Form 8913, Credit for Federal Telephone Excise Tax Paid

PAGER/SGML
Page 1 of 4

Userid: ________
Fileid: I8913.SGM

DTD INSTR04
(11-Dec-2006)

Leading adjust: 0%

Instructions for Form 8913

❏

Draft
(Init. & date)

❏

Ok to Print

17:16 - 11-DEC-2006

The type and rule above prints on all proofs including departmental reproduction proofs. MUST be removed before printing.

2006

Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service

Instructions for Form 8913
Credit for Federal Telephone Excise Tax Paid
Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code unless
otherwise noted.

file Form 8913 and figure the actual amount of credit or
refund. A dependent cannot request the standard amount.

General Instructions

Others Who May File

Purpose of Form

Individuals

Form 8913 is used to request a credit or refund of the
federal excise tax paid on long distance or bundled
telephone service that was billed after February 28, 2003,
and before August 1, 2006. You cannot request a credit or
refund for the tax paid on local-only service or charges in
connection with local-only service. See Definitions on
page 2.
You may request a credit or refund if you:
• Have not received from the service provider a credit or
refund of the tax paid on long distance or bundled service
billed after February 28, 2003, and before August 1, 2006,
and
• Will not ask the service provider for a credit or refund or
have withdrawn any request submitted to the provider for a
credit or refund.

!

Do not file Form 8913 if you are requesting the
standard amount on your individual tax return.

CAUTION

Requests cannot be filed on Form 8849, Form 720, or
Form 843 for this credit or refund; the IRS will not process
these claims. If you filed a claim prior to May 25, 2006, you
or your representative should have received a letter from the
IRS explaining how your claim will be processed. If you or
your representative have not received a letter or an IRS
agent has not contacted you, call toll-free 1-866-699-4096
for assistance.

How To Figure Your Credit or Refund
There are two methods to figure your credit or refund on
Form 8913.
• Figure your actual credit or refund. You will need your
phone bills for the 41-month refund period.
• If eligible, you can figure your actual credit or refund using
the Business and Nonprofit Estimation Method.

Who Must File
All of the following must file Form 8913 if they want to
request a credit or refund of the federal telephone excise
tax.
• All corporations, partnerships, estates, trusts, and
nonprofit organizations.
• Any individual who can be claimed as a dependent by
someone else. A person who can be claimed as a
dependent is eligible to request a credit or refund of the
telephone excise tax if the dependent paid the tax on long
distance or bundled service. However, the dependent must

Standard amounts are available for individuals to request a
credit or refund of the tax instead of figuring the actual
amount on Form 8913. See the 2006 Instructions for
Form 1040, Form 1040A, Form 1040EZ, Form 1040NR,
Form 1040NR-EZ, Form 1040-PR, Form 1040-SS, or new
Form 1040EZ-T, Request for Refund of Federal Telephone
Excise Tax. However, individuals who want to request a
credit or refund greater than the standard amount must file
Form 8913. Individuals filing Schedule C, Schedule C-EZ,
Schedule E, Schedule F, or Form 4835 may benefit by
figuring the actual amount of credit or refund on Form 8913.
The IRS has developed Form 1040EZ-T for use by

TIP individuals who are otherwise not required to file a
tax return. Individuals who file Form 1040EZ-T can
request the standard amount or use Form 8913 to request a
refund. Form 1040EZ-T is available on the IRS website at
www.irs.gov.
Individuals filing Schedule C, Schedule C-EZ, Schedule
E, Schedule F, or Form 4835. Individuals who figure the
actual amount of credit or refund must do so for all of their
phone service included in the credit or refund request. You
cannot request the standard amount for your personal lines
and also request the actual amount for your business lines.

Deceased Taxpayers
If a taxpayer died after 2005 but before filing a return for
2006, the taxpayer’s spouse or personal representative may
have to file Form 8913 (if he or she is not requesting the
standard amount) and attach it to the individual income tax
return for that taxpayer or to Form 1040EZ-T. For more
information on filing for a deceased taxpayer, see the
instructions for your individual tax return.
If the taxpayer died before 2006, Form 1041 must be filed
for 2006, even if the estate is closed. Attach Form 8913 to
that return.

Entities No Longer in Existence or No Longer in
Business
If an entity was the subject of a merger or acquisition and it
will not be filing a 2006 income tax return, the surviving or
acquiring corporation must include on its Form 8913 any tax
for the months of the refund period the dissolved entity was
in existence and paid the tax. If the entity is no longer in
business or is no longer in existence, the transferee must
file Form 8913. The transferee must include any tax on long
distance or bundled service from the entity no longer in
existence with the transferee’s own Form 8913.

Cat. No. 49246W

Page 2 of 4

Instructions for Form 8913

17:16 - 11-DEC-2006

The type and rule above prints on all proofs including departmental reproduction proofs. MUST be removed before printing.

Credit or Refund Requests by Service Providers

the local telephone service. Bundled service includes plans
that provide both local and long distance service for either a
flat monthly fee or a charge that varies with the elapsed
transmission time for which the service is used.
Telecommunications companies provide bundled service for
both landlines and wireless (cellular) service. If Voice over
Internet Protocol service provides both local and long
distance service and the charges are not separately stated,
such service is bundled service.

A service provider is the person responsible for paying over
the tax to the government, generally the telecommunications
company that provides communications services to the
taxpayer. A provider cannot use Form 8913 to request a
credit or refund for long distance or bundled service billed to
customers of the provider. See the Instructions for
Form 720.
Providers may request a credit or refund on Form 8913
for long distance or bundled service billed to the provider.

The method for sending or receiving a call, such as on a
landline telephone, wireless (cellular), or some other
method, does not affect whether a service is local-only or
bundled.

Recordkeeping
Do not attach any phone bills or other records to Form 8913.
However, all taxpayers must keep records to support the
credit or refund request.

!

Prepaid Telephone Cards (PTC)

Service providers are not required to provide
duplicate billing records to their customers.

A PTC will be treated as bundled service unless a PTC
expressly states it is for local-only service. Generally, the
person responsible for collecting the tax is the carrier who
transfers the PTC to the transferee. The transferee is the
first person that is not a carrier to whom a PTC is transferred
by the carrier. The transferee is the person liable for the tax
and is eligible to request a credit or refund. For more
information, see Regulations section 49.4251-4.

CAUTION

How To File
Attach Form 8913 to your return for the tax year that
includes December 31, 2006.

Definitions

The holder is the person that purchases a PTC to use
and not to resell. Holders are not liable for the tax and
cannot request a credit or refund.

Local-Only Service
Local-only service means (a) access to a local telephone
system (but not private communications service) and the
privilege of telephonic quality communication with
substantially all persons having telephone or radio
telephone stations constituting a part of such local telephone
system, and (b) any facility or service provided in connection
with such a service.
Local-only service includes the charges for the following
services, even though they may be connected with long
distance service.
• Telephone amplifier.
• Automatic call distributing equipment.
• Special telephone.
• Subscriber line charge (or access charge if separately
stated).
A universal service fee charge is considered local-only
service if it is separately stated on the bill for local-only
service.
If local and long distance service is billed to a customer
on a single bill, but the charges for local-only service and
long distance service are separately stated, then the amount
for local-only service is subject to the 3% communications
excise tax.

Example 1. Z purchases a PTC from S. Z uses the PTC
to place telephone calls. Z is a holder and cannot request a
credit or refund.
Example 2. S purchased the PTC from O. O is a
transferee that purchased the card from R. R is a carrier. O
is eligible to request a credit or refund. S cannot request a
credit or refund because S did not purchase the PTC from
the carrier.

Prepaid Cellular Telephones
Rules similar to the PTC rules above apply to prepaid
cellular telephones. The transferee is the person eligible to
request the credit or refund.

Long Distance Service
Long distance service is telephonic quality communication
with persons whose telephones are outside the local
telephone system of the caller.

Additional Information

Bundled Service

For more information, see Notice 2006-50, which is
available on page 1141 of Internal Revenue Bulletin
2006-25 at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb06-25.pdf.

Bundled service is local and long distance service provided
under a plan that does not separately state the charge for

-2-

Page 3 of 4

Instructions for Form 8913

17:16 - 11-DEC-2006

The type and rule above prints on all proofs including departmental reproduction proofs. MUST be removed before printing.

Step 1. Are You Eligible To Use This Method?

Specific Instructions

1. Are you an individual taxpayer?

Identifying Number

Yes.

Enter the identifying number shown on your tax return. If you
are filing Form 1040EZ-T and you did not enter an
identifying number on that form, leave this space blank.

Continue

No.
You can use this method. Go to
Step 2 at the bottom of this page.

䊲

2. Are you filing Schedule C, C-EZ, E, or F, or
Form 4835?

How To Complete Lines 1–14,
Columns (b) and (c)

Yes.
Continue

Figuring the Actual Amount of Credit or
Refund

No.

STOP

You cannot use this method.

䊲

3. Enter the amounts from the following lines of your tax
return:

Taxpayers must have appropriate records for each period a
credit or refund is requested. Businesses and nonprofit
organizations may be eligible to use an estimation method
(described below). Enter the tax for all telephone lines for
each period in the applicable column shown on lines 1 – 14.
Complete and attach only one Form 8913 to your return.
Include the tax on prepaid telephone cards and prepaid
cellular service with long distance service in column (b). Do
not include the tax on local-only service.

3a. Schedule C, line 1

Individuals cannot request the standard amount for
their personal or business phone service if they
CAUTION figure the actual credit or refund for any of their
phone service.

!

Example 1. A corporation files a consolidated return with
three subsidiaries. The corporation prepares one Form 8913
which combines the credit or refund request for the entire
group.

3b. Schedule C, line 6

+

3c. Schedule C-EZ, line 1

+

3d. Schedule E, line 3

+

3e. Schedule F, line 2

+

3f. Schedule F, line 11

+

3g. Schedule F, line 45

+

3h. Form 4835, line 7

+

3i. Add lines 3a through 3h

=

4. Is line 3i more than $25,000?
Yes.
You can use this
method.
Go to Step 2.

Example 2. Audrey files Form 1040 that includes a
separate Schedule C (Form 1040) for each of her three
businesses. Audrey combines the actual tax paid for her
personal and business phone lines and files one Form 8913
with Form 1040.

No.

STOP

You cannot use this method. Complete lines
1 – 14 using the actual amounts of tax paid.

Step 2. Figure Your Allowable Excise Tax Rate
1. Enter the total amount you paid for telephone
service (including all fees
and taxes) billed in April 2006. . . . . . . . . . .
2. Enter the total federal excise
tax included on line 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. Divide line 2 by line 1. Carry the
result to at least four decimal places . . . . . .
4. Enter the total amount you paid for telephone
service (including all fees
and taxes) billed in September 2006. . . . . .
5. Enter the total federal excise
tax included on line 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. Divide line 5 by line 4. Carry the
result to at least four decimal places . . . . . .
7. Subtract line 6 from line 3. . . . . . . . . . . . .
8. Enter the number of employees
from line 1 of your second quarter of
2006 Form 941 (but do not count any
household employees, employees in nonpay
status, pensioners, or active members of the
Armed Forces). If you did not file Form 941,
enter -0-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9. If line 8 is 250 or less, enter 0.02.
Otherwise, enter 0.01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10. Enter the smaller of line 7 or line 9.

Business and Nonprofit Estimation Method
A business and nonprofit estimation method is available for
corporations, partnerships, estates, trusts, and nonprofit
organizations. Business also includes individual taxpayers
filing Schedule C, Schedule C-EZ, Schedule E, Schedule F,
or Form 4835, with gross receipts above the limit figured in
Step 1 of the worksheet. Your organization must have been
in business April through September of 2006 to use this
method.
This method will allow organizations to make a
reasonable estimate of their actual credit or refund for the
41-month refund period. Using the estimation method may
reduce the burden of computing the actual credit or refund
for all 41 months. However, there are limits on the amount of
credit or refund using this method. The limits are explained
in the worksheet. Any organization, or individual filing
Schedules C, C-EZ, E, F, or Form 4835, can always figure
the actual amount of credit or refund and not use the
estimation method.

-3-

1.
2.
. . . . . . . . 3.

4.
5.
. . . . . . . . 6.
. . . . . . . . 7.

8.
. . . . . . . . 9.
10.

Page 4 of 4

Instructions for Form 8913

17:16 - 11-DEC-2006

The type and rule above prints on all proofs including departmental reproduction proofs. MUST be removed before printing.

Line From
Form 8913

Interest Start Date

Interest Factor

Line 1

August 1, 2003

.260351533

telephone expenses paid or accrued from your books and
records that were billed for the period in column (a). You
may determine your telephone expenses for each month
during your tax year by dividing your annual telephone
expenses for that tax year by 12.
• In column (c) of the worksheet below, enter the rate from
Step 2, line 10.
• In column (d) of the worksheet below, multiply column (b)
by column (c). Enter the result on the corresponding line in
column (d) of Form 8913.

Line 2

November 1, 2003

.245625746

Line 3

February 1, 2004

.233142332

Line 4

May 1, 2004

.220072831

Line 5

August 1, 2004

.205856373

Line 6

November 1, 2004

.192782734

Line 7

February 1, 2005

.177872636

Line 8

May 1, 2005

.162644579

(a) Period

Line 9

August 1, 2005

.145195286

Line 10

November 1, 2005

.127050415

Line 11

February 1, 2006

.107341197

Line 12

May 1, 2006

.088602722

Line 13

August 1, 2006

.068658029

Line 14

November 1, 2006

.047327318

Step 3. Figure Your Credit or Refund for Each
Period
• In column (b) of the worksheet below, enter the

1. March 2003 –
May 2003

(b) Telephone
Expenses
(including all
fees and taxes)

(c) Rate
From
Step 2,
Line 10

$

(d) Tax Credit or
Refund (column
(b) x column (c))
$

2. June 2003 –
Aug. 2003

Interest factors are not provided in these instructions for
other taxpayers. Tables of interest rates to figure interest on
overpayments for other taxpayers are available in Rev.
Proc. 95-17, 1995-1 C.B. 556. The applicable interest rates
for overpayments in effect for periods through December 31,
2006, are shown in Rev. Rul. 2006-49, 2006-40 I.R.B. 584,
which is available at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb06-40.pdf.
For periods after December 31, 2006, use the applicable
overpayment rate under section 6621(a)(1) in the quarterly
revenue rulings published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin.
Interest must be figured using the interest start date
shown in the table above. The interest ending date is 45
days after the later of the original due date or the date you
file your return.

3. Sept. 2003 –
Nov. 2003
4. Dec. 2003 –
Feb. 2004
5. March 2004 –
May 2004
6. June 2004 –
Aug. 2004
7. Sept. 2004 –
Nov. 2004
8. Dec. 2004 –
Feb. 2005

Including the Credit or Refund in
Income

9. March 2005 –
May 2005
10. June 2005 –
Aug. 2005

You must report as interest income in the year received or
accrued the part of your credit or refund attributable to
interest, from line 15, column (e). If you deducted any
telephone excise tax paid, you also must include in gross
income in the year received or accrued the smaller of the
amount deducted or the rest of your credit or refund, from
line 15, column (d), except to the extent the deduction did
not reduce federal income tax.

11. Sept. 2005 –
Nov. 2005
12. Dec. 2005 –
Feb. 2006
13. March 2006 –
May 2006

Amended Return

14. June 2006 –
July 2006

You must complete another Form 8913 in full if you are
amending a previously filed Form 8913. On the corrected
Form 8913, use the same interest start date and ending
date that were required to be used on your original
Form 8913. Attach both a copy of the original Form 8913
and the corrected Form 8913 to the applicable amended
return. Write “Amended TETR” at the top of the corrected
Form 8913 and the amended return.
Individuals also may file an amended return changing
from the standard amount to the actual amount of credit or
refund. Attach Form 8913 to Form 1040X and state that you
are changing from the standard amount to the actual
amount of credit or refund. Write “Amended TETR” at the
top of the amended return.

Do not complete columns (b) and (c) on Form 8913.
Complete column (e) and the rest of Form 8913 using these
instructions.

Lines 1–14, Column (e)
All taxpayers must figure the interest due on the credit or
refund for each period. If you are an individual, estate, trust,
or partnership (except an electing large partnership) and you
are filing a calendar year return on or before its original due
date, multiply the amount of tax on Form 8913, lines 1 – 14,
column (d), by the interest factor for the corresponding line
in the table below. Interest is computed through
May 30, 2007.

-4-