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Scams, credits, errors decide refund options |
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Thursday, 15 February 2007 |
by JULIA HARR
News Reporter
In order to ensure the maximum tax refund possible, students should be aware of tax scams, credits and errors before they file their taxes by the April 17 deadline.
Students who own their own phone are eligible for a tax credit, Mark W. Hanson, internal revenue service media representative, said.
“Generally speaking, if students had their own cell phone, land line or
bundle package between Feb. 28, 2003 and Aug.1, 2006, then they could
qualify for a tax credit of $30-$60 based upon the number of exemptions
they claim on their return,” Hanson said.
He went on to explain that the ability to request this refund is on the forms that students would most likely file.
Even if students do not plan to file their income taxes – since they
are not required – they could still get this refund for the federal
telephone excise tax paid on long-distance phone calls by filing the
form 1040 EZ-T.
“$30 may not seem like a lot of money, but to a student that can be a pretty nice amount,” Hanson said.
Kristin M. Hyle, freshman seminar program assistant, warns that
students should know the refund received from services like H&R
Block is actually a loan.
“The ‘refund’ you can receive ‘in about an hour’ is actually a loan
from the tax preparer, usually at an outrageous interest rate, in the
triple digits when annualized,” she said.
Hyle said this refund is often not even for the full amount of the estimated refund.
“There are countless complaints from consumers who claim to have been
made to wait up to 10 days to get the rest of their money, when
e-filing and waiting for the refund directly from the IRS would have
taken less time,” she said.
Students are also encouraged to look into the education tax benefits.
The Hope and Lifetime Learning credits are also available to students claiming independence.
Hanson said March is the biggest month for scams.
“In the past, we have seen e-mails that say the IRS had [$39] to refund
to you, we just need your account information to deposit it,” he said.
“The IRS doesn’t send out unsolicited e-mails. [Education] domains have
been targeted with those.”
Hanson feels students are targeted because for many of them, it’s their
first time filing taxes and they just want to do them right.
He advised that if students receive these e-mails, they forward them to
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
so the IRS can track them.
“If [students] think the e-mail is from the IRS, they can always [(800) 829-1040] to check it out,” he said.
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