Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes

July 27, 2005

Designated Federal Official

• Gorga, Peter, LTA, New York, NY

Committee Members Present (These attendees count for quorum)

• Brodbine-Ghoniem, Elizabeth, Winchester, MA Chair
• Cimino, Philip, Staten Island, NY
• Epstein, Harvey, Lee, NH
• Gadon, Harold, Cranston, RI
• Guthman, Michael, Westport, CT
• Havey, Dorothy, Lincolnville, ME
• Nagel, Paul, Glen Cove, NY
• Searleman, Sanford, Glens Falls, NY
• Silva, Charles, Provincetown, MA

Committee Members Absent

• Grimaldi, James, Brooklyn, NY

TAP Staff

• Marisa Knispel
• Sandra Ramirez
• Meredith Odom-Russell

Other Attendees

• No other attendees

Welcome

Roll Call (quorum was met)

Review Agenda

Approval of Meeting Minutes
All members didn't have a chance to review meeting minutes. They will be approved at a later date.

Chair Report
Elizabeth notified the committee that Aaron Bell has resigned. Dorothy discussed the Joint Committee meeting. There was competition about the issue referral form and guide formats. There was information about the future telecom about TAC center closings. Elizabeth stated there will be a teleconference on Friday with TIGTA to get feed back on the taxpayer center closings. Area 1 had four items presented to the joint committee and 3 were approved. The W-4 web changes, W-4 form changes and the federal leinary. Eileen’s proposal did not get approved. Area 4 brought forth availability of forms and publications at taxpayer centers, Area 5 brought in information in IRS partnering. There is a hand out in draft form about new members joining. Sandra mentioned that the communication’s committee proposed that TAPSPEAK be used as a main source of conveying information to TAP members. Per Bernie, beginning August 1, 2005, TAPSPEAK will be the main vehicle to post any pre-reads, draft minutes and any big items that need to be sent to the committee. When items are posted on TAPSPEAK, an email will be generated and sent to the members email box to let them know there are new postings on the site. The joint committee approved for Area 1 to have a standing sub-committee on Low Income Tax Clinic issues. The Annual sub-committee report was provided by Gwen. This meeting today is in lieu of having the August meeting. Sandra stated the Joint Committee finalized the Joint Committee issue referral form, and they are not going to test it again.

Agenda Items

Subcommittee 1
Considered the form 5500 issue, that is if you download the form from the internet, you can not print and submit. There was a change to the proposal that went forward. To download the form would improve customer satisfaction by not having to call in to request the form. There were a few typo’s on the proposal for form 5500, Marisa will make the corrections. Committee gave Harvey consensus on this issue.

Subcommittee 2
When you go to the IRS webpage there are two links that take you to the Internal Revenue Code. One of the links takes you to Cornell University and the other takes you to government of printing office. The effective date of the code at both sites is 2002. There is no way to get to an up to date version of the Internal Revenue Code from the IRS webpage. The committee’s recommendation is that the IRS get the vender’s to update the links. The information on the link should be made current if it is not possible consideration should be given to put the current version on the site. Committee approve to forward proposal.

Subcommittee 3
Would like to propose an interest and penalty calculator on the IRS website. This would mirror what the state of NY has provided to their taxpayers. The background would be for taxpayer’s that are late that may be interested in doing their total liabilities and penalties that it may encourage them to include them to include that with their payment and remit it. It may also raise awareness to penalties and interest. This may help with practitioners that do not have their own software. It will help the IRS reduce high call volumes and avoid possible questions about future notices. Hopefully the estimate of the penalty and interest calculation will be close enough to take care of their additional tax issues and reduce the amount of notices that have to go out. Committee agreed to move this forward.

Decision: Decision: Elizabeth will work with the subcommittee chair’s to get all of the committee’s issues and will include the committees issues in the July report that goes out August 5th or 6th.

Subcommittee 1 will have a meeting August 19, 2005
Subcommittee 2 will have a meeting August 22, 2005

Action:

Outreach
Hal did an outreach in Maine.

Office Report
Tax Forums are coming up. Members should be prepared

Action/Assignment Review

• Chair
• Committee Members
• Analyst
• Manager

Closing/Assessment
Committees decide whether to do assessment during the meeting via e-mail

• Meeting adjorned (4:00 pm)
• September 7, 2005 @ 3:00 pm ET

*These minutes were approved by the TAP Area # Committee on Date xxxx