Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes
Friday - May 11 - 12, 2007
Face to Face Meeting - Stamford, CT

Friday, May 11, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007

• Fallacaro, Betsey - Boston, MA - LTA

Committee Members

• Barry, Shaun - Franklin Square, NY - Member
• Chen, Betty - New York, NY - Member
• Colombo, Paul - Colchester, VT - Member
• Gadon, Harold - Cranston, RI - Member
• Jason, Julie - Greenwich, CT - Vice Chair
• Margulies, Howard - North Easton, MA - Member
• Parra, Luis - Bronx, NY - Member
• Whiteside, Deidra - Buffalo, NY - Member
• Zgoda, Bruce - Clarence, NY - Member

Committee Members Absent

• Havey, Dorothy - Lincolnville, ME - Chair
• Hom, Gim - Acton, MA - Member

TAP Staff

• Coston, Bernard - Washington, DC - Director
• Jenkins, Audrey - Brooklyn, NY - Analyst
• Knispel, Marisa - Brooklyn, NY - Analyst
• Odom, Meredith - Brooklyn, NY - Secretary

Other Attendees
Besunder, Diane – Media Specialist
Eguren, Sarah – Hispanic Media Specialist

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda
Members and Staff introduced themselves.

Roll Call (quorum has been met)
Quorum has been met

Joint Committee Report
Coston explained how the Joint Committee goes over elevated issues. They go forward with a lot of initiative. The JC has 2 face to face meetings. The JC is preparing for the delivery of the Annual Report. The report must be done by the first of June. The proposal from Area 1 that was sent to the JC, was sent back to be worked on a little more.

National Office Update
Coston discussed the time the JC spends on Issues. Coston will look into every issue and report back to the JC on June 30, 2007. There are 37 issues waiting acknowledgement or a response from the Program Owner. Toy is in the process of getting the exact name of the issues. Coston will look into how issues are written, how we deem success as TAP, what we are looking for, performance issues, dollar savings and benefits analysis.

The Communication Issue committee has come up with a strategy on how TAP can be much more effective. TAP is on line as far as the budget. The VITA committee will work with Nan Filler to see what VITA sites will be used in the future.

The Annual Meeting will be held at in Washington, DC at the Fairmont Hotel. The meeting dates are December 11 – 14. 

As of May 29th, the IRS has a new acting Commissioner, Kevin Brown. The budget for TAP is 530,000. Olson has kept TAP’s budget where it is. Other offices under her have had their budgets cut. The annual report has changed drastically. This time the report is very complimentary to the IRS Staff.

This year’s recruitment is very successful. As of April 30, 2007 there was 281 completes applications. The online process only allows applicants to apply for states that only had openings. Area 1 has 3 slots, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine. TAP Management staff will meet in the Plantation, FL office to complete the ranking. Bernie will be opening 2 positions in the Headquarters office one for an Analyst and the other for a Secretary. Ramirez is leaving TAP and is going to work with LITC. The TAP staff will be working without a manager until the position can be filled. Marisa and Audrey will rotate duties for a while. Brooklyn staff is moving into new office space.

Gadon hosted the most successful Town Hall Meeting in Cranston, RI. For this year, there has been Town Hall Meetings in Nebraska, Phoenix and NY. Olson refers to outreach in reference to TAS. TAP outreach is to get the message out about the organization, about grass root issues and to inform people that their voices are heard.

DFO Report
Fallacaro informed the committee that TAS appeal cases are being worked faster. TAS will be hiring Case Advocates. TAS case inventory had gone up drastically. This years filing season went smooth. People are still getting caught up in the filing system. There is still complexity with the forms. Form 1041 is very complex. Collection cases have gone up. There has been an increase in automated call sites. TAS works a lot of cased that can’t be solved by the IRS. The IRS is filing more liens. Area Local Taxpayer Advocates (LTA) should be in contact with TAP. Some of the members have been in contact with the LTAs from their areas and have even participated in outreaches with some.

Outreach Report-out by Members

• Colombo will be doing an outreach with the LTA in VT.
• Parra did an outreach in Queens, NY which had 150 attendees. His next outreach will be in the Bronx on June 26, 2007 with tax preparers.
• Gadon worked on the TAC survey.
• Zgoda did a customer survey outreach. He will also attend a seminar with tax attorneys in September – December
• Coston informed the committee that the Annual Report has a section that talks about outreach. Outreach is important and advises member to refer to the outreach toolkit.
• Chen did outreach at the community tax aide and at the bankruptcy practice with attorneys. She also did a lot of one minute outreach.
• Coston reminded the committee that legislative issues can not come to TAP. If you do want to submit any, they must go through SAMS. As a private citizen, you will fill out the form and it will go on the SAMS system. You may access SAMS by going to the irs.gov website. Olson reviews these issues.
• Whiteside did outreach at the hospital in which she works
• Epstein did outreach at a meeting with Volunteers for Tax Aide and at a bridge club.
• Barry wrote a letter to the local Long Island, NY newspapers. There is a radio station called Broadcasting board of Governors to cover what TAP is. At the Federation of Tax Administrators Annual Meeting in June, they may have a TAP table.

Lessons Learned

• Gadon reinforced outreach. He feels that the committees should not have great expectations on issues brought forward. Make issues as clear as possible. Volunteer to accompany to JC meetings. Keep in touch with the LTAs from your area. Always carry business cards. Be patient. Gadon is willing to speak with the new member that will take his place when his term as TAP Member ends. He suggest having a buddy system.
• Epstein states that the members should be patient with issues that go to the JC. Try to take issues to the issue committee
• Whiteside suggest that returning members create a mentoring program for the new members.
• Parra suggest going out and discussing TAP
• Epstein recommends that all new TAP members attend the face to face meeting.
• Chen suggests keeping up with time commitments.
• Ramirez advises members to speak up
• Colombo would like a replacement/alternate to fill in if a member can’t attend a meeting. He would like to have changes to meeting times.
• Jason isn’t clear on TAP successes. What is it about? How is it successful? How does TAP support arguments? Who are program owners and how may they be reached? What is the IRS trying to accomplish?

New Issues

• Letter 1722 – The Taxpayer Service Centers (TACs) no longer provides copies of transcripts. You must fill out a form to request transcripts.
• Form 944 – Employers Annual Federal Tax Return

Subcommittee Break-Out

• Subcommittee 1 and Subcommittee 2 met to discuss new and old issues.

• Fallacaro, Betsey - Boston, MA - LTA

Committee Members Present

• Barry, Shaun - Franklin Square, NY - Member
• Chen, Betty - New York, NY - Member
• Colombo, Paul - Colchester, VT - Member
• Gadon, Harold - Cranston, RI - Member
• Jason, Julie - Greenwich, CT - Vice Chair
• Margulies, Howard - North Easton, MA - Member
• Parra, Luis - Bronx, NY - Member
• Whiteside, Deidra - Buffalo, NY - Member
• Zgoda, Bruce - Clarence, NY - Member

Committee Members Absent

• Havey, Dorothy - Lincolnville, ME - Chair
• Hom, Gim - Acton, MA - Member

TAP Staff

• Coston, Bernard - Washington, DC - Director
• Jenkins, Audrey - Brooklyn, NY - Analyst
• Knispel, Marisa - Brooklyn, NY - Analyst
• Odom, Meredith - Brooklyn, NY - Secretary

Other Attendees

• Romano, Fran - Hartford, CT - LTA

Opening of Meeting/Review Agenda
Jason opened the meeting, greeted members, staff and quest, and reviewed agenda.

Roll Call
Jenkins – quorum met.

Public Participation
None

Subcommittee Report-Out
Subcommittee 1

• Gold Star Proposal – The committee nominates to drop this issue. Area 1 could always send out thank you letters. By consensus, Item dropped.
• Excess Social Security – generalization with the SS Proposal as an example
• BPOL – strongly encouraging web access. What are the statistics of the taxpayers involved
• Request for transcript if you have a fax number you will get the transcripts. If you request them by mail, you will get them with-in 7 days. Subcommittee 1 will test the 1040 telephone line.
• Fallacaro will pull a Taxpayer Advocate Service report to see what the problem was with TAS transcript/return copy issue. From 5 years ago until now, how many transcripts were provided?
• 3 day rule – VITA Program Owner is looking into if it only applies to VITA
• Jeff Bledsoe has been contacted to address the group on the ISP issue
• Form 944 – Should the threshold be raised? How is the form being used now? Who is using it? How many invites? What are the numbers for preparing 941s? Epstein will contact Kasturi to clarify issue. How many businesses have 2500 in payroll taxes or 20,000 in payroll?

Subcommittee 2

• Practitioner Pin – Approved. Knispel will fix wording.
• 1040 - No consensus.
• Schedule D Issue – Approved by Joint Committee.
• 1040X – Third party designee.
• 2210 – Penalty Form
• Committee suggest changing Form 5329

Closing/Recap Action Items
Ramirez suggests to the committee that they allow themselves a learning curve. The first year as a member is a learning period. Be patient and always communicate.