Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes

August 15, 2006
Teleconference
                      

Designated Federal Official

• Ramirez, Sandra — Brooklyn. NY — Manager

Committee Members Present

• Barry, Shaun — Franklin Square, NY — Member
• Epstein, Harvey — Lee, NH — Vice Chair
• Havey, Dorothy — Lincolnville, ME — Chair
• Hom, Gim — Acton, MA — Member
• Margulies, Howard — North Easton, MA — Member
• Searleman, Sanford — Glens Falls, NY — Member
• Zgoda, Bruce — Clarence, NY — Member

Committee Members Absent

• Gadon, Harold — Cranston, RI — Member
• Parra, Luis — Bronx, NY — Member

TAP Staff

• Jenkins, Audrey — Brooklyn, NY — Analyst
• Knispel, Marisa — Brooklyn, NY — Analyst

Other Attendees

• Smith, R. John — New York City Bar Association

Welcome

Roll Call (quorum has been met)

JC Report Out
Havey – The JC met in August in Denver where Coston gave a budget report. He mentioned the fact that there were additional funds for meetings. The Communications Committee will be having a meeting in Atlanta on August 15 – 16, 2006. Coston reported that the Annual Meeting will focus on issue and area committees having more actual meeting time. Recruitment for new members is complete, all fingerprint and tax check waivers have been sent forward for processing. During the month of July the TAP staff attended the TAS Symposium in New Orleans. One of the sessions focused on Volunteer Management and from that there were 4 sub-committees established. Coston extended an invitation for TAP members to participate on each sub-committee. An email went out from Toy on behalf of Coston asking for participants. The subcommittees are:  developing a TAP vision statement, developing a stronger member position description, a member feedback process and establishing measures.

Ramirez – Informed the committee that Gorga is being replaced by Betsy Fallacaro. Fallacaro is the Local Taxpayer Advocate out of Boston, MA.

Havey – The Communications Committee reported out on a new look for TAP Speak, there is a communication strategy being published and a new survey member report will be coming out.

Neither Havey nor Epstein will be able to attend the joint committee (JC) meeting in October to be held in Dallas. Havey would like another Area 1 member to attend the meeting on her behalf. Ramirez asked that whoever decides to volunteer to go should attend the next JC teleconference on September 6. Havey apologized to the committee for not being able to also attend an upcoming Area 1 meeting in NY.

Upcoming Face to Face
Odom will provide the entire committee with all travel information along with a letter that must be presented to the hotel to receive the government rate.

Searleman would like the members to meet in the lobby of the hotel to go to dinner at 6:00 PM on Monday August 21, 2006.

Subcommittee Report- Out
Subcommittee 1
Epstein – At the last meeting the subcommittee discussed one new issue which relates to the security of taxpayer data when their returns are e-filed and intermediate service providers (ISP) are used and the requirements governing taxpayer privacy and these ISPs. The “stall” letter and its language will be discussed at the face to face meeting. Form 8300 is a form the IRS requires from businesses when cash transactions of $10,000.00 and over occur. These forms can not be filed electronically and the sub committee is requesting to file these forms electronically. This was an issue raised by the public at the Town Hall Meeting in Rhode Island. The committee agreed to move forward this recommendation to the JC.

Subcommittee 2
Hom – The subcommittee met and discussed three issues and two of the issues are on the agenda for approval. The first issue is the Form 8453. Gadon stated that reducing the use of this form would reduce the amount of paperwork the IRS processes. If you file a tax return with a tax preparer and use the electronic PIN use of the Form 8453 is avoided. The proposal notes that just over 15 million forms are processed while ¾ of these were not even required to be filed. The savings in processing time and effort is tremendous. The committee approved the recommendation to move forward to the JC.

Zgoda - The second proposal is regarding the Form 433D (Installment Payment Agreement) Monthly Reminder Notice and how it doe not fully inform the taxpayer of what they actually owe and how it accrues. The subcommittee believes that IRS should send out a clear installment reminder notice each month so the taxpayer will know exactly how much they owe.  It will give a break down of how much principal, penalties and interest was paid. A lot of taxpayers are frustrated to not see their balance due going down or ignore the letters or they just stop paying due to the amount of penalties and interest. If they could see how their money is being applied, hopefully this will encourage them to continue paying or better yet to make other arrangements to pay in full. Zgoda sent out a proposal to all members, some suggestions were made and there will be some changes. A new proposal will go out to all members. The issue has been approved with corrections by consensus and will be sent forward to the JC.

Hom – The subcommittee will work on the issue where the taxpayer is making a payment for the previous tax year and also making an estimated tax payment. The current process is to submit two separate checks to two separate processing units. The subcommittee will work on a proposal to revise this process to allow submitting the payment(s) to one processing unit using form 1040V.

Outreach Report-out by Members
Epstein – Outreach was done by attending various AARP meetings where he took the opportunity to discuss TAP.

Searleman – Did outreach at a luncheon with current and former IRS employees which happened to be former students of Searleman.

Zgoda – Will have a meeting with New York State Society Board of Directors, and he will be speaking at two of their seminars. He will also attend a seminar for the University of Buffalo and Independent accounts. He will explain what TAP is to all of the organizations.

Members were reminded to report all outreach to the Jenkins.

Issue Committee Update
Epstein – The VITA committee has been considering a new process based training to replace current training mechanism for VITA volunteers and the VITA training methodology in detail.

Margulies – The EITC issue committee prepared two letters. One is a letter to tax preparers to reminder them of the electronic help available and forms that are available to help them determine eligibility. A reminder of the whistle blower program was included in the hopes that it helps reduce the unauthorized claiming of the earned income tax credit.

Searleman – The Notices Committee is trying to finish up three or four items they are working on.

Barry – The Burden Reduction Committee is working on the issue of misclassification of employees as independent contractors.

Zgoda – The TAC Committee will meet in Atlanta at the end of August to complete the questionnaire that will be going out.

Hom – The Ad Hoc committee was asked by the Forms and Pubs people to provide feedback on whether tax exempt dividends should be reported by mutual funds on either dividend or interest income on the Form 1099.

Other Comments/Questions
N/A

TAP Office Report
Jenkins – Havey asked Jenkins to get a list of items that were sent to the JC.

1. Form 1096 machine readable
2. Schedule D
3. Form 1099
4. Form 1098
5. Form 8453
6. Form 8300
7. Form 433D

Havey wants to know the status of the Combined Issues Subcommittee. This subcommittee is assigned to Ferree out of Florida and there is an opening for a member from Area 1 to volunteer for this committee. Epstein volunteered for this committee.

Ramirez – There was one resignation from Area 1; Michael Guthmann. Knispel, as well as Jenkins, will be working with Area 1 and she will work with subcommittee 2. Members were asked to please keep both Jenkins and Knispel updated on everything for Area 1.

Recap New Action Items
Members
A volunteer is needed to represent Area 1 at the Dallas JC meeting. Please submit your name to Ramirez before the next JC teleconference.

Zgoda will amend the Form 433D proposal and forward it to everyone.

Epstein will represent Area 1 on the Combined Issue subcommittee.

Public Participation
Smith thanked everyone on the committee. He and members of the Bar Association are very excited and are willing to help in any way.

Meeting adjourned at 9:55 AM