Phone-Tax Refund

In August, the Treasury Department stopped collecting a 3 percent surcharge on long distance calls and bundled service that dated back to 1898 - a tariff often referred to as the Spanish American War tax because Congress passed it to help fund that conflict. The tax is still being assessed on local phone service.

In announcing the exclusion of long distance in May, Treasury also said it will refund any money collected under the tax since March 2003, a total of 41 months overall. The Internal Revenue Service is adding a line to its various 1040 forms to claim the refund on 2006 tax returns filed next year. Businesses and tax-exempt organizations need to fill out Form 8913, "Credit for Federal Telephone Excise Tax Paid," to claim the refund with their returns. Those who wouldn't otherwise need to file tax returns can file a form called "1040EZ-T" to request the refund.

Individuals can claim a standard refund of between $30 and $60, as follows: $30 for one person plus $10 for each additional exemption claimed on the return. So a solo filer would claim a refund of $30, while a married couple with two children would claim $60. The IRS said it devised these standard amounts based on phone usage data for households of different sizes.

This is how I plan to calculate my Excess Federal Taxes:
1) Get a copy of the new bill post August 2006, when they stopped collecting the Federal Tax (i.e. Oct. 2006)
2) Get a copy of an old bill of yours prior to August 2006, when they were collecting the Federal Tax (i.e. June 2005)
3) See which tax appears in the old bill that doesn’t appear in the newer one…and that is your excess amount.
4) You can take that amount and multiply it by 41 and that is your refund amount or you can total the amount in the previous 41 bills, which also is my option…just gotta find the old bills.

Directly from the IRS website:
IRS announcement of Telephone Tax Refund: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161504,00.html

IRS Q&A on telephone tax refund for individuals: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id161506,00.html

IRS Q&A on telephone tax refund for businesses:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id164310,00.html

Other good Freebies:
http://www.google.com/notebook/public/15076703108624276567/BDRNQSwoQluXO0N4h

Get a Human when calling Customer Service

I like to pretend that I don't have a touchtone phone, so I can directly go to customer service.

This is increasing becoming harder since they have come out with computers and you no longer have to push buttons, but just talk and tell the computer what you need, which is a headache by its self.  

Here's a list that has been put together for some of the most popular companies:
http://www.gethuman.com/us/ 

Target Heart Rate

For those of you working out just like me.  I'm currently doing 3+ days a week.  I get confused between the different target heart rates.  

Men: 220 - your age = Maximum Heart Rate (mhr)
Women 226- your age = Maximum Heart Rate (mhr)

TRAINING ZONES
Healthy Heart Zone (Warm up) --- 50 - 60% of maximum heart rate: The easiest zone and probably the best zone for people just starting a fitness program. It can also be used as a warm up for more serious walkers. This zone has been shown to help decrease body fat, blood pressure and cholesterol. It also decreases the risk of degenerative diseases and has a low risk of injury. 85% of calories burned in this zone are fats!

Fitness Zone (Fat Burning) --- 60 - 70% of maximum heart rate: This zone provides the same benefits as the healthy heart zone, but is more intense and burns more total calories. The percent of fat calories is still 85%.

Aerobic Zone (Endurance Training) --- 70 - 80% of maximum heart rate: The aerobic zone will improve your cardiovascular and respiratory system AND increase the size and strength of your heart. This is the preferred zone if you are training for an endurance event. More calories are burned with 50% from fat.

Anaerobic Zone (Performance Training) --- 80 - 90% of maximum heart rate: Benefits of this zone include an improved VO2 maximum (the highest amount of oxygen one can consume during exercise) and thus an improved cardiorespiratory system, and a higher lactate tolerance ability which means your endurance will improve and you'll be able to fight fatigue better. This is a high intensity zone burning more calories, 15 % from fat.

Red Line (Maximum Effort) --- 90 - 100% of maximum heart rate: Although this zone burns the highest number of calories, it is very intense. Most people can only stay in this zone for short periods. You should only train in this zone if you are in very good shape and have been cleared by a physician to do so.