We are taking this unusual step to confront blatant abuse of this important refund program,” said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. “We want tax preparers to prepare accurate tax returns. If they don’t, we will move swiftly to impose civil penalties and, where warranted, seek criminal sanctions.”
The government stopped collecting the long-distance excise tax last August after several federal court decisions held that the tax does not apply to long-distance service as it is billed today. The IRS also authorized a one-time refund of the federal excise tax collected on service billed during the previous 41 months, stretching from the beginning of March 2003 to the end of July 2006. The tax continues to apply to local-only phone service.
