Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes
November 20, 2007
Teleconference

Designated Federal Official

• Fallacaro, Betsy - Boston, MA - LTA

Committee Members Present

• Barry, Shaun - Franklin Square, NY - Member
• Colombo, Paul - Colchester, VT - Member
• Epstein, Harvey - Lee, NH - Member
• Gadon, Harold - Cranston, RI - Member
• Havey, Dorothy - Lincolnville, ME - Chair
• 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
None

TAP Staff

• Jenkins, Audrey - Brooklyn, NY - Analyst
• Knispel, Marisa - Brooklyn, NY - Analyst
• Odom, Meredith - Brooklyn, NY - Note Taker
• Ferree, Nancy - Plantation, FL - Manager

Other Attendees

• Coston, Bernard - Atlanta, GA - Director

Welcome
Havey welcomed committee member, IRS staff and visitors.

Coston thanked all members for their participation and hard work throughout the year. He thanked the retirees, Epstein, Gadon and Havey for all of their hard work. Coston sent out an email to returning members as to the selection of the issue committees and he will meet with the program owners to explain to them what their role is to the committees. Coston is going to discuss having a special recruitment to replace the members that resigned from Area 1.

Roll Call
Quorum met

Joint Committee Report
The JC met on November 7, 2007.  Members should have received a ballot via email to vote for TAP Chair and Vice Chair. Outgoing members can also vote. There will be a mentoring program for the new members anyone interest please let staff know.

Annual Committee Self Assessment
Some parts of the members self assessment will be used for the Annual Report. The Annual Report will look like a corporations Report and it will highlight some of the positive things that TAP has done. The Annual report should be out in early spring. All recommendations that went forward to the IRS will be on TapSpace.  Havey asked that everyone review the committee’s self assessments to see what works well and what doesn’t.

Subcommittee Report-Out
Subcommitte 1
Epstein discussed the grass roots issue relating to tip income and how it works if a person is a waitress and had to share their tip. The committee found out there is a way people could record properly the amount of money they received for the tipped and not what was shared. Jenkins reached out to former member, Silver, to find out if this information was true and he was able to help the committee.

The issue about difficulty of obtaining paper forms will no longer be worked. The committee decided to park the issue because they feel it would be difficult to have the JC pick up the issue.

The committee considered a proposal dealing with increasing the rate in which W4’s are used. This issue was brought forth by Whiteside and it states that people have been abusing the W4 process which allows people to claim an inordinate amount of exemptions so there is no withholding. Research was done and what was found is that the IRS does review W4’s. Colombo suggests increasing the cycle time from 6 months to review to 3 months to review. The proposal encourages the IRS to review W4’s in 3 months. The committee would like for this proposal to be presented to the JC in January. Jenkins will forward this proposal to the review committee.

Barry wrote a letter in reference to Charitable Deductions which will go forward once corrections are made.

The subcommittee will not meet in December.

Subcommittee 2
Zgoda and subcommittee 2 had a meeting with some Area 1 Alumni working on the Required Minimum Distribution. Some of the Alumni will do some research and provide it to the committee by the end of the month. This will determine if the committee will meet on December 4th.

Issue 4039 which was proposed by Hom was also discussed.  This proposal went forward to the JC in June and Jenkins will follow up to see where this proposal is.

The Schedule D issue will be tabled per request of Coston. This issue may be something the IRS will work on in their time.

TAP Elections
Havey encourages everyone to vote for TAP Chair and Vice Chair

Other
Comments/Questions
VITA – has completed their work for the year. They helped the IRS to develop training materials for VITA and TCE programs. This will be distributed to the new volunteers for the upcoming year

Forms and Pub – has completed their work for the year.

Communications – has completed their work for the year.

TAC –

Burden Reduction – has done very little.

Office Report
Jenkins thanked Gadon, Epstein and Havey for participating in TAP.

Public Participation
None

Closing Remarks
An email went out to returning members to select issue committees for next year. Please respond to Coston with your selection.

Havey encourages members to run for Area 1 Chair and Vice Chair. She encourages members to stay in touch and she thanked everyone for their participation.

TAP is waiting for the final approval of new members.

Next Meeting – December 11-12, 2007, Washington, DC