Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes
July 17, 2007
Teleconference

Designated Federal Official

• Nicholas, Judi - Acting, Designated Federal Official

Committee Members Present

• Colombo, Paul - Colchester, VT - Member
• Epstein, Harvey - Lee, NH - Member
• Gadon, Harold - Cranston, RI - Member
• Hom, Gim - Acton, MA - Member
• Jason, Julie - Greenwich, CT - Vice Chair
• Margulies, Howard - North Easton, MA - Member
• Whiteside, Deidra - Buffalo, NY - Member
• Zgoda, Bruce - Clarence, NY - Member

Committee Members Absent

• Barry, Shaun - Franklin Square, NY - Member
• Chen, Betty - New York, NY - Member
• Havey, Dorothy - Lee, NH - Chair

TAP Staff

• Goldberg, Gloria - Brooklyn, NY - Acting Manager
• Jenkins, Audrey - Brooklyn, NY - Analyst
• Odom, Meredith - Brooklyn, NY - Secretary

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda
Jenkins informed the committee that Havey may not be able to join the call; therefore, Jason will facilitate today’s conference call. Gloria Goldberg is the new Acting Manager for the Brooklyn, NY Office. She will act for the next 60 days and may be reached at Ramirez’s old number.

Roll Call
Quorum Met

Joint Committee Report
Margulies attended the JC meeting on behalf of Havey. A new timing procedure was worked out at the JC meeting. The method for submitting proposal has changed. Issues must be submitted 10 days prior to the meeting in order for it to make it to the JC agenda. A program is being worked on for members that served their 3 years on the panel, to be placed in a pool to substitute for people who may drop out during the year, or be called on for special issues they may have been experts in. There is a Commissioner’s meeting scheduled for August 16, 2007. The committee decided to mainly discuss generic issues of the TAP and ask the Commissioner if there is anything the panel can do to help him instead of asking him how he can help TAP. The issue committees should stop the bi-monthly meetings and go back to monthly meetings. A new version of TAPSpace will come out shortly. There was discussion on how to evaluate TAP members and how to evaluate outreach methods. This will determine who will be a good contributor to the panel. This will discussed further in the next face to face meeting.

Subcommittee Report-Out

Subcommittee 1
Epstein informed the committee that the subcommittee did not meet this month. They will report-out in the next teleconference.

Subcommittee 2
Gadon would like for the committee to vote on the Schedule D letter.  The practitioner pin proposal will move forward. The committee made a proposal on the 8453, but the IRS is taking care of this issue. Hom incorporated input from the committee to complete the 1040 proposal. This proposal is asking the IRS to allow for estimated income tax payment. The committee voted to approve this proposal with the minor corrections. Zgoda and Whiteside worked on a proposal for the 1040x to put in a third party designee. This information will be provided to the committee.

Outreach Report-out by Members
Colombo – has done outreach at his physical therapist’s office.

Epstein – attended a New Hampshire Practitioner Liaison Meeting and discussed TAP. Olson was in attendance for this meeting. The AARP National Tax-aid Program had their nation training and outreach was done there. Epstein did go to TAPSpace and downloaded the success stories that were related to small business.

Gadon – attended a Practitioner Stakeholder meeting, and spoke with members from Amerprise, a financial institution and discussed TAP.

Hom – N/A

Margulies – replenished brochures at a town hall.

Zgoda – did outreach at some small luncheons, a senior housing group, and at some clients that had cookouts. Zgoda will do outreach on a local television station and discuss TAP.

Issue Committee Update
VITA – The committee is working to get various publications out. There will be a change in the manual for teaching the VITA course. They are pushing to have them online. The committee is working on IRS publications. Publication 3189, which is the instructions for how to transmit returns to the IRS, is being worked on.

TAC – There is an upcoming face to face in Denver. The data from the surveys at the walk-in sites will be analyzed, conclusions will be drawn and start talking about some potential recommendations for the TAC.

Communications – The returning member surveys went out and members are encouraged to complete them. Members should go on to TAPSpace to update their Bios if they haven’t already done so. Once the communication strategy document is complete, it will be distributed to all members.

Burden Reduction – The last meeting was the face to face in June. No new information to report.

Ad Hoc – Bob Erickson met with the committee in Washington, DC at the face to face meeting to discuss tax law changes for 2007.

EITC – The committee has been working on the screeners guide and the moderators guide to be used at the focus group for the EITC office.

Notices – The current form that is being evaluated is supporting documents to prove head of household filing status is being pursued, both the 05 and 06 versions.

Other Comments/Questions
Goldberg informed the committee that in the past the vision for committee members would be that they are from all walks of life not just practitioners. There used to be a measure of participation from members. Nicholas informed the committee that Treasury was pleased that CAP was redesigned and recruited members from all 50 states and that it not be an all practitioner group. About 15% of the panel members are practitioners and the remainders are not. Jason feels it’s ok to get the message across to members that have time problems to resign from TAP. Epstein states that this will also allow for someone who has the time to participate to do so. Jason feels that judging the effectiveness of TAP needs to be beefed up. What has been accomplished needs to be known by all members. Nicholas informed the committee that Success Stories are updated every six months and are posted in TAPSpace as part of the outreach toolkit. The Annual Report is being looked at as to how it was prepared in the past. There is a general consensus that the past format and presentation of materials were not as effective as it could have been in highlighting TAPs accomplishments. The members are encouraged to look at the latest set of success stories and when a new set comes out, all panel members will be notified that they are on TAPSpace. The Communications committee will accept all suggestions for success stories. Members are encouraged to sit in as an observer, not as an active participant on JC calls. If you are interested, contact the area Analyst and they will provide information on the call.

Members would like to receive a reminder for both sub-committee and full committee meetings a day before the meeting.

Office Report
Jenkins informed the committee that the applicant interviews for 2007 have been completed. Gadon, Zgoda and Whiteside were thanked for their participation in helping with the interviews.

Parra resigned and a new member will replace him at the Annual Meeting.

The entire TAP Staff will be out of the office for training July 23 – July 28, 2007.

Reminder – all pre-reads to be attached to the agenda must be sent to the analyst prior to the meeting. Please do not send pre-reads directly to the members.

Public Participation