Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP)
Ad Hoc Committee

Committee’s Face-to-Face Meeting in Washington, DC
June 13 – June 15, 2007

Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007

Attachment A
Attachment B
Attachment C

Day #1, June 13, 2007 - State Plaza Hotel, Diplomat Room

Designated Federal Official (DFO)
Nancy L. Ferree, TAP Program Manager,  Plantation, FL

Members Present
Mary Armstrong, Pensacola, FL
George Bates, Great Fall, MT
Kimberly Brown, Blakeslee, PA
Margaret Ferguson, Vista, CA
Christopher Freeman, Pleasant Hill, IA, Vice Chair
Gim Hom, Acton, MA
Mary Ann Lawler, Dearborn, MI
Merijane Lee, Portola Valley, CA, Chair
Patrice Marker, Davie, FL
Alberto Rodriguez, Miami, FL
William Yaeger, Alexandria, VA

Members Absent
Luis Parra, Bronx, NY
Kenneth Wright, Columbia, MO

IRS Program Owner(s)
Carie Schaffer, Multilingual Initiative (MLI) (06/14/07)
Glenn Kirkland, Acting Chief, MLI Strategy Office (06/14/07)
Bob Erickson, Senior Technical Advisor (06/14/07)
Sue Sottile, Director of Tax Forms & Publications (06/14/07)

Guest
Laura Baek, Attorney Advisor, Financial Literacy (06/15/07)
Josh Beck, Attorney Advisor,  Financial Literacy (06/15/07)

Staff Present
Inez E. De Jesus, TAP Program Analyst & Note Taker
John Fay, TAP Senior Program Analyst, National Office
Anita Fields, TAP Secretary

Welcome and Announcements
Chair Merijane Lee opened the meeting by welcoming everyone to Washington, DC, and thanked Patrice, Gim and Inez for preparing a great agenda.

Bill Yaeger mentioned a call he received for an interview for Washington Post.  Bill will invite the reporter to the meeting.

Merijane Lee mentioned the great accommodations and thanked Inez for a great job done.  She familiarized everyone where the restrooms were located and informed them of the per diem.

Roll Call-Confirm Quorum
Quorum of 7 was met; 11 members present.

Review and Approve Minutes from May 10, 2007
Minutes were approved by consensus.

National Office Report: 
John Fay is a senior analyst on the director’s staff.  He delivered the message from Bernie Coston.  Recruitment is in the interview phase.  The process was explained. 

John Fay shared that the annual meeting this year will be held during the week of December 10, 2007 in Washington, DC at the Fairmont Hotel in Georgetown. 

John Fay also thanked the panel members who were asked to work on vision statement, FAQ’s and other teams to develop products for tap procedures.  He announced that during our annual TAS symposium we will have a guest speaker by the name of Rick Lynch.  He has written a book on volunteer management.  There is a possibility that he may attend our annual TAP meeting as a speaker.

Joint Committee meeting is June 25, 2007 in Denver, CO.  If there are questions for the joint committee please give them to John Fay to take.

George Bates asked about the TAP annual business meeting.  Information was shared.  Many panel members expressed dissatisfaction with the time, place and dates of the annual meeting.  Adhoc Chair Merijane Lee with take these to joint committee.

Review Mid-Year Self Assessment:
The Chair Merijane Lee handed out J.T. Wright’s comments (Chair Report) and spoke about “value” as members perform their duties.  There is a mid year self-assessment that needs to be prepared and Merijane asked for everyone’s input.

Ken Wright will step down as lead on pubs and forms subcommittee.  Chris Freeman has stepped up to take lead.

Merijane asked if members want a vision statement.  She feels the purpose of the Ad hoc is to serve the program owners.

Patrice Marker mentioned that the forms and pubs subcommittee need to be responsive to the program owners based on the calendar requirements for new forms and pubs.  They discussed how members operate on sub-committees differently.

George Bates has a MAC and mentioned that he can’t open documents sent from the TAP Analyst.  He also stated that he has the same problems with TAP Space sometimes, but he can usually make that work.

Ice Breaker:
The panel took a few minutes to do an ice-breaker.  Patrice Marker shared three choices and the panel members decided to do ice breaker A-Z.  There were four teams and team 2 won! It was really fun.

The panel members discussed how communication can be improved among panel members. 

Gim Hom commented that Merijane Lee and Chris Freeman are doing a fine job as first time chair and vice chair.

Subcommittee’s Prep Meeting before Next Day’s Activities:
Bill Yaeger spoke about the MLI project and stated there is a need for some role play volunteers.

Al Rodriguez, Inez DeJesus and Bill Yaeger will act as students and Patrice Marker will act as the ESL teacher and Kimberly Brown will be the TAP member.

Wrap up for Day One:
Chris Freeman reminded everyone to review pubs 553 and 600 and be ready to share feedback with Bob Erickson program manager for forms and pubs.

Closing remarks/Adjourn for the Day:
Merijane Lee asked all members to write a suggestion on how things can be improved as it relates to any aspect of the committee.

The meeting was adjourned for the day.

Day #2, June 14, 2007 - State Plaza Hotel, Diplomat Room
Quorum of 7 was met; 11 members present.

Welcomed/Announcements:
Merijane Lee opened the meting with an introduction of guests/program owners Sue Sottile and Bob Erickson.

Sue gave background information and update on forms and pubs operations.  She explained how forms and pubs are affected by legislative changes. Sue and Bob accepted questions from panel members.  Sue stated they want to have Pub 17 reviewed for errors as it is the most important document used by taxpayers.

Bob Erickson talked about how forms are affected by year end legislative changes.  He stated last minute changes are made each year up to and after December.  Bob also asked the committee to provide feedback on pubs the same way feedback is given on forms.

Bob Erickson encouraged the committee to continue looking at forms and providing feedback.  He then provided feedback about the forms that were previously viewed by the committee.

Form 5695 (Issue 4064):
See Attachment A

Forms 8888 (Issue 4065):
See Attachment B

Form 8910 (Issue 4066):
See Attachment C

Discussion of Pub 600 (Issue 4063):
Bob mentioned there is an online sales tax calculator on the IRS.gov.  Although, there is a tax calculator on IRS.gov many taxpayers still use the pub because they don’t have access to a computer for online tools.

Bob and Sue may ask committee to look at Pub 17, but they are still looking at it internally and need to decide what they want the committee to review being that it is so large.

Opening remarks from MLI Program Owners:
William Yaeger (panel member) and Carie Schaffer (program owner) introduced Glenn Kirkland, Acting Chief, MLI Strategy Office and the activities that would be covered in this session.

Glenn Kirkland gave a brief orientation of the multi-lingual initiative for 2007-2008.

MLI DVD Dry Run:
Carie Schaffer presented the MLI DVD for the committee’s review.  Members provided input and recommended changes.  Carie will take comments back to her office for consideration.

Issue 4164 Review Pub 553 Highlights of 2006 Tax Changes:
The committee divided among member teams for the review.  Teams will review Pub 553 tomorrow.

Wrap up /Adjournment:
Merijane Lee reminded everyone about the group dinner and ensured that everyone had a ride.

Day #3, June 15, 2007 - State Plaza Hotel, Diplomat Room
Quorum of 7 was met; 11 members were present.

Welcome/Announcements:
Merijane Lee called the meeting to order and read comments from panel members about ways to improve meetings.  A question arose regarding member attendance and participation.  Inez DeJesus and Nancy Ferree responded that attendance is tracked.

Report Out from the Tax Forms and Pubs Subcommittee (Chris Freeman):
Three teams met to review Pub 553.

Team 1 (pg 1-14) Margaret Ferguson – page 5 advance payment of credit (How to apply)? There is nothing in the pub on how to apply.  Refer to pub 596 for further clarification. Team should double check the pub 596 prior to making recommendation to Bob Erickson.

Team 2 (pgs 15-22) Patrice Marker mentioned that Bill Yaeger had a couple of items.  Page 17 “Indian Coal Credit”, also extension of expired tax credit, bottom left had several references to “Indian”.

Team 3 (pgs 23-the end) Chris Freeman stated that page 24 lower right hand corner, credit for kerosene, 4 lines down,  confusing when mentions non-commercial farming.

Chris Freeman stated that page 29 top right hand corner, you can order pub. 1796 but you need to pay $35.00. A sentence at the top should clarify that there is a cost. The cost is not mentioned until the end of the paragraph.  

Bill Yaeger had another comment, page 17 middle on the right. Read down to employers annual and quarterly is in CAPS. Is this here for a reason? Someone needs to check off line and get back to the team.

Anita Fields passed out a guide to all IRS documents.  Some members mentioned it would be helpful for new panel members to receive this document in the beginning of their term.

Report Out from the MLI Subcommittee (Bill Yaeger):
Bill Yaeger asked everyone where they see the team is on the MLI DVD.  Members shared their perspectives.  Members are concerned that the program owner is not acknowledging the feedback and will not make changes.

Al Rodriguez asked “what do we do after members share the DVD with the public”  Once test is completed and we bring the results back to the program owner?

The members who worked on this project are very frustrated with the process thus far.  There have been extreme delays and program owner doesn’t keep the panel members informed.

Financial Literacy Toolkit/Tax Literacy Toolkit- Update on Ad Hoc’s suggestions:
Josh Beck began with an update on the Financial Literacy toolkit. The toolkit is a part of a larger initiative within TAS and the annual report to congress.

Laura Baek informed the panel that there are now 13 topics in the toolkit.  The toolkit is in the Chief Counsel office for review, then it goes to Nina Olsen (NTA) and then to the vendor.  We anticipate having it out by this fall.  Website is being worked and comments are requested from panel members as well.  There will be a tab for links and resources in addition to a link for the Department of the Treasury for direct payments.

Chris Freeman asked about useful links and Bill Yaeger asked for a list of items she wants the panel to review.  Bill also asked how additional topics will be added to the website.

Laura Baek will send the information of what needs to be reviewed out to the panel and she stated that additions to the website is easy, but written suggestions would require vendor and additional printing.

A suggestion was made to add a tab for feedback on the web.  Patrice Marker mentioned that when leaving the IRS site to click on an outside source, a warning should be issued.

Chris asked about burning a CD for those who don’t have computer access.

Closing Remarks/Adjournment:
Chair Merijane Lee asked members to prepare their surveys and turn them in.  She also thanked everyone for their participation and wished them a safe trip home.

Next Meeting via Teleconference:  July 12, 2007 at 2:00 PM ET

Certification:  These minutes were approved by the TAP Ad Hoc Committee by consensus on July 12, 2007.