Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes

April 18, 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/Announcements/Review Agenda
Havey opened the meeting at 9:00am welcoming all members and staff. There were no agenda changes.

Roll Call
Quorum met

Joint Committee Report Out
An update on the TAP recruitment was given. There were advertisements in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post seeking new members. To date TAP has received 272 final and 921 draft applications from 43 states including Washington and Puerto Rico. There are approximately 3 applications for the state of Vermont. The closing date for recruitment is 4/28/06 and the ranking will begin the week of 5/15/06. Interviews will begin in late May and continue through mid June.

There are 3 Town Hall meetings remaining this year; Fargo in April, Cranston in May and Cincinnati in June.

The Annual meeting is scheduled for the sometime in the week of December 11, 2006 and will be held at the Hyatt located on Capital Hill. The exact dates will be provided at a later date.

There is a group of 6 TAP members who will be meeting with the Commissioner later this week in Washington.

There were 2 issues approved by the Joint Committee from Area 2; Schedule D and D1 consolidation, and a statement added to the envelope stating a timely response is required.

Subcommittee Report Out

• Subcommittee 1 brought forth 3 recommendations on Issue # - 3570-Form 1096, Issue # 3908-Form 1098 and Issue # 3758-Form 1099. All were approved by consensus and will be forwarded to the Joint Committee. They are still researching the relative cost to put the IRS code on the web. There was further discussion on the Issue # 3666- W4/W4P with Vice-Chair, Epstein and Program Owner Bob Erickson which resulted in an addition to the Form W4. Jenkins will compose a memo to be sent forward.

• Subcommittee 2 brought forth 1 recommendation on Issue # 3571-Schedule D which was approved by consensus and will be sent forward to the Joint Committee. They are still working on the Installment Agreements.

Analyst Report

• Use of Phone Cards – please start utilizing your AT&T phone cards. The committee was informed that when a member tried in the past to set up a conference call using their phone card, there was additional information they needed in regards to the IRS profile in order to set it up. Jenkins will find out this information and provide it to the committee.

• Issue #3678 Update – Taxpayer complained of accounts being levied prematurely. Taxpayer stated that accounts were levied on the 30th day. Jenkins was instructed to go back to taxpayer to get clarification as to what the issue was. After researching the data base there was no contact information, therefore Jenkins was unable to clarify issue. Issue dropped.

• New contact – Taxpayer emailed a comment “from an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer I read that that IRS is “quietly moving to loosen the once in-violable privacy of federal tax returns” “accountants and other tax-return preparers will be able to sell information from individual tax return – or even entire returns to marketers and data brokers” – Committee has decided to put this in the parking lot.

• Status Update on elevated Issue 04-051 – It is an ongoing concern that the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is not widely known. Publication 1546, How Does the Taxpayer Advocate help taxpayers? Has inserted a section on page 5 that says “The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel: The Taxpayer Advocate Service works directly with taxpayers through the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP). TAP is an independent panel of citizen volunteers who listen to taxpayers, identify taxpayers’ issues, and make suggestions for improving IRS services and customer service. Contact TAP at: 888-912-1227, www.improveirs.org

FTF/Town Hall Meeting
The Face to Face meeting will begin on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 3:00pm until 5:00pm. Dorothy suggests a working dinner from 5:00pm until 7:00pm to prepare for the Town Hall meeting. The Town Hall from 7:00pm until 9:00pm. Havey requests that all members be in attendance and be willing to participate that evening in various roles, i.e. greeting guests, speaking, or during focus groups. Thursday, May 11, 2006 the meeting will be all day meeting and a group dinner if interested. Friday, May 12, 2006 will be for a half day of meeting and travel home.

Hal will thank the library administration for affording us the space. He will also acknowledge guess, public as well as introduce Dorothy. Dorothy will be the Mistress of Ceremonies and introduce all of Area 1 members. Sandra will provide Mike a script which he will take a 1 minutes to address the audience.

Members should be prepared to assist with the focus groups and mingling with the audience.

Outreach Report

• Zgoda will be meeting with the New York State Society of CPAs in Buffalo on May 1, 2006.

• Gadon provided the Rhode Island Legal Services with the Town Hall information.

Issue Committee Update
Epstein spoke with Bob Ericsson, Adhoc Committee Program Owner to discuss the W4/W4P issue. Needless to say the suggestion was accepted and is going to be modified. Jenkins will compose a memorandum for Havey’s signature.

The TAC Committee members have visited almost all of the sites and are confident that all of the TACs are not going to be closed as previously proposed.

Other Comments/Questions
Gadon requests thirty Town Hall color flyers.

Recap New Action Items
Members

• Both subcommittees continue to meet

Jenkins

• Make corrections to Issues and send forward to Joint Committee Analyst
• Compose memorandum on W4/W4P for Chair signature
• Find out additional information to set up conference calls using AT&T phone cards
• Prepare and distribute the Face to Face meeting agenda