Ad Hoc Issue Committee Minutes

Taxpayer Advocacy Panel
Ad Hoc Teleconference
February 7, 2005

Attendance

• Behnkendorf, Larry
• Cain, David
• Combs, Larry
• Gadon, Harold
• Griffin, Jim
• Landauer, Steve
• Maciulla, Gregg
• Nicholas, Judi, Designated Federal Official
• Paolone, Buck
• Seuntjens, Tom
• Thomas, Deborah
• Vinikoor, Faith
• Whah, Sherry, Chair
• Woo, Lillian

Staff

• Mary Peterson O’Brien, Analyst
• Marla Ofilas, Note Taker

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda
Sherry welcomed the committee members and asked if there were any additions to the agenda. The selection of a new Ad Hoc vice chair was added to the agenda.

Roll Call was performed and a quorum was met. The committee approved the minutes for January 3, 2005.

Announcements
Sherry discussed the addition of the TAP issue committee on Communication. The result of the addition is a smaller, more manageable Ad Hoc committee.

The policy and procures of how the Ad Hoc committee gets issues was reviewed. The Ad Hoc committee will continue to get issues from the TAP Director and the Joint Committee to work. The committee will no longer generate their own issues; instead, these issues will go to the person’s area committee to be worked. The Ad Hoc committee will continue to work the Online Publication 17 and the IRS Employee CPE issues. The Walk-in issue will be referred to Area 7 to consider.

The TAP Director is working with the National Taxpayer Advocate and the Wage & Investment Division (W&I) for a possible partnership to address issues concerning walk-in sites. Walk-in issues could be assigned to Ad Hoc or an issue committee could be created to work it.

Lillian explained to the new members the history of why Ad Hoc was working on the walk-in issue. Last year the Joint Committee was asked to serve as a focus group for a proposal to make some changes at the walk-in site. Following the meeting, the TAP Director asked the Ad Hoc committee to look at the walk-in issue because a number of area committees had been looking at in bits and pieces. The Director felt the Ad Hoc committee would be a good gathering place for all of the information. As late as August 2004 the committee was still reviewing the issues.

Discussion of Ad Hoc Issues

• Walk-in Issue
  
  The Ad hoc committee asked to be kept appraised of the progress of the Director’s attempt to partner with W & I on walk-in issues.

  Action: Judi will keep the committee informed of any new updates

• Updates on New Issues from the National Taxpayer Advocate

  Sherry explained that there were no new issues, at this time.

Ad Hoc Subcommittee Issues

• IRS Continuing Professional Education (CPE) for Employees
  Steve reported that the subcommittee met and plans to contact an education director from an international accounting firm. The goal is to find out how the firm delivers continuing professional education to their employees including the method of delivery. The committee will discuss the video that the IRS SB/SE CPE Blue Ribbon Panel put together. Steve also outlined the difficulties with such a small sub-committee to work on this issue and asked that other Ad Hoc members volunteer to work on this subcommittee.

• On-Line Publication 17
  David stated that the committee problem statement is as follows:

  “The needs of the average taxpayers in accessing tax information contained in Publication 17 are not being met. The on-line version is not user friendly.”

  The committee identified two major areas of focus for the online Publication 17 project. They are Education and Searchability. The subcommittee’s recommendation is to work in two groups to address these two areas of focus. The Education team would work on how to make taxpayers aware of the online Publication 17 product and the Searchability team would work on making the online version of Publication 17 user friendly.

  A university graduate level class in web design will be reviewing the Publication 17 web site and providing ideas they have for making it a better and more searchable product.

  This information was submitted to Director of Forms and Publications and she has not yet provided any feedback. Lillian asked if there is a projected target date to complete this issue. The Director did not provide one.

Ad Hoc Committee Vice Chair
By consensus, the Ad Hoc committee chose Deborah to serve as the vice-chair.

Ad Hoc Subcommittee Assignments
New subcommittee assignments were made as follows:

Action: Mary will email the updated subcommittee list to the members.

Face-to-Face
The committee discussed possible dates and locations for their face-to-face meeting.

Decision: The face-to-face meeting will be held in Salt Lake City, UT on June 3rd and 4th with June 2nd and 4th being travel days.

Marla will be contacting each member regarding flight preferences and lodging reservations six weeks before the meeting.

Closing
Sherry thanked everyone for participating and adjourned the meeting.

Next meeting is scheduled for Monday March 7, 2005.

Assignments
Action: Judi will keep the committee informed of any new updates regarding The TAP Director’s attempt to partner with W&I on walk-in issues.

Action: Mary will email the updated subcommittee list to the members.

Action: Mary will ensure that the subcommittees have the opportunity to hold a teleconference before March 7, 2005.