Real or Make-Believe?

I’ve been told I’m entitled to a large refund of the Federal Excise Tax. Basically 3% of my phone bills, both my land line and all my mobiles for the last 3 years. That could be a chunk of change.

I’ve been looking around, trying to figure if this is true or is my leg being pulled. (Once my brother was convinced that income tax was non-manditory.)

Here’s AT&T’s explanation of the charge on my bill:
The Federal Excise Tax is a U.S. federal tax which applies only to U.S. 800 surcharges you incurred. If you do not dial into the service using a U.S. 800 number, you will not incur U.S. 800 surcharges, and therefore will not incur the U.S. Federal Excise Tax, either.

USA TODAY says it's absurd. According to seven federal courts, it's also illegal. It was imposed in 1898 to help pay for the Spanish-American War. The war was over in six months, but the tax stayed.

The source of the potential rebate is the 3% Federal Excise Tax (FET) which is assessed on telecom toll charges. But this tax applies ONLY to calls whose prices vary by time and distance. Today however, hardly any interstate calls at all fall into this category. As a result the door is open for companies that qualify to file claims for overpayment and apply for refunds.

http://www.telassess.net/nsltr014.html
http://www.mywireless.org/
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2005-06-30-taxes-usat_x.htm

So I’ve done some research and I’m still not sure I’ll see a dime. The IRS paperwork looks like it would take some doing (like 80 hrs worth). I don’t know if I want to put a bunch of time into something that could set off a red flag with the IRS, alerting them that I may be a crackpot worthy of auditing.