This is unrelated to Verizon’s fee refunds, but the IRS is refunding taxpayers between $30 and $60 if they paid for long distance between March 2003 and July 2006. This is a separate issue in which the government instituted an excise tax during the Spanish-American War. That was back in the 19th century.

In May, the government repealed the tax and now the IRS has announced details about the refund:

If you want to fish through 41 months worth of phone bills to calculate how much you actually paid, you can claim that amount on your return. Otherwise, the IRS announced Thursday you can claim $30 if you’re filing a 2006 return with one exemption; $40 for two exemptions; $50 for three exemptions and $60 for four or more exemptions.

Businesses will be able to able to claim a refund as well, based on the actual amount paid.

At the beginning of the month, I mentioned I had been getting 12 Mbps cable internet for $29.99 a month. Download speeds average between 10 and 12 Mbps. The promotion has elapsed and I’m now being charged $52.95, the normal price for the “ultra-fast” 8 Mbps connection.

Lately, I’ve been feeling the pain of my reduced cable television. I’m only paying $16 a month, but I’m only getting 30 channels. I don’t watch television often, but sometimes I wish I had a better selection. I have no Comedy Central, no permium movie channels.

Meanwhile, I’m also paying for Netflix every month, yet I haven’t watched many movies. Perhaps now, without having to do classwork every night, I’ll be able to enjoy more “Flexo time.”

The final Question of the Day is being hosted at Get Rich Slowly, so take a minute to answer this question over there: What does money mean to you? The full schedule is contained below. Read the rest of this article »

On Friday, I mentioned that the FCC got involved in investigating an unscrupulous decision by Verizon DSL to continue charging a fee that was no longer required by the government.

Reuters reports that Verizon gave into market pressure (well, mostly pressure from the regulators) and have dropped the fee.

If you’ve been getting penny stock spam on the email address you’ve only used for your Ameritrade brokerage account, here’s why:

In April 2005, Ameritrade reported that several tapes with customer information were lost… After the tape incident, Ameritrade notified me of the possible breach and I was given a year of an identity watch service. I was reassured by the comment that the tape was in “secure” areas… I can now report that my data was compromised and found its way into the hands of stock tip spammers. I think the Ameritrade tape wasn’t destroyed or lost. Here’s my evidence.

The conspiracy theorist in me can imagine a world in which Ameritrade hires spammers to spam its customers, hoping that some will use its services (generating transaction fees) to pump and dump penny stocks, and using the “compromised tape” as an excuse. I know in my heart the business world would never be this unscrupulous.

The odd thing is that I’m getting similar junk email to a number of email addresses, including ameritrade@my personal domain name—and I never signed up for an account on Ameritrade. If this email address was “guessed” by the spammers, it’s possible the others were…

August is shaping up to be a good month for my balance sheet. Somehow, I managed to keep my expenses lower than average. That’s probably due to the fact I didn’t have as much fun this month as I would have liked to have had. I still haven’t purchased the new notebook computer or the acoustic guitar yet.

On the income front, the day job is business as usual; no overtime allowed. However, a few websites provided tasty income. I’ll share more details after the end of the month.

• Buying Into Crisis [Fortune]. Think you can find good opportunities after disasters?
• Good Reasons to Use the Plastic [BankRate.com]. Credit cards can be a good idea for some.

• Commuting Stress May Worsen Health Woes [Star-Ledger]. Long train rides create stress much like driven commutes.

If you’re looking for information on the Carnival of Personal Finance, you’ll find it at the Carnival’s new home. The new website will allow me to be more flexible with the Carnival without detracting from the rest of Consumerism Commentary.