Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes

February 21, 2006

Designated Federal Official

• Gorga, Peter, LTA, DFO

Committee Members Present

• Barry, Shaun, Franklin Square, NY
• Epstein, Harvey, Lee, NH, Vice Chair & Subcommittee 1 Chair
• Gadon, Harold, Cranston, RI
• Guthman, Michael, Westport, CT
• Havey, Dorothy, Lincolnville, ME, Chair
• Hom, Gim, Acton, MA, Subcommittee 2 Chair
• Margulies, Howard, North Easton, MA
• Parra, Luis, Bronx, NY
• Zgoda, Bruce, Clarence, NY

Committee Members Absent

• Searleman, Sanford, Glens Falls, NY

TAP Staff

• Jenkins, Audrey, Analyst
• Ramirez, Sandra, Manager
• Odom-Russell, Meredith, Management Assistant

Welcome

Roll Call
Quorum met.

Highlights from JC Meeting/Training
Havey attended Chair Training in San Diego and reported out:

1. Quality Assurance is a new subcommittee of the Joint Committee. The responsibility of this subcommittee will be to review referrals that come from the Area committees before they are presented to the Joint Committee. The Quality Assurance subcommittee ensures the referral is completely filled out, that the correct version of the referral form is used, that correct spelling, punctuation, and other writing etiquette is observed and that it is well written and researched. The subcommittee committee does not decide on the merits of the recommendation, it just helps to ensure the argument is well made on the referral form. The referral is then forwarded for the Joint Committee to consider at its next meeting.
   
2. When recommendations are raised to the Joint Committee, it is the Chair’s job to present it in the best possible manner. With this in mind, the Joint committee acknowledges that members who worked directly on the issue/recommendation may be the best advocates for it. Thus, Havey stated she may invite a subcommittee member to participate in a Joint committee conference to answer any questions that may come up with regards to Area 1 recommendations.
   
3. The San Diego Town Hall Meeting was also held in San Diego.

Face to Face Update
The face to face meeting will be held in Cranston, RI. May 10-12, 2006. The Town Hall Meeting will take place the evening (7 pm) of May 10, 2006, which Nina Olson will attend. Tentatively, we are looking at members traveling in the morning of the 10th, holding a meeting in the afternoon, then having a committee meeting all day on the 11th and a half a day on May 12th and then travel home that day. Havey told members some will have roles in the Town hall and others will attend and to spread the word and invite friends

AT&T Calling Cards
New members should have received calling cards. Returning members should have their calling cards which are still valid. Calling cards are to be used for any TAP business. Any new member who has not received their calling cards as well as any returning member who has a problem with their card should bring it to Audrey/Meredith’s attention.

Committee Response to Issue #3512
The committee received the IRS’ response to issue 3512: making the Internal Revenue Code available at the IRS website. It stated that there were no websites (i.e., no public domain copy) providing the latest version of the Code thus the popularity of private sector providers and stated it would be a huge undertaking for the IRS. Area 1 member Guthman drafted a response to the letter because the IRS response to the request was not acceptable to the committee. Epstein spoke with Olson at the Annual meeting, where she asked him to send her the IRS response because she thought is a good idea to make the code available and she believed that on the internal IRS site the code was available. Ramirez suggested that the subcommittee look at this letter a little further in terms of the points to be made and then send it back to the full committee to look at it. Havey recommends that subcommittee 1 take on this issue which it will. Jenkins will research to get background on the IRS uses the IRC (i.e., how it makes it available to employees) to provide to the committee.

Subcommittee Report-Outs

• Subcommittee 1
  The subcommittee met and decided to drop the Form 8109 issue. No one present disagreed. The Forms 1096 and 1098 issues are being worked and at the next committee meeting both recommendations should be ready to present. With respect to this issue, Audrey is waiting on a response from the IRS as to how many paper forms of these forms are filed. The Form W4/W4P issue - regarding the lack of ability to take into consideration on the W4 form retirement income thus the subcommittee is proposing that the W-4 and W-4P be combined – is being worked. The last issue the subcommittee has assigned is regarding currently non collectible accounts. It will be looking at this issue in a subsequent subcommittee meeting.

• Subcommittee 2
  Hom stated the committee prioritized their three issues in this order: Schedule D Capital Loss Carryover issue – Hom stated the subcommittee’s recommendation is for the IRS to add two lines to the Form 1040 - Schedule D. One will be for the short term capital loss carryover amount and the second line for the long term capital loss carryover amount. Epstein advised that the recommendation address the issue of space on the form. Hom agreed and responded that on the 2003 Schedule D form there was no room to add these lines, but on tax years 2004 and 2005 there is adequate room. Zgoda had volunteered to draft the proposal. Form 433D Installment Letter and Interest Rate Disclosure issue – when the taxpayer agrees to an installment plan, the plan only specifies that penalty and interest will continue to accrue and it doesn’t state the amounts or accrual rates for the future thus taxpayers have no real idea of how long it will take to pay off the debt. These issues will be discussed further by the subcommittee in their March meeting.

Review Current Issues
There are no new issues for the committee.

Administrative Issues

• Quality Assurance – Some Joint committee members shared their best practice that they also utilized the quality assurance subcommittee idea within their committees. Havey hopes that the subcommittees will monitor themselves and assume responsibility and review their documents for quality before it is brought to the Area 1 Committee. She also advised members to use the staff to assist them achieve quality referral forms.

• Annual Meeting reimbursement – All forms should be completed and sent to Meredith. All direct deposit forms were submitted and all members who submitted one have received their reimbursement electronically.

• Outreach Expenses – Ramirez told members that when they plan on submitting a request for reimbursement for travel expenses related to outreach, the expenses must be pre-approved by her.

• Timeline – Subcommittees need to look at realigning their meeting dates with regard to when the full Area 1 committee meetings occur. For example, if a subcommittee meeting takes place 5 days before the full committee meeting that would not allow time to forward completed referrals to the full committee to review in preparation for the meeting. If the full committee cannot review it for that meeting, chances are the referral will not be received by the Joint Committee Quality Assurance team in time for its review for the next Joint Committee meeting. Subcommittee 1 had chosen the 4th Friday of each month as their meeting time and subcommittee 2 the second Tuesday of the month. They will look to see if this needs to be adjusted .

• Other – The Annual Meeting will be the week of November 13, 2006.

Recap New Action Items
Subcommittee 1:

• Look at rescheduling subcommittee meeting dates.
• Revisit Guthman’s rebuttal letter at their next meeting.
• Continue work on issues noted earlier.

Subcommittee 2:

• Look at rescheduling subcommittee meeting dates.
• Continue work on issues noted earlier.

Havey:

• Some members voiced concern about the new Quality Assurance subcommittee process causing a delay in recommendations being forwarded to the IRS. Havey will raise this at the March Joint Committee meeting.

Outreach/Media Highlights
Havey congratulated members on all outreach and media highlights. New members received press coverage of their TAP appointments. Gadon will do an outreach with representatives from the Stakeholder Partnerships, Education and Communication function of the IRS. Parra will do an outreach on February 23, 2006 with a representative from Gorga’s office and Marisa Knispel from the TAP Staff.

Other Comments/Questions
Havey reminded members that if they have a new issue or a recommendation to present to the committee to send them to Jenkins. Jenkins needs to discuss the issue to clarify it and to ascertain what preliminary research may be needed and to verify that TAP is not currently working it or has worked it. Ramirez stated that there were some issues raised in San Diego so she will follow up to see if there any possible issues for this committee.

Havey explained that about a week to two before committee meetings Jenkins, Ramirez, Gorga and Havey would meet to discuss and develop the agenda. This is done so that any pre-read information can be made available to members a week before the monthly teleconference. Minutes will be developed by Odom-Russell. Minutes will be reviewed by Chair and Vice Chair and approved by the Chair. Havey suggested adding issues to the Agenda to keep abreast as to what is going on with the issues.

Public Participation
No public participation.

Next Meeting – 3/21/06 @ 9:00AM EST