Rich White

The Internal Revenue Service has failed to refund about $4 billion in improperly collected taxes, according to a Treasury Department audit.

The $4 Billion “extra” dollars fell into the hands of the IRS due to a telephone tax dating back to the funding of the Spanish American War in 1898.

The tax,originally applied to all telephone use. It was later revised to apply to long-distance charges that factored both duration and distance into the cost of the call.

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