WASHINGTON — Sometimes the IRS can’t get people to cooperate, even when it tries to give money away.
As of November, fewer than 6 percent of business taxpayers filing returns had made claims for the Telephone Excise Tax Refund, a once-only payback for a now-defunct tax, according to the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.
The most far-reaching tax refund in the history of the Internal Revenue Service was estimated to affect between 13.9 million and 15.9 million business taxpayers.
Refunds associated with those claims amounted to only $876.6 million, or 17.5 percent of the $5 billion collected.
The report said it was unclear why so few businesses claimed the refund, but it offered theories that small businesses believed the work associated with making the claims outweighed the benefit, didn’t think they could come up with the necessary records or were unaware of the credit.
