Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes

June 29, 2004

Opening of the Meeting
Fish explained that he would chair today’s meeting, in the absence of the chair and vice-chair, as requested. He indicated that the meeting would be brief and its purpose is to review the minutes from our Portsmouth meeting and Grimaldi’s letter to NTA Olson on the issue of 9/11 Grants.

Roll Call

Panel Members Attending

• Walt Fish, NY
• Diane Mignano, RI
• Paul Nagel, NY
• Shamsey Oloko, NY
• Eileen Shuman, VT
• Charles Silva, MA

Panel Members Absent

• Aimee Brace, NY
• Elizabeth Brodbine-Ghoniem, MA, Vice-Chair
• William Gedge, CT
• James Grimaldi, NY, Chair

TAP Staff Attending

• Marisa Knispel, TAP Program Analyst
• Sandra Ramirez, TAP Program Manager (Acting DFO)

June FTF Meeting Minutes - Review of Current Issues
Acting DFO Ramirez emphasized that the primary purpose of today’s meeting was to review the issues and what decisions and progress had been made at the Portsmouth FTF meeting earlier in June, especially since four members had not attended that meeting and also, for members who were absent from the Portsmouth meeting to select a subcommittee to participate in.

Thus, Ramirez explained that the minutes of the June 7-8 Portsmouth meeting were not in final form for approval as extensive editing was still needed but that the purpose of sharing them was so that members could see what progress had been made and what next actions were. The minutes will be considered for approval at the next Committee meeting.

The committee went over the section of the minutes entitled Subcommittee Reports. Following are those issues and the discussion by the committee members on how to proceed on each issue. For the benefit of those members who were not present at the Portsmouth meeting, Fish and Ramirez summarized and commented on each issue.

Taxpayer Education Subcommittee – Grimaldi, Silva, Fish and Oloko
Adding a TAP Statement to IRS Forms and Publications – At the Portsmouth meeting, subcommittee members Grimaldi, Silva, and Fish considered the feedback given by the Joint Committee and the Director of Forms and Publications, Denise Fayne and decided to write a proposal to recommend that a statement about the TAP be included in Publications 1, 5, 17, 594 and 1660. The statement will include TAP’s mission statement and provide TAP’s website address, but not TAP’s toll-free number. Ramirez stated that the subcommittee needs to re-draft the proposal (write the statement to be used). Fish and Silva concurred that at the meeting Grimaldi had agreed to re-write the proposal on this issue.

Adding a TAP Statement to TAS Publication 1546, “How to Get Help with Unresolved Tax Problems” – The statement will be the same as the one for the above proposal. Ramirez stated that the subcommittee needs to draft the proposal. Fish and Silva stated that Grimaldi will draft this proposal.

Elimination of Form 2688 — Knispel researched the history of the extension to file a corporate tax return, Form 7004, and forwarded her findings to subcommittee members, Fish, Grimaldi and Silva. She also forwarded the response received from the analyst or tax specialist assigned the extensions to file an individual tax return, Forms 4868 and 2688. Marisa still needs to get the following stats: 1) the number of Forms 4868 that are timely filed annually? How many are denied and the reasons for the denial 2) the number of Forms 2688 that are timely filed annually? How many are denied and the reasons why. The Subcommittee agreed to write the proposal after Marisa provides this information.

Schedule D Loss Carry-forward — After discussing the research performed on this issue and the feedback received from the Schedule D analyst, the members still agreed that the issue merits our recommendation. Knispel still needs to provide the members with information on how many Schedule Ds are filed showing capital gain carryovers or, if that information does not exist tell the subcommittee so. Subcommittee can begin to draft the proposal and Marisa will provide the needed response promptly,

Improving the IRS Website for Practitioners — Nagel noted that the mission of the TAP is to advise taxpayers not practitioners, and thus the issue should be that of improving the IRS website and its navigation. The issue will be renamed “Improving the IRS Website.” Ramirez explained that although the members had viewed and tried navigating the site in Portsmouth no decision had been reached as to what the issue or proposal would be. Shuman stated that the Subcommittee members had discussed in Portsmouth that this issue could be a major undertaking for the Subcommittee at this time. Ramirez noted that no formal decision had been taken at that time. Acting Chair asked for consensus and consequently the committee agreed to “parking lot it” for future consideration.

Procedures and Processes Subcommittee – Gedge, Shuman, Nagel and Mignano
New ITIN Requirements – The subcommittee members present at this meeting felt it was premature to discuss this issue without Ghoniem’s presence as she is the issue’s originator.

Quality Control of Correspondence – Ramirez explained that Knispel is researching the guidelines used by IRS employees who write Correspondex Letters to determine how employees decide which paragraphs for the letters are selected. Knispel explained that she was able to find some of these guidelines but since they involve IRS jargon, she’d like to read them first in order to summarize them. Other questions on this issue remain which must be researched such as: 1) Is the taxpayer’s letter actually read by the employee ‘writing’ the interim letter before they send the Interim Letter? 2) Is the status of the taxpayer’s account taken into consideration when the paragraphs are selected? The subcommittee will formulate a proposal once the research is provided in order to rebut IRS’s response to the Committee’s original proposal.

Adding a Penalty and Interest Statement to Letters – The research applicable to the former issue is applicable to this issue as both issues are related. The members need to know the algorithms/procedures used to define the paragraphs chosen to create a specific IRS letter. Knispel will continue research and address the collected information to the subcommittee members to formulate a proposal.

After the issues were discussed, Oloko and Mignano selected the Subcommittee they will participate in. Oloko selected the Taxpayer Education Subcommittee and Mignano the Procedures and Processes Subcommittee. Their names have been included in their respective Subcommittees for the purpose of these minutes.

New Issues
Shuman talked about a recent outreach at which she met with Vermont’s Governor Jim Douglas. Governor Douglas seemed very interested in the accomplishments of the Area 1 Committee and TAP’s mission. He promised Shuman that a staff member of the state’s tax department will contact her to establish a future relationship. The Governor will also request that a staff member from his office be present at our next face-to-face meeting in Brattleboro.

Also, Shuman informed everyone that she had a pre-interview with the local newspaper - The Brattleboro Reformer - that will run an article on the interview in the beginning of September. The paper will also cover the meeting and do a story on our meeting. Shuman has also contacted other community newspapers for coverage on the Area 1 Committee meeting in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Shuman added that she expects to receive a letter of appreciation from the Governor’s Office. Knispel requested she forward a copy of this letter to her so that she may include it in the “Members in the News” section of TAPSpeak under the Area 1 Committee. Ramirez said she could write a brief piece or Eileen can provide a piece to send for publishing in the TAS communication weekly/bimonthly (internal) publications.

Discussion ensued on the logistics of the upcoming Vermont meeting since it appears that a larger than usual number of public attendees may be there due to Shuman’s publicity efforts. Knispel and Ramirez explained that the Federal Register Notice announces the meeting, Knispel’s phone number and address as well as the TAP toll-free number and web address plus the address/location of the meeting for the interested public to register for/attend the meeting, a sign-in attendance list is used at the meeting to ensure participants are acknowledged at the meeting. Fish noted that the members may want to make themselves available to talk to public attendees after the meeting and they may be asked to give interviews to the media. Ramirez replied that this is a possibility and that the media training received from Media Specialist Peggy Riley at the Portsmouth meeting would definitely be useful in such situation.

Fish commended Shuman for her publicity efforts and suggested she write the steps she took to plan this to share with the rest of TAP to serve as a best practice for members to follow in the future.

Fish thanked all members from participating in the meeting. Meeting closed at 12:02 PM EDT.

The next meeting is a teleconference on July 27, 2004 at 11:00 AM EDT

Action Items

• Shuman/Ramirez to provide article for publishing in TAS publications. (cannot exceed 250 words)

Taxpayer Education Subcommittee

• Members to agree on a TAP statement and draft proposals for both recommendations: 1) adding TAP statement to pubs 1, 5, 17, 594, 1660 2) and 1546.
• Members to begin to draft proposal on Schedule D loss carryovers. Knispel will shortly provide statistic of how many schedule Ds show capital loss carryovers, or confirm the data does not exist.

Procedures and Processes Subcommittee

• Members should discuss how to proceed with the ITIN proposal based on the feedback given.

Knispel to research the following information and provide to the Taxpayer Education Subcommittee:

• How many automatic extensions to file or, forms 4868 are timely filed? And, how many of those are denied? What are the reasons for denial?
• How many requests for additional extension to file or forms 2688 are timely filed? How many of those are denied? What are the reasons for denial?
• How many Schedule Ds are filed annually showing capital gains loss carryovers?

Knispel to research the following information and provide to the Procedures and Processes Subcommittee:

• What are the guidelines given to/used by IRS employees who issue Correspondex letters that tells them what paragraphs to select and which not to select?
• Has the taxpayer’s letter actually been read by the employee ‘writing’ the interim letter before they send the Interim letter?
• Is the status of the taxpayer’s account taken into consideration when the paragraphs are selected?
• What are the algorithms/procedures used to define the paragraphs chosen to create a specific IRS letter? (e.g. Letter 2645C)