Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes
October 16, 2007
Teleconference

Designated Federal Official

• Fallacaro, Betsy - Boston, MA - LTA

Committee Members Present

• Barry, Shaun - Franklin Square, NY - Member
• Colombo, Paul - Colchester, VT - Member
• Gadon, Harold - Cranston, RI - Member
• Dorothy, Dorothy - Lincolnville, ME - Chair
• Hom, Gim - Acton, MA - Member
• Margulies, Howard - North Easton, MA - Member
• Zgoda, Bruce - Clarence, NY - Member

Committee Members Absent

• Chen, Betty - New York, NY - Member
• Epstein, Harvey - Lee, NH - Member
• Jason, Julie - Greenwich, CT - Member
• Whiteside, Deidra - Buffalo, NY - Member        

TAP Staff

• Goldberg, Gloria - Brooklyn, NY - Manager
• Jenkins, Audrey - Brooklyn, NY - Analyst
• Knispel, Marisa - Brooklyn, NY - Analyst
• Odom, Meredith - Brooklyn, NY - Note Taker

Other Attendees

• Yandow, Robert - Public Participant
• Greene, Sharen - Albany, NY - LTA
• Conover, Lynn - New York, NY - The Curchin Group
• Melski, Kim - New York, NY - The Curchin Group

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda
Dorothy welcomed the committee, guest and staff.

Roll Call
Quorum Met

Public Participation
Lynn and Kim met Barry in August at the New York Tax Forum. Their tax preparation business has been forced to submit a large number of amended returns due to 1099’s which arrive very close to the April 15th filing timeline or 1099’s that are later amended. This causes the taxpayer to either file their returns after the April 15th timeframe or to file an amended return. The brokerage firms have a deadline to file their 1099’s, however these statements are often amended as better information becomes available as to the character of the distribution.  The firm was obviously frustrated with the impact on their business as taxpayers are complaining about having to go on extension or bearing the cost of the an amended return, in sometimes at the federal and state level.

Joint Committee Report
The issue referral to amend the 1040X to include the 3rd party designee was forwarded for approval to the IRS. The Select Pin issue was not approved due to some concerns on how the proposal would affect the individual users. Dorothy suggests this go back to the subcommittee level to work further on this issue. The 4186 issue on updating the regulation will not go forward as it is currently written.

All appointee’s for next year’s members have been signed by Nina and is waiting approval at Treasury. The Annual Meeting will be in Washington, DC from December 10-14, 2007.

There is a new selection process for the TAP Chair and Vice Chair. The election for TAP Chair and Vice Chair will be done via email and prior to the meeting. Members my self nominate or be nominated by a peer. If no one volunteers or is nominated, there will be a nominating committee which will be responsible for the nominations. In that case, there should be a volunteer from Area 1 to serve on the nominating committee. All areas will have representation on the nominating committee. Hal Gadon has volunteered for Area 1 committee. Everyone should have received an email from Bernie Coston explaining the new election process and the timeline for the election. Once all the nominations are in, an email will go out including all candidate speeches and biographies.

There is a report regarding some of the issues that were raised at the Commissioners Meeting available on Tapspace. There may be a new Issue Committee next year to work on the TAB (Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint). The Taxpayer Assistance Centers received tremendous accolades on the work that was done as far as the surveys. The VITA Issue Committee was complimented on their hard work as well as the other committees.

The Joint committee reported that the practice of putting an elevated issue on TapSpace for comments is not the preferred way anymore. It put too much time and responsibility on the person posting the information to keep up with the questions that came from it. The review committee meets every Wednesday of each month and they will be not only be reviewing it grammatically but also for content and readability.

Pending Review Report
IRS has responded to the elevated issues from TAP. There were 8 issues that the IRS responded to. The committee has to decide whether they want to accept the response from the IRS or if they want to submit a response.
 
Federal Lien Release on Credit Reports - 05-019 – Closed
Increasing Awareness of TAP in Publications - 05-058 – Closed
Self-Employment Tax for Newspaper Carriers - 04-001 – Closed
Interest and Penalty Calculator on IRS Website - 05-031 – Closed
CP 521 Interest Rate - 106-022 – Committee will set up a call with Sottile to further discuss issue.
Schedule D-Carry Forward Line - 106-013 –The committee is going to send a letter forward stating they are dissatisfied.
Forms and Publications, Search by Keyword - 106-025 – Closed
LITC Information on EITC Notices 05-057 – Closed
Form 8300, Efiling Capability - 107-3927 – Closed
W-4 Calculator Access - 05-018 – Closed
Form W-4 Changes/Multi-job Households 05-017 – Closed
Interest on Refunds and Notice CP 21B - 107-4050 – Closed

Subcommittee Report-Out

Subcommittee 1
The Committee is discussing an issue with charitable deductions and documentations. There was a change in the 2006 Pension Protection Act that will require any cash contribution of any amount to have documentation. The committee feels this is a legislative issue and will draft a letter to Olson asking her to look at it.

Subcommittee 2
The committee is still working on the Required Minimum Distribution for IRAs

Outreach Report-out by Members
None

Issue Committee Update
Bruce Zgoda – TAC will have a face to face meeting in a few weeks in Chicago.

Other Comments/Questions
Howard Margulies questions the Regulations for the new reporting on Required Minimum distributions. Jenkins will look into this issue. Goldberg states this is a new law so the regulations may not be available until next year.

Subcommittee 2 will meet November 6, 2007 and Knispel invited some former TAP members to join the meeting. Subcommittee 1 meets at 10:00am and Subcommittee 2 meets at 9:00am who will also have a retired TAP member as a subject matter expert.

Office Report
Goldberg announced that some of the non-returning members may be asked to do some of the workshop teaching at the Annual Meeting.