February 25, 2003
Teleconference

Opening of the Meeting
Chairperson Fish opened the meeting at 1:02PM Eastern Time and welcomed all members and guest Dan Rinke from CCH to the meeting.

The Chair explained that the Joint Committee discussed possible conflicts in duplication of issues worked by different committees. At this time, this committee will resolve any conflicts by assembling reports and forwarding issues to the respective committee. Area 1 has no conflicts at this time. Member Shuman indicated that a database that is currently being prepared for this purpose would diminish the possibilities of duplication.

Roll Call

Panel Members Attending

• Abigail Alicea, NH
• Aimee Brace, NY
• Elizabeth Brodbine-Ghoniem, MA
• William Gedge, CT
• Nancy Ferree, Acting DFO
• Walter Fish, NY, Chair
• James Grimaldi, Vice Chair
• Catherine Kelly, ME
• Diane Mignano, RI
• Paul Nagel, NY
• Shamsey Oloko, NY
• Eileen Shuman, VT
• Charles Silva, MA

TAP Staff and IRS Staff Attending

• Eileen Cain, TEC Territory Manager
• Marisa Knispel, TAP Program Analyst
• Ellen Murphy, TEC Area Director

Guest

• Dan Rinke, Commercial Clearing House (CCH)

Meeting Minutes
Chair Fish led discussion on prior meeting minutes and all members formed consensus to approve them. Afterwards, the Chair reminded members that the April 22nd meeting has been rescheduled to 11:00 AM ET.

Subcommittee Reports
Member Gedge briefed the committee on the Penalty Abatement Subcommittee's meeting. After the meeting, the subcommittee sent a report containing a few questions to Analyst Knispel for a response.

At the meeting, Gedge said, the members were trying to assess if the situation of the taxpayer referred to Vermont Member Shuman was an isolated case or a pervasive situation. The taxpayer claimed that after receiving notification from IRS about an underpayment of tax from a previous year, he contacted IRS and requested abatement of penalties since the situation occurred unintentionally. The IRS conceded by abating penalties but when the taxpayer requested an installment plan to pay the balance due, penalties were included in the bill.

The subcommittee members discussed the disclosure process used by IRS to explain to a taxpayer the terms of an installment plan. Is the taxpayer aware that penalties assessed are incorporated into the plan? If abatement of penalties for past due taxes is approved by the IRS and the taxpayer enters into an installment plan, can penalties be abated simultaneously? Member Kelly indicated that she read in Tax Topic #653 that IRS will not abate any penalties until the tax is paid in full. During the discussion, Member Gedge asked how are these installment agreements made and Member Nagel explained that IRS uses Form 9465 to apply for the agreement, but penalties and interest are not calculated at the time of application. Member Grimaldi added that IRS collection employees would customarily accept a payment plan orally to collect the tax due when there are no assets to collect. The members asked: how appropriate is disclosure of the terms of the plan in these cases?

Another question that the members of the subcommittee would like to have answered is regarding the length of time it takes the IRS to review appeal cases. If there is a delay in the review of a taxpayer's appeal to abate the penalties, is the taxpayer penalized? Do penalties accrue while the IRS considers the appeal? Does IRS have statistics on the average time taken to appeal cases?

Finally, the subcommittee considered the education that the Taxpayer Advocates receive on the opportunity to abate penalties from an installment plan after the original penalties were abated.

Member Shuman indicated that she is still working on the issue of inflation factors. She has a list of items to study and wants to know which of these items Congress is considering. She contacted Senator Jeffers' office and the staff assistant who works on tax issues offered Shuman her assistance.

After these reports, Chair Fish asked if the committee should elevate any issue at this time. Member Brace expressed that she does not feel that the committee is ready to elevate the issues but that more study on the issues is needed. Member Kelly felt that the issue regarding the advertised local IRS phone number could be sent forward. She had written a recommendation for this issue and forwarded it to the Chair and Analyst. DFO Ferree advised the local published phone number came about as a requirement from RRA '98. Also, that the purpose of the phone number is for taxpayers to call for directions, hours of service and to secure an office appointment when they have compliance issues. This means that Kelly's recommendation will have to be modified. Afterwards, the written recommendation will be circulated among the members and then the Chair will forward it to the Joint Committee.

National Tax Forums
The committee discussed the National Tax Forums. This event for tax practitioners is held in six cities around the country. TA P will have a booth at each Forum, said Acting DFO Ferree. It is a day and a half of exhibition and it brings the opportunity for TAP to talk to participants. TAP expects to have a staff member and two Area Committee members present at each Forum. The members who volunteer will be selected according to travel budget. Analyst Knispel sent an email to all Area 1 members requesting volunteers. However, not all members had a chance to read the email and hoped that selection would be made during this teleconference. Analyst Knispel will send out another email for the members to indicate their interest in attending the Forum. The list will then be forwarded to DFO Ferree for selection of member participation.

Outreach Activities
The next topic was that of outreach activities performed by the members. Chair Fish explained that he took the opportunity of a cruise to talk to people about TAP. Member Nagel had two recent outreaches. The first was in Glen Cove, NY with Eileen Cain of IRS's TEC organization and another outreach was with a taxpayer who called him after seeing his name in a newspaper article. Member Gedge gave a presentation to two executives of Chambers of Commerce and scheduled a presentation with a larger audience. He announced an interview he will have with the New Haven Register. Gedge feels that this is a good time to re-release the original press releases done on all TAP members. DFO Ferree added that this Connecticut newspaper has a bureau in Washington D.C. and will contact TAP Director Deryle Temple to obtain more information on the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel. Member Ghoniem scheduled a presentation to a tax advocacy program of Boston whose members assist taxpayers with federal and state taxes for a time after the filing season. She will also speak at a women's business network on March 20th and has contacted her local newspapers.

Chair Fish reminded everyone that to maintain a record of the committee's outreach activities and to receive reimbursement for travel expenses, members should complete the Speaker Form and address it to Analyst Knispel.

Member Shuman stated that TAP has a PowerPoint presentation that is excellent to use in outreaches. DFO Ferree will send out this presentation to everyone via email.

Future Meeting Planning
Member Shuman commented on a recent face-to-face meeting with her issue committee in Austin, TX where the members had the opportunity to take a tour of the Service Center. There, she met Analyst Jim Cesarano from the Andover Service Center. She suggested that Area 1 meet in Andover and get a tour of the center. After agreeing on this location, the committee chose June 19th through 21st to meet. Analyst Knispel will set up the tour.

Guest Speaker
Chair Fish introduced TEC Area Director Ellen Murphy. Director Murphy thanked the committee for adjusting the agenda to her conflicting schedule. She explained that she was former District Director in Brooklyn and Eileen Cain was a former manager for the Citizens Advocacy Panel (CAP) in this location. Murphy indicated that in the past, CAP members were very receptive to issues that were difficult to both taxpayers and the IRS, such as the FTD coupons.

Director Murphy continued by giving an overview of TEC's (Taxpayer Education and Communication) efforts in the New York/New England area. TEC works closely with tax practitioners in this area and partners with the small business developments. Currently TEC is making a big effort to increase electronic submissions. Murphy is the executive in charge of the planned strategy to accomplish this effort. The tax practitioning community that TEC covers is also quite diverse, Murphy said, so much that the organization covers translated services. They have made a great impact with the Asian small business community.

The purpose of her visit, Director Murphy explained, is to propose that both organizations, TEC and TAP, learn from and assist each other. Manager Cain followed by introducing herself as TEC Territory Manager for Long Island, NY. She explained that members could contact TEC managers from other territories. Member Kelly asked who was the TEC representative in Maine and Murphy promised to send a list of TEC managers in the area to Analyst Knispel.

TEC is also responsible for tax products and CD-ROMs used by the tax community. Also, they manage TaxTalk Today, a live broadcast program on different tax issues. The last program was on tax scams and schemes. TaxTalk Today. TV is done with a contractor and more than 20,000 practitioners have registered to use it. Practitioners may view the program and earn CPE credits. Vice-Chair Grimaldi said that he has seen as many as ten programs and found them to be excellent. TEC's website provides a list of future topics. Director Murphy invited all Area 1 members to suggest possible topics for the program. The next topic scheduled for March 10th will deal with tax compliance. To end, Director Murphy thanked the members and invited them to contact her by providing her telephone number.

Other Issues
Member Gedge asked which is the most practical way to communicate between Area Committees other than through the Joint Committee. Member Nagel suggested using the TAP website and reading the committees' minutes. DFO Ferree added that a database or matrix is being prepared to use as issue reference. Also, TAP Speak will be used as an interactive threaded messaging site with a chat room to interact and communicate with other members.

Public Input
Chair Fish invited guest Rinke to comment on meeting. He found the meeting very interesting. When asked by Member Grimaldi what his job is with CCH, Rinke said that he works in Washington DC as analyst/reporter.

Closing of Meeting
The next teleconference will be held on March 25th at 1:00 PM, EST. At 2:05 PM EST, Member Kelly motioned to adjourn the meeting and Member Silva seconded the motion.