Can You Hear Me Now? Free Money From the IRS

On this day a mere 131 years ago, Alexander Graham Bell received the patent for the telephone and Ma Bell was on her way to being born. Bell submitted his patent for the telephone at 11:30 a.m. February 14, only hours after Elisha Gray submitted a caveat for the device – but Gray didn't convert his caveat into a full blown application for patent, so the patent office granted the patent to Bell. It's a whole contentious story that could probably be researched for a decade before yet another book was written on the subject, but the long and the short of it was that Bell got the patent for the phone and a system of overtaxing citizens began.

A trust-bust, cellular innovation, and over a century later here we are. We'll take this opportunity to remind you, dear reader, that there's free money coming to you on your taxes this year. Everyone gets $30 back if you're filing by yourself. Families generally qualify for the $60 credit. All you have to do is check a box. The government has been charging so many fees for phone service over the years without enough contention. Focus was given to some of them and the result was the IRS saying that they had erred in their ways and will be giving back individuals $30 in phone taxes. As many tax issues are, and as the great debate over the Bell v. Gray patent race, the issue is exceedingly complex. There are all sorts of forms and calculations that you can do – but someone told us that on average it will take you 14 hours to complete. 14 hours isn't worth the extra thirty cents we'd likely be able to claim from the government. We're satisfied to take our $30 this year and calling it even. Seriously, $30! That's real money. $30 is three Celtics games in the nosebleed section, three movies at the AMC Boston Common, a whole mess of Anna's burritos, or about one-seventeenth of a ticket to go see the Sox play at Fenway. Remember to check that box on your taxes, and thank Alexander Graham Bell for patenting (notice we're not claiming he "invented") the telephone…and he did it here in Boston.