Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes

April 6, 2005

Opening of the Meeting
Ghoniem welcomed all the participants.

Roll Call

Panel Members Attending

• Aaron Bell, NY
• Philip Cimino, NY
• Harvey Epstein, NH
• Harold Gadon, RI
• Elizabeth Ghoniem, MA, Chair
• James Grimaldi, NY
• Michael Guthman, CT
• Dorothy Havey, ME, Vice Chair
• Paul Nagel, NY
• Sanford Searleman, NY
• Charles Silva, MA

  Quorum was met.

TAP Staff Attending

• Peter Gorga, Jr., DFO
• Marisa Knispel, TAP Program Analyst
• Sandra Ramirez, TAP Program Manager

IRS Guest

• Vincent Thibault, LTA, Burlington, VT

IRS Guest
Vincent Thibault, Local Taxpayer Advocate (LTA) from Vermont replaced Don Boucher, LTA from Maine, as our guest. Boucher was unable to join out teleconference.

Thibault remembers some of our Area 1 members from last year’s meeting in Brattleboro,VT. He was saddened to hear that Eileen Shuman had recently left the TAP. Shuman and he attended some outreach events together.

Thibault briefly discussed the type of cases received in his office, most of which involving collection issues and EITC exam issues. He stated that the Automatic Collection System (ACS) has lately generated a lot of work for the TAS offices with the increase in enforcement actions such as liens and levies.

Thibault also explained that each LTA in the nation has been assigned a portfolio of assignments dealing with issues affecting the taxpaying public. Their work on these issues will be reflected in the National Taxpayer Advocate’s (NTA) Annual Report to Congress. Thibault and two other LTAs were assigned the issue of the possible Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC) closings. He explained that the IRS is currently planning to close TACs to alleviate budget constraints. The LTAs are working on alternatives to provide assistance to taxpayers and on the effects of the TAC closings on compliance.

Thibault thanked the members for inviting him to this meeting.

Meeting Minutes
The minutes of March 2, 2005 were approved by consensus.

Joint Committee Report
The issues discussed at the last Joint Committee meeting were:

1. All committee chairs were asked to convey to the members the importance of the Outreach Report to capture statistics and the efforts of the TAP in disseminating TAP information. The members must remember to contact their local LTA and local LITCs to take advantage of these organizations outreach events and piggyback on the opportunity.
2. Hard copies of the Annual Report are now available. Anyone who needs copies. Please contact Knispel. The Report is also available on TAPSpeak and on the TAP’s website, www.improveirs.org.
3. TAP Director Coston will be following up on outstanding issues recommended to the IRS and tracking the IRS response to these issues.
4. A concern of many members is that of bringing visibility to the TAP. The new TAP Communications Issue Committee will have a subcommittee dedicated to this marketing concern. The subcommittee will act as a public relations guide to the TAP with the objective of placing the organization’s information in print. TAP Analyst Steven Berkey has requested that articles on the TAP and its members be forwarded to him to share with this Issue Committee.

Ramirez added that the TAP is currently recruiting new members. Nationwide recruitment is open from April 1 through April 29, 2005 and asked that members spread the word in their communities.

Subcommittee Report
Subcommittee #1 – Epstein, chair; members: Bell, Ghoniem and Cimino.

Cimino reported on the recommendations this Subcommittee made to caution taxpayers when completing Form W-4. A proposal was written for these recommendations and it was shared with all Committee members prior to this meeting. Cimino explained the purpose of their proposal is to caution those taxpayers with two or more jobs against possible under withholding and an additional tax liability and to recommend four possible ways to avoid this. Cimino also cited an example used in this proposal to analyze the issue.

After a few comments on the proposal and the issue itself, the members agreed by consensus to forward the proposal to the Joint Committee pending a minor revision.

The next Subcommittee #1 meeting will be on April 15, 2005.

Subcommittee #2 – Grimaldi, acting chair; members: Gadon, Guthman, Nagel.

Grimaldi reported on a letter that both Gadon and Guthman wrote to the Area 5 Committee that addresses their concerns on the Refund Loans (RALs). The members commented on the recent efforts made by several states to put a cap to the usurious interest rates that preparers who provide these RALs are offering. All members agreed that this letter should be forwarded to the Area 5 Committee to place more emphasis on their efforts against the practice of RALs.

Subcommittee #3 – Shuman, chair; members: Havey, Searleman and Silva.

Shuman had referred a written proposal to the members on “Adding a Penalty and Interest Statement to IRS Correspondence” prior to her leaving the TAP. The Subcommittee members will meet again to re-elect a chair and discuss this and other issues.

Other Issues
Ghoniem spoke briefly on the proposal that Shuman wrote in 2003 to include a phase-outs table in the 1040 Instructions and explained the response from the IRS to this proposal. She asked members to review this proposal with the IRS response and make a decision on whether they wanted to close this issue or consider it for further action. Jim Grimaldi volunteered Subcommittee #2 to review and perhaps modify the proposal to resubmit to the Joint Committee.

Office Report
Knispel reminded members and DFO to mark their calendars for the Area 1 Committee’s face-to-face meeting in Boston on June 16-18th. Also, she requested that anyone participating in outreach events send her a completed Outreach & Expense Report and reminded them that any request for reimbursement of expenses must be approved prior to the outreach.
Gorga will email Knispel a list of upcoming outreach events in the NY area and she will distribute the list to the members.

Public Participation
None.

Closing Assessment
Ghoniem thanked all the members and guest for their participation.

The meeting closed at 3:04 PM ET.

The next meeting will be on April 6, 2005 at 3:00 PM ET.

Action Items
Knispel will email the Meeting Survey to all the members. The members will complete it and email it back to Knispel. She will collate the responses for Ghoniem and the other team members.

Ghoniem will complete her assignment for Subcommittee #1.