Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes

May 4, 2005

Welcome - 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
• Michael Guthman, CT
• Dorothy Havey, ME, Vice Chair
• Paul Nagel, NY
• Sanford Searleman, NY
• Charles Silva, MA

Panel Members Absent

• James Grimaldi, NY
• Sanford Searleman, NY

Quorum was met.

TAP Staff Attending

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

IRS Guest

• Anita Kitson, LTA, Brooklyn, NY
• Mary Ann Silvaggio, Area 1 TAS Director

Subcommittee Reports

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

Epstein reported that the subcommittee modified the Form W-4 proposal after the Committee agreed to add a sentence. Ghoniem explained that the process for submitting proposals to the Joint Committee was recently changed and that this proposal will be included with her Monthly Report to this Committee and presented at their meeting in Chicago next week.

Epstein indicated the next subcommittee meeting will be at the end of the month during which they will discuss Form 5500.

IRS Guests
Kitson introduced herself as the Local Taxpayer Advocate (LTA) for Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island and thanked the Committee for inviting her to participate in this meeting. She indicated that at this time the most common issues received as cases in her office are those involving refunds and collection issues and that there is a staff of twenty-two people to work them. Kitson also said that she had met some TAP members at practitioner meetings and invited the current members to visit her office at any time. She also offered to provide them any information needed on the TAS Program.

Nagel thanked Kitson and her staff for their professionalism in resolving some of his clients’ issues. Gadon asked Kitson if she had information on the TAC offices that will close due to budget concerns and Kitson replied that the Commissioner has not announced which offices, if any, will close. Kitson added that if this should happen, more taxpayers would turn to the Taxpayer Advocate Service for assistance with tax matters. This is why outreach to disseminate information on the Service is important, Kitson said. She suggested that the TAP and her office could partner in making this possible. She added that her office distributes TAP material at their outreach events to disseminate information on the TAP.

Silvaggio added that the TAS is concentrating its efforts on grassroots outreach in order to advertise its services to all constituents.

Subcommittee Reports (Continued)

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

In Grimaldi’s absence, Nagel reported on the subcommittee’s work on Form 8892, “Payment of Gift/GST Tax and/or Application of Time to File Form 709” for which Grimaldi was writing a proposal. The subcommittee’s letter to the Area 5 Committee on the subject of Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs) was recently readdressed to the Area 4 Committee following the suggestion made by the TAP Analyst for both committees.

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

Havey was elected as the new chair for this subcommittee at their meeting of April 20th. The issues discussed were: 1) wording on the underpayment notices, specifically the wording on the “stall letter”, Letter 2645C. (Originally, this was Shuman’s proposed recommendation). 2) placing an interest and penalty calculator on the IRS website, 3) the subcommittee also decided that the issue of the closing of TACs is not within their scope, so they decided to drop it.

Ghoniem indicated that Nagel will be joining this subcommittee.

Other Issues
Ghoniem asked the members whether or not the process of working in subcommittees is working well for them. Havey indicated that losing a member was a challenge for subcommittee #3 plus working in subcommittees during the filing season is a burden for the members who are tax practitioners. She added that more work is accomplished at a face-to-face meeting than via teleconference. Ghoniem agreed with Havey and expressed her interest for the Area 1 members’ opinion on assessing the pace of this Committee - mainly since the TAP has reached the mid-year point.

Gadon requested that any member who is due to report on a issue and cannot attend the monthly meeting, contact another member and brief him or her on the report so that the other member can brief the Committee .

All members commented on the productivity of the different TAP Committees this year and the impact of having only one face-to-face meeting due to budget constraints.

Gorga volunteered to participate in the Area 1 subcommittee meetings whenever needed.

Members decided to hold an administrative meeting on June 1st at 3:00 PM ET (this is the regularly scheduled teleconference date and time) to discuss and finalize the agenda for the face-to-face meeting.

Joint Committee Report
Ghoniem will share her monthly report to the Joint Committee with the Area 1 members.

At the last Joint Committee teleconference, Ghoniem indicated, the following issues were discussed: 1) recording the distribution of the TAP’s Annual Report, 2) the TAP’s new Communications Issue Committee will be reviewing the updates to the TAPSpeak and the feasibility of this website in order to improve its navigation and make it an easier, friendlier communications tool, 3) Director Coston reported on his discussion with NTA Olson about the Area 1’s recommendation to advertise the TAP in the TAS Publication 1546. Olson conceded that the recommendation was a good idea. Coston will keep Ghoniem updated on the progress of this proposal , 4) TAP Chair Handelman wrote a letter to IRS Commissioner Everson regarding the closing of TACs and the TAP members’s disappointment at not been given the opportunity to present their views on this matter. A meeting was scheduled for the Commissioner and four TAP members on May 20th to discuss these issues. Ghoniem requested that any Area 1 member who wanted to present an opinion and/or concern on the issues, address it to her. She will present it to the Commissioner at this meeting.

Outreach Report
Due to a family emergency, Havey had to postpone a scheduled outreach event. Epstein briefed the members on a recent outreach opportunity at an AARP Tax Site in Manchester, NH.

Office Report
Knispel reminded all members to complete the Meeting Survey after each meeting to capture their comments and rating of the meeting. She also reminded them of the importance of completing the Outreach Report to capture statistics on this Committee’s outreach efforts that would eventually be included in the Committee’s Annual Report and to receive reimbursement for expenses incurred.

Public Participation
None.

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

The meeting closed at 4:02 PM ET.

The next meeting will be an administrative meeting on June 1, 2005 at 3:00 PM ET to discuss the upcoming face-to-face meeting of June 17th and 18th.

Action Items
Ghoniem will share her Monthly Report to the Joint Committee for April with all members.