Refunds for Everyone!

That's right, everybody's getting a refund! And they could be as much as ... (drum roll) ... sixty dollars!

Okay, maybe that's not much to get excited about.

The federal government has had its hand slapped in court over collecting a tax on telephone service since 1898. The courts decided that the Treasury Department should not have been collecting this tax on long distance service, just on local service. As a result, the IRS will refund $13 billion of the collected tax to taxpayers.

The refund will be claimed on your 2006 tax return, where it will be treated as a payment towards your tax bill. Individuals will receive a refund ranging between $20 and $60, based on the number of exemptions they claim on the return.

Businesses will also receive a refund, but right now, the IRS says businesses must prove the amount of tax paid based on phone bills since 2003. It's likely that they will come up with a method of estimating this amount instead, so you business owners don't need to go digging through your old invoices just yet.