Remembering the Maine, the battleship sunk in Havana harbor more than a century ago, could increase the size of your federal income tax refund. It all has to do with telephones and military spending.

Like all military endeavors, lawmakers, who rallied support for the 1898 Spanish-American War with the cry “Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain,” had to find a way to pay for it. They decided to assess a 1-cent tax on all calls, at a time when few people owned telephones.

Although the war lasted less than a year, the “luxury” was long-lived.

It was repealed in 1902 but re-established in 1914 to help fund U.S. efforts in World War I.

The Treasury Department has collected more than $300 billion through the phone tax. The Spanish-American War, by the way, cost about $6 billion. The tax was set at 3 percent of long-distance charges in 1990.

Several federal courts have ruled the tax illegal. As a result, the Internal Revenue Service has agreed to stop collecting the tax and to offer a refund for the long-distance excise tax collected between Feb. 28, 2003 and Aug. 1, 2006. The refund covers only the last three years because that is the statute of limitations for claiming tax refunds.

Millions of residential and business customers, who paid long-distance charges for landline, cellular or Voice over Internet Protocol service, are eligible for the one-time refund that is expected to total $13 billion. A line (No. 71 on Form 1040 if you claim the standard telephone tax refund) has been added to 2006 federal income tax forms for refund claims.

The IRS has calculated a standard refund after finding that long-distance phone charges correlated with the number of people in a household. An individual will receive $30. A married couple with two children will get $60.

You can also calculate your refund based on how much you actually paid if you have old phone bills going back to February 2003. The tax is usually identified as “federal line charge” or “access fee” on your bill. You also have to fill out a separate form if you calculate your refund that way.

The money will either reduce the amount you owe the IRS or will increase the size of your refund. Those who don’t need to file a federal income tax return can claim the refund by filling out a special form, a 1040EZ-T.

On April 15, the rallying cry might be: “Remember the Maine, on the 1040 a small refund we’ll claim.”