Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes
February 20, 2007
Teleconference
                  
Acting Designated Federal Official (DFO)

Committee Members Present

Absentee

TAP Staff

Other Attendees

Welcome
Roll Call (quorum has been met)

Joint Committee Report
Havey informed the committee that on February 7, 2007 Area 1 had four recommendations approved by the Joint Committee. She thanked the members for their work. Havey will be sharing with the committee a handout that Coston provided to the Joint Committee (JC) which summarizes his report for the February JC meeting.  

Committee Protocol
Havey reviewed several points of protocol with the committee; please inform her, the subcommittee chair and staff if you will not be able to make a call, this will eliminate prolonging the calls waiting for people to join; if you have to drop off the call early or join the call late please let us know. Also please use your phone’s mute button to minimize any distractions.

Subcommittee Report-Out/New Issues

• Subcommittee 1- Epstein - the subcommittee met with IRS’ Barbara Goins to discuss the Intermediate Service Providers (ISP) issue. They concluded that although there is protection from intentional sharing of taxpayer information, particularly in the transmission of the electronic data between the ISP and the IRS, there may be little to no protection or penalty from accidental sharing of taxpayer information. The subcommittee agreed that they wished to have some more information/expertise on this issue. The committee wants to know what happens to taxpayers’ tax return information after it is transmitted. Is this information used by ISPs or anyone for other purposes (even indirectly)?  Is the information held on the database of ISPs really deleted? Regarding the toll free site for Tax Exempt Government Entities Division issue; the subcommittee decided to put in back in the parking lot and revisit it at a later date based on the fact that that Division had recently exported that function to another operating division recognizing that they had difficulties. Jenkins will gather information on policy, procedures and the rules regarding the security of taxpayers’ data when transmitting via these third parties (ISPs).

• Subcommittee 2 – Zgoda – the committee is working on two issues; the response to Bob Erickson’s response to the Schedule D proposal that the committee elevated last year. They believe that he is missing the point. Knispel has invited him to the next subcommittee meeting on March 9, 2007. The second issue is about the minimum requirement distribution for Individual Retirement Accounts. The subcommittee is in the process of retrieving information from brokerages. The subcommittee is looking at asking the IRS to have an open window for those individuals who missed the cut-off date that prevented them from being penalized. The subcommittee is also working on the Online Payment proposal which will allow individuals to make payments to the IRS directly from the bank. Epstein mentioned the information returns delay issue, which subcommittee 2 may be considering as well.

Outreach Report-out by Members
Gadon went to the TAC office on February 14, 2007 to conduct a survey for the TAC Committee. He took advantage of this opportunity to do the TAP “tap dance”.

Havey has been working with a community action agency which provides assistance with services like day care and housing along with free tax preparation. She is looking into having TAP and TAS information available to that group as well as on the 211 (Maine’s information hotline for citizens) telephone line.

Coston mentioned that last week the TAP managers attended the Congressional Conference in Washington, DC. At this event the Local Taxpayer Advocates (LTA) have a chance to go up to the hill and visit with congressional staff. There were 14 new Local Taxpayer Advocates appointed this past year and Coston had the pleasure of addressing them and informing them of TAP. Coston encourages all members to reach out to their LTAs to share opportunities for outreach they may be able to provide.

Colombo was recently in contact with his LTA and has made a commitment to make a monthly contact.

Zgoda mentioned meetings with the SB/SE stakeholder liaison in your areas, He receives an e-mail when they are meeting and has attended them in the past. Gadon mentioned he also is notified and has attended. Jenkins will get a listing of each member’s pertinent liaison in SPEC to everyone so they can start a dialogue.  

Issue Committee Update

• Burden Reduction (Barry, Havey, Jason, and Margulies) Barry - the committee is working with OPERA conducting a survey to identify the five largest issues taxpayers are experiencing.  

• Earned Income Tax Credit (Chen) Chen - there are two sub committees; Technical and Administrative. The Technical subcommittee is charged with designing and implementing questions to administer to focus groups throughout the country that will identify how well the IRS is communicating EITC with tax preparers. The Administrative subcommittee is charged with identifying the characteristics of the preparers for the focus groups.

• Notices (Colombo) Colombo stated that the committee is still in the process of getting started.

• Ad Hoc (Hom, Parra) Hom - the Ad Hoc committee is currently reviewing five forms. The Form 1040 revision has now been rescheduled to 2009.

• VITA (Epstein, Gadon) Epstein stated that VITA committee is still in the process of getting started.

• Communication (Whiteside) Whiteside stated the committee is still getting started.

• Taxpayer Assistance Center (Zgoda) Zgoda-the communication committee has 20-25 TAP members administering surveys at various TAC offices in February. Another one in May will be conducted in different offices. The committee is also creating an employee version of the survey to administer.

Other Comments/Questions
Whiteside is having problems with communication in general. She needs to get in contact with staff to get help with logistics, etc... She has located the member handbook on TAP Space. It was suggested that new members be reached out to. 

Zgoda noted that if one uses AOL as their browser sometimes you will have difficulty accessing TAP Space. Coston informed us that there has been communication between TAP, LMI (the vendor who maintains TAP Space) and AOL about the problem with AOL’s browser. He does not believe there is anything further AOL will do to change what is causing the intermittent difficulties.

Ramirez informed the committee members who have AOL or have any questions about TAP Space to contact Audrey/Marisa or if they experience problems with retrieving information from TAP Space. Whiteside said the messages that are generated directly from TAP Space with the TAP Space link seem to be working well with AOL.

Office Report
Ramirez informed that the Area 1 Town Hall is now again scheduled for March 6, 2007 in Brooklyn. There will be a one hour session for the public to voice issues. After that there will a focus group. It will be held at the Brooklyn Borough President’s Hall. Anyone who is interested in attending who is not local, please let her know as we need to calculate estimates of the cost for travel. For those who will attend, we will be having some short calls to discuss logistics.

All of the phone cards have been ordered by the Seattle Management Assistant Marla Ofilas.

Business card orders have been sent forward for all the new members as well as returning members who requested more.

TAP recruitment period begins March 19, 2007 and runs through April 30, 2007. Area 1 is losing members in New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island and will be recruiting there.

Action Items

• Havey – Share with committee Coston’s write-up for the February Joint Committee meeting.
• Jenkins- will gather more information on policy, procedures and the rules regarding the security of taxpayers’ data when transmitting via these third parties (ISPs) for subcommittee 1.
• Jenkins - will get a listing of each member’s pertinent liaison in SPEC to everyone so they can start a dialogue.  

Public Participation
None