Friday, May 2, 2008
Saturday, May 3, 2008

Designated Federal Official

• Fallacaro, Betsy

Committee Members Present

• Barry, Shaun
• Hom, Gim
• Jackson, Robert
• Jason, Julie
• Leggett, John
• Margulies, Howard
• Whiteside, Deidra
• Yandow, Robert
• Zgoda, Bruce

TAP Staff

• Jenkins, Audrey
• Morizio, Louis
• Odom, Meredith

Other Attendees

• Polvino, Terry - TAS, Senior Case Advocate
• Vashon, Sue - Campus Tech Advisor, Andover

Friday, May 2, 2008

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda
Shaun Barry welcomed members, IRS staff and guest to the meeting. He informed everyone there will be a visit to the Congressional Office and the TAS Office during this meeting.  The goal for this meeting is to have significant issues to be elevated to JC.

Roll Call
Quorum met

Joint Committee Report
Shaun Barry reported that there haven’t been too many issues elevated to the Joint Committee to date this year.  The 3 issues that have been elevated were looked at by the quality review committee and referred back to the committees for revising. Issue number 4633 – SSN on Checks will be re forwarded to the Joint Committee after the requested changes have been incorporated.  The Electronic Payment Issue will be referred back to the subcommittee for review of the Quality Review edits.

National Office Report
Louis Morizio informed everyone that the TAP staff is undergoing major changes.  Meredith Odom has been selected as the Junior Analyst in the Brooklyn Office, which leave a vacancy for the secretary.  Patti Robb has been selected as the Junior Analyst in the Milwaukee Office, Nina Pang has been selected for the Junior Analyst in the Seattle Office and, Donna Powers has been selected as the Junior Analyst in the Florida Office.  Barbara Foley has been selected for a position in the EITC Program office and Audrey Y. Jenkins is acting as the Database Person for TAP until the position is filled.

TAP’s recruitment period has ended as of April 30th.  There are over 40 applicants from NY and 20 from MA.  The Vermont alternate has opted to join TAP in December. She has been added to the email group code and is receiving information now on what’s happening with the committee.  Recruitment notices were published in the El Diaro and Wall Street Journal newspapers.  Congressional Offices, Local Taxpayer Advocate and Media Specialists took part in the recruitment.  Staff will soon begin ranking applications and will soon be reaching out to members to help with interviews.  If you are interested, send your request to Louis Morizio or Audrey Y. Jenkins.

DFO Report
Betsy Fallacaro informed members that she has scheduled visits in the afternoon to the Taxpayer Advocate Service Office, Congressional Office and Walk-in Offices.

TAS currently has a lot of cases which consist of Collection enforcement and Identity Theft.

Public Participation
None

Outreach Report-out-by members
Howard Margulies posted emails on site with retirees.  He is also working with the credit union to set up TCE preparation 1 day a week.  Howard has asked The National Association of Federal Credit Unions to invite either Coston or Olson to speak at the annual conference.  Howard is also working on a letter to the editor for a local newspaper.

Julie Jason mentions TAP at while doing speaking engagements and has also mentioned open recruitment.

Paul

Innocent Spouse Subject Matter Expert
Terry Polvino, Senior Case Advocate in TAS, presented information on Innocent Spouse claims.  Terry mentioned that cases are worked in the Cincinnati Campus.  TAS currently has a large inventory of Innocent Spouse cases and has been vigorously working to resolve them. Using both Publication 971 and the Appeals function of the IRS, these cases are careful worked. Publication 971 helps to define the three types of relief (innocent spouse, separations of liability and equitable) who might qualify and how to request relief. Terry informed the committee that each case can sometimes take years to resolve and has a lot of phases it has to go through before Innocent Spouse status can be granted. In most cases, spouses can protect themselves by filing separate.  There are numerous steps and very strict guidelines to determine if someone should be granted Innocent Spouse status and sometimes has to deny a claim due to lack of documentation. There are a series of forms required, which include Forms 8857 and 12507.

Terry will address the subcommittee to further discuss.

Identity Theft Subject Matter Expert
Sue Vachon, the Campus Tech Advisor in Andover, presented information on Identify Theft issues that are seen in the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS).  Sue informed members that the Senior Advocates work the Identity Theft Cases. Identity Theft is such a hot topic that, in the Report to Congress, Nina Olson discusses Identity Theft Cases.  TIGTA also did a report on Identity Theft with the focus on Outreach to get the word out.

Scrambled Social Security Numbers (SSNs) is an issue related to Identity Theft. There are times when the Social Security Administration assigns 2 or more people the same SSN incorrectly. The IRS’ Scrambled SSN procedures are used in Identity Theft cases and are effective, but take a long time to resolve. There are currently too many cases which are taking too long to work. 

In October of 2007, the IRS agreed to request a standard documentation of taxpayers. Taxpayers are asked to present 2 pieces of identification to support their social security number. The commissioner decided that everyone should present the same documentation; A Drivers License, Social Security Card, Passport and proof of Identity theft example, Police Report. If the taxpayer doesn’t have all the requested documents, the Advocate must still work the case.   When cases are received and documented, IRS will place an indicator on the account stating that the information was received.  One out of every ten cases come in with the indicator and if it looks suspicious will be screened before being posted.  Some people are filing tax return using INS numbers. When using INS numbers, people are not entitled to any credits.  The IRS will compare names and addresses to W2’s and if there is a match, the person will receive the credit.

TAS recommends that one group work Stolen Identity case procedures and another group should work on Identity Theft issues.  There should also be one manual for stolen Identity Theft Issues. It was also suggested that credit report agencies should alert the IRS when fraud is recognized.

Subcommittee Break-outs
Members went to their assigned subcommittees to work on assigned issues.

Congressional Visit/TAS Office Visit/TAC Visit
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Closing Remarks
Barry closed the meeting at 5:00 PM and reminded everyone that we will be meeting in the hotel tomorrow morning instead of the IRS Office.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Area 1 Committee Meeting Minutes

Meeting Opening
Shaun Barry Opened the meeting at 8:30 AM again welcoming all the members and thanking them for the continued hard work.

Roll Call
Quorum met

Subcommittee Report –Outs
Subcommittee 1- Gim Hom reported that the committee worked on;

• Online Payment Proposal edits from the JC Quality Review Committee
• Problem Solving Proposal comments from the JC Quality Review committee
• LLC & SC Compensation
• Form 9452 – add a line – committee approved the issue and Robert Jackson will draft the proposal and forward to the committee.
• Publication 1796 – CD availability
• 1040X response
• RMD distribution – parking lot
• Late 1099’s
• Publication 4633 – marketing tool – have TAP added –Betsy will mail the committee the CD
• Form 990N – Tax Exempt Flyer – Closed
• Issue 4622 – Timeframe request to centralize appeals for Innocent Spouse
• Toll free call issue - Green Card for child & wife expense should be tax deductible – closed
• Large donations of $5000
• E-bay Income

Subcommittee 2 - Deidra Whiteside reported that the committee worked on;
Identity Theft

• Separate procedures for ID theft cases
• Create an IRM.
• Systems for taxpayer IRS and ID theft activity is not there and primary code Create 800 # for ID theft hotline
• Centralizing an ID theft has been stated in a TIGTA Report, ID website and in Nina’s report to congress.
• Issue and will be deciding how many aspects of the issue they are going to tackle.

Innocent Spouse is also a large and very complex issue which they will also be examining to see what procedures can be revised to speed up the process.

Outreach Report-Out by Members continued
Deidra

• Radio 1080 AM Buffalo WHLB
• Human Resource Meeting
• Cab Driver
• Women’s Empowerment Group

Gim

• Recruiting New members in his neighborhood
• HP Group

Robert

• TCE State organizations/master program  3 times

John

• Press releases went well – very good visibility
• Small groups – SB LLCs
• Church Groups
• Rotary Group
• Upcoming in July – fair
• Andover Campus tour

 Shaun

• Denver Facilitators
•  Contact with LTA
• Senior Citizen Fair – approximately 400 in attendance
• IBM Jericho Office Meeting – approximately 75 in attendance
• Reached out to News Day newspaper but they were not interested in  TAP
• Planning on reaching out to State Tax Administrators
• FTA – would like to get TAP on agenda either annual meeting or one of their regional meetings.

Rob

• Local Senior Center
• Rotary Club
• New England Chamber of Commerce Director

Ideas to Improve TAP

• Always have Subject matter experts at meetings with participation in subcommittee meetings
• When possible combine face to face meetings with Service Center tours
• Have media specialist address committee
• Have meeting handouts available on TapSpace

Closing Remarks
The committee was very pleased with the presentations from Terry Polvino and Sue Vachon. Both presenters were very informative and eager to stay around to address the subcommittee.

Action Items

• Members interested in helping with new member interviews should send Louis/Audrey an email.
• Audrey will send outreach form to all TAP members.
• Members would like a formal Process for referring/endorsing new members
• Betsy will provide committee with Publication 4633-CD