Ad Hoc Issue Committee Minutes

Taxpayer Advocacy Panel
Ad Hoc Teleconference
March 7, 2005

Attendance

• Larry Behnkendorf
• David Cain
• Harold Gadon
• James Grimaldi
• Steven Landauer
• Gregory Maciulla
• Patrick Matthews
• Patrick McCombie
• Judi Nicholas, Designated Federal Official
• Buck Paolone
• Teresa Smedley
• Deborah Thomas
• Faith Vinikoor
• Sherry Whah, Chair
• Lillian Woo

Staff

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

Welcome/Review Agenda
Sherry opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. The roll call was taken and a quorum was met.

Announcements
Sherry reminded all committee members to review the prior meeting minutes sent by the TAP analyst and provide comments or approve the minutes via email to the TAP Analyst.

Sherry discussed the Salt Lake City face-to-face meeting on June 3rd and 4th. Members were informed that the TAP staff will be contacting each person to set up travel arrangements.

Ad Hoc Subcommittee Issues

• IRS CPE for Employees
  The committee is waiting to hear back from Grant Thorton with possible dates for the sub committee to have a call and utilize them for best practices discussion. The sub committee met with the new committee members to get them up to speed on the issue. TAP Analyst is researching whether the requirement for 40 hours of CPE applies to all operating divisions.

• On-Line Publications 17 Education
  Lillian reported on the subcommittee proceedings. The question to answer is to how best educate the public on the existence of Publication 17 and all of the invaluable information that is available to the average taxpayer. The sub committee came up with several action items to work on:
  1. Come up with better description of what Pub 17 is.
  2. Ask the IRS to include this description/advertisement in 1040 and 1040 A-instruction form and also the irs.gov,
  3. Advertise Pub 17 in the Taxpayer Assistance Center,
  4. Ask software companies to include a description of Pub 17 in their packages – software or print,
  5. Ask the IRS to have staff answer the helpline and reference Pub 17
  6. Work with internet search sites to configure tax information responses to result in Pub 17 being listed.
  7. Work with volunteer group and VITA sites to have them reference Pub 17 when they assist taxpayers.

  The next step will be to start writing a recommendation.

  Lillian asked if there were any comments or suggestions. Some of the comments and discussion included: What if any items should be given to the Communication Subcommittee, Education of the Online Publication 17 versus the hard copy of Publication 17, and the possibility of Publication 17 on a Compact Disc.

  Lillian concluded that the committees list would be forwarded to Denise Fayne for feedback.

• On-Line Publication 17 Searchability
  David presented the Subcommittee’s progress. A problem statement has been identified as a focus for recommendations that will be developed.

  The committee is in the process of putting together a power point presentation that scripts how a person would start an Online Publication 17 search. The committee is also exploring recommendations on the format of the Online Publication 17. The four main categories and links on the search page would include:

  1. Contents
  2. Index
  3. Schedule 1040
  4. Ask your question

Judi added that Denise requested that the members look into the searchability function of Pub 17. Judi explained that it is o.k. for the committee to make additional recommendations if they think it will produce an effective end product.

Action: Mary will put the power point presentation in a word document since some members do not have access to power point am email the document to the panel.

Other suggestions for improving the Searchability of Publication 17 include:

• Using Publication 17 as a portal to links with more detailed information found in other publications. These hyperlinks would be embedded within the publication. When a taxpayer is in the online publication 17 site and it refers the taxpayer to another publication for more information, a hyperlink would be added to take them to that suggested publication. In addition, hyperlinks would be added to the index and content.

• Developing a questions and answer section to the IRS website that makes it irrelevant for a person to know that they need to access Publication 17 to get their question answered.

It was suggested that the committee review the Ernst and Young tax guide. The tax guide has a word for word publication 17 in their guide and they offer examples, explanations and tax alerts. All additions to publication 17 are done in blue and all materials are written in a simpler style. The document is not available on the internet for free but is available at bookstores.

Next steps will be to review the power point presentation and make adjustments. The subcommittee would check their progress with Denise Fayne to ensure that the group is on track. Deborah will also follow up with the students at the University of Arkansas who will be reviewing Pub 17 and will write a report on their findings. This report will be included with the subcommittee recommendation.

Committee Business/Next Steps
Sherry thanked all of the sub committees for being on target ant the hard work everyone was doing. Sherry asked if there were any other issues to discuss. No other issues were introduced and the meeting was concluded.

Next meeting is scheduled for April 4, 2005.