Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes

May 25, 2004

Opening of the Meeting
DFO Gorga opened the meeting and explained that the purpose of this meeting is to prepare for the face-to-face (FTF) meeting in Portsmouth, NH. We will review the current issues under consideration and decide which issues merit a recommendation.

Chair joined the call a few minutes later and reiterated the above.

Roll Call

Panel Members Attending

• Elizabeth Brodbine-Ghoniem, MA
• Walter Fish, NY
• William Gedge, CT
• Peter Gorga, Jr., NY, DFO
• James Grimaldi, NY, Chair
• Paul Nagel, NY
• Shamsey Oloko, NY
• Eileen Shuman, VT
• Charles Silva, MA

Panel Members Absent

• Aimee Brace, NY
• Diane Mignano, RI

TAP Staff Attending

• Marisa Knispel, TAP Program Analyst

Joint Committee Report
Grimaldi announced that the TAP is looking for members to volunteer their participation in the interview process of membership applicants. The interviews will be conducted mid- to late July and they will take place in the course of a week per location. When asked about locations, he said he did not know where the interviewing will take place. Knispel indicated that the National Office staff is currently considering locations. Most likely, she said, these will be IRS offices with fingerprinting equipment. Grimaldi asked members to e-mail him their availability for this.

Meeting Minutes
Nagel moved to postpone the approval of the minutes since he recently received a revised copy and had not time to review them. Silva explained that he came to the meeting late but was present, so a correction to attendance must be made. Shuman wishes to change the ending of the line “Shuman volunteered to read this proposal and compare it to the Area 3 proposal” – to - “and compare it to the checkbox proposal.”

Review of Current Issues
Grimaldi suggested the Committee be divided into three subcommittees that would work on the issues currently under consideration. The subcommittees would be: 1) Taxpayer Education, 2) Processes and Procedures and 3) Ad Hoc (that would include miscellaneous issues). The issues and the members involved with these Subcommittees are:

New ITIN Requirements (Processes and Procedures) - Ghoniem, Nagel and Gedge. Ghoniem would like to review this issue at the FTF meeting and announced that she would be unable to attend the meeting on June 7th due to a previous commitment.

Financial Literacy (Taxpayer Education) – Grimaldi, Oloko and Silva.

Outsourcing of the IRS Toll-Free Number – Fish and Silva. This issue was placed in the Parking Lot pending results of the pilot in mid-July.

Health Insurance Deduction for Employees With No Insurance (Ad Hoc) - Shuman and Grimaldi. Shuman recently sent a written recommendation on this issue to Grimaldi who will review it and when finalized will refer it to the TAS Systemic Advocacy due to its legislative nature. Legislative issues, the Committee agreed, would fall under the Ad Hoc Subcommittee.

9/11 Grants (Ad Hoc) – Grimaldi and Shuman. Grimaldi explained that the Joint Committee agreed that this issue should be recognized and addressed to the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA). It is a legislative issue affecting many individuals in NYC. Again, Grimaldi and Shuman will work together to compose a letter addressing this problem to Nina Olson.

Adding a TAP Statement to IRS Forms and Publications – Nagel, Brace, Shuman and Grimaldi. This particular issue will not be included in a Subcommittee but the members will treat it separately. Grimaldi explained that the issue was referred to the Joint Committee during their May FTF meeting and they recommended further research be done.

Grimaldi stated that any research done on an issue, such as who we spoke to and any barriers found, must be included in the proposal. This practice would lend support to our recommendation and avoid the appearance that the recommendation is just the Committee's opinion. Shuman added that maybe our format should also include questions from the Joint Committee and the response to these questions.

Grimaldi explained that in spite of receiving a negative response from Denise Fayne, Director of the Forms and Publications Unit, outlining her concerns about adding the TAP to publications, this issue has merit and it's worth pursuing.

Quality Control of Correspondence (Processes and Procedures) – Ghoniem, Gedge, Nagel and Shuman. Ghoniem recently revised this proposal and forwarded a copy to Knispel today. She wishes to discuss the revised proposal at the FTF meeting. She feels that her recommendation may involve extensive programming changes. She indicated that due to the fact that a 100% review of the correspondence is prohibitive, she suggests that a sampling be reviewed.

Adding a Penalty and Interest Statement (Processes and Procedures)- Ghoniem, Nagel, Gedge and Shuman. Although, this issue may reflect that of “Quality Control of Correspondence,” it will be treated as a separate issue.

Eliminating Form 2688- Grimaldi, Fish and Silva will be working this issue as a separate subcommittee with the purpose of extending the Automatic Extension to File the individual federal tax return to six months.

Document to Remind Taxpayers of the Advance Child Tax Credit- Ghoniem had previously suggested this issue. However, it was decided to place it in the Parking Lot.  

OIC Fee- Ghoneim A proposal was forwarded to the IRS recommending that the $150 fee be waived for taxpayers whose income slightly surpasses the poverty level or those facing financial hardship. The response received was that the IRS has considered all these issues in the implementation of this fee. Gorga believes that nothing more could be done with this issue and thus it does not merit reconsideration. Grimaldi requested the issue be placed in the Parking Lot for further consideration at a later time.

New Issues

Advertising the TAP in Publication 1546 (Taxpayer Education) - Nagel, Brace, Grimaldi and Shuman. Shuman suggested this be part of the “Adding a TAP Statement” issue. However, most members agreed with Gorga's suggestion that it would be more effective to keep it as a separate recommendation since he foresees no obstacles would be encountered in addressing this recommendation.

Improving IRS Web Site (Ad Hoc) – Shuman and Oloko will be working on improving the sections of the web site addressed to tax practitioners with the intent to facilitate its navigation. Gorga suggested that practitioners should easily and readily be able to access IRS addresses and information without the need to do much research. Shuman suggested that this issue might also be of interest to the TAP's Ad Hoc Issue Committee. Most members agreed. The Subcommittee will analyze the problems with the web site at the upcoming FTF meeting in Portsmouth . Shuman will bring her laptop and a small projector that would allow them to review the web site at the meeting location.

Gilmore Case- Oloko recently shared this case with the Committee and feels that the recent decision on this case deems consideration as an issue for the Committee.

Oloko said that it appears that the IRS's practice is to constructively disqualify the taxpayer's child-based credits in situations where the HOH filing status or dependency exemptions are denied. The denial comes without an independent examination of the case, he said. Oloko also explained that he suggested this issue to the EITC Issue Committee but they felt it would be best considered by an Area Committee.

Gorga did not feel this issue merits a recommendation and added that the challenge would be to obtain statistical data to support it. Oloko will continue research and will formulate a written proposal.

Residency Requirement To Qualify for the EIC – Oloko has encountered many situations in his legal practice when the taxpayers, who may otherwise qualify for the EIC, are not eligible because their child/children do not live in the same household or live outside the United States . Oloko feels that it is unfair that these taxpayers who bear full financial responsibility for their children are precluded from claiming the EIC due to this requirement.

Gorga said that this is a legislative requirement as well as an issue of parental rights. Nagel added that this requirement issue also revolves around the necessity of the qualifying child needing a Social Security Number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. Oloko said that if the issue of the Number could be overcome, the residency requirement should not be an issue.

Grimaldi asked Oloko if this issue originates from one particular case or many, for we must keep in mind that legislative issues that ought to be addressed to the NTA should be systemic affecting many. Oloko responded that he has encountered this problem on many occasions.

Oloko will be working to formulate a proposal on this issue. Knispel reminded him to forward any request for research.  

DFO Report
Gorga said that the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) would be participating in the Black Exposition which would take place at Madison Square Garden in June and invited NY members to attend.

Closing Assessment
Grimaldi explained that he would like the subcommittee members to gather and work the issues during the first day of the FTF meeting. He would like the members to report out on the second day.

The members decided to meet for dinner on the evening of June 6th.

Finally, Grimaldi reminded all participants to send him an email if they wish to participate in the TAP's interview process.

The meeting closed at 12:46 PM ET.

The next meeting is a face-to-face meeting in Portsmouth, NH on June 7th and 8th.