Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes

June 20, 2006

Designated Federal Official

• Knispel, Marisa — Brooklyn, NY

Committee Members Present

• Barry, Shaun — Franklin Square, NY
• Epstein, Harvey — Lee, NH
• Gadon, Harold — Cranston, RI
• Guthman, Michael — Westport, CT
• Havey, Dorothy — Lincolnville, ME
• Hom, Gim — Acton, MA
• Parra, Luis — Bronx, NY
• Searleman, Sanford — Glens Falls, NY
• Zgoda, Bruce — Clarence, NY

Committee Members Absent

• Margulies, Howard — North Easton, MA

TAP Staff

• Knispel, Marisa — Brooklyn, NY, Analyst
• Odom, Meredith — Brooklyn, NY

Other Attendees

• None

Welcome
Havey welcomed the committee to the call. Hom added an agenda item which is Paying Estimated Income Tax electronically.

Roll Call (quorum has been met)

JC Report Out
Havey informed the committee of the Annual Meeting which will be December 11 -14, 2006 at the Capitol Hyatt in Washington, DC. Orientation will start on Monday from 8:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. and returning members will meet in the afternoon and meet until 5:00 pm. All Town Hall meetings are complete and
Area 1 had the largest attendance. An issue came up from another Town Hall which is, there is a difference in the quality of service between east and west call centers. Recruitment – over 700 packages for 27 open slots have been ranked. The Communication committee gave a report on Tap Speak which they are trying to redesign. They are working with the vendor and they would like to make it more usable and convenient. If anyone from Area 1 has any suggestions or frustrations with Tap Speak, please email Havey and this will be discussed during the JC meeting. The JC discussed the Annual Report and the Commissioner’s issues. The JC meeting will be in Denver at the end of June. The role of the alternate will be discussed during this meeting. Hom recommends alternates are included in all electronic distribution that way they can call into meetings etc. Gadon asked if an alternate becomes a TAP member after one year as alternate can only serve two years and they are ineligible for appointment after that, and if you should pick an alternate be that you are willing to let become a member the following term. Area 2 has a lot of recommendations that went to the IRS. Coston spoke about the National Office Report and about bringing closure to Town Hall Meetings. There is an Older American Tax Guide, and there are suggestions on re-wording the font size. Epstein asked about several issues that Area 1 rose to the JC some of which were to be combined with issues from other committees. Havey states that none of the Area 1 issues were discussed at the JC meeting. As far as combining issues, all parties were in agreement.

Subcommittee Report Out
Subcommittee 1
Epstein – subcommittee 1 met on June 9th and agreed with the wordsmith and with the JC’s recommendation to combine the Area 1 and Area 3’s issue since they are identical. Margulies’ write-up of the definition of “suspicious related transactions” on Form 8300 was discussed and approved to be forwarded to the entire committee with the understanding that Jenkins would beef up the section on barriers. Barry agreed to continue working on the stall letter issue for the next meeting and Jenkins will continue research relating to confidentiality of e-filed returns. Epstein stated a lot of companies have a store and forward system: when you e-file your return it doesn’t go directly to the IRS it goes to the company’s database and then periodically, the data is sent to the IRS. What are the confidentially requirements on their data? Once the company has thousands of taxpayer’s data in their database, they can start doing some data analysis and start doing some profiling of a taxpayer. Gadon states the whole volunteer per tax program uses third party transmission: the returns go to the third party and they use it to do various data analysis reported at the end of the season. Jenkins will take Zgoda’s comments and place them into memo form and forward concerns to the EITC program owners. Knispel will let Jenkins know not to send the letter to Dave Williams.

Subcommittee 2
Hom informed the committee that subcommittee 2 discussed the EITC issue. On the issue of the installment letter that is sent out to people who are on an installment agreement, Zgoda will write up the additional information so the taxpayer who receives the installment letter will understand the interest rate and how long it will take to pay the liability. Jenkins’ action item will be to provide background data on the installment agreements, how many agreements there are, the total dollars and percentage of the agreement paid. Jenkins will provide the committee figures on the use of Form 8453. Hom suggests Gadon take the information about Form 8453 and recommend it to the JC. The committee briefly discussed the Schedule D and would like to know at what stage this recommendation is. Hopefully it’s on the agenda for the June face to face meeting. Parra suggests the committee needs more information on Form 8453 before eliminating it is suggested to the IRS. Havey suggested subcommittee 2 still work on this issue and take Parra’s suggestion into consideration. Knispel will provide Parra with the information on Form 8453.

Analyst Report
Members will ask Jenkins to check on issue of Form 1043 to see if the subcommittee can move the issue forward.

Outreach Report-out by Members
Gadon feels the questionnaire 7216 from the Commissioner asking for the panel’s comments is very important. Havey stated the JC is working on this questionnaire. Havey asked Knispel to email the entire committee Kasseri’s proposal on this.

Issue Committee Update

Other Comments/Questions
Hom brought up an issue on payment of estimated income tax: the estimated tax forms and payments went to a different place than the regular tax return. So, the estimated tax and a regular return had to be sent separately. You should be able to mail them together. A related issue is that it should be possible to file estimated taxes electronically. When you are paying estimated income taxes, there is no reason why you should not be allowed to electronically send the estimated income tax to the IRS. By allowing this, the IRS would save money on processing and they would get the money faster. Epstein feels the IRS would be interested in pursuing this issue and it would be a good issue for the committee to take up, you should be able to file and pay estimated taxes online. Havey will ask Jenkins to do some background work on this issue. Gadon would like to know how TAS works in conjunction with TAP. What criteria needed to elevate an issue and method to contact TAS?

Knispel will send the entire committee an email in reference to Gorga no longer being the DFO for Area 1.

Recap New Action Items

Barry

• Write up Stall Letter proposal

Jenkins

• provide background data on Installment agreements; how many agreements there are, the total dollars and percentage of the agreements paid

• provide the committee with figures on the use of Form 8453

• work on the section on barriers of issues relating to “suspicious related transactions” on Form 8300

• continue research on relating to confidentially requirement of e-filed returns

• Incorporate Zgoda’s comments relating to EITC into memo for full committee review

Havey would like for subcommittee meetings to continue through December.

Public Participation
None

Meeting adjourned (10:16 AM EDT)

Next Meeting

July 18, 2006 9:00 AM EDT