February 4, 2003
(3:00-4:00PM EST)

Participants (Committee Members)

• Mary Balmer, Chairperson
• Nancy L. Ferree, Acting Designated Federal Official (DFO)
• Richard Bobb
• Anthony DiMartino
• C. Morgan Edwards
• Jerry Gensiejewski Jr.
• Karen Kerrigan
• Robert Maziarz
• Patrick McCombie
• David L. Meyer, Vice-Chairperson
• Theodore Perros
• George Pruchniewski
• Leonard Steinberg
• Robert Taylor
• Faith Vinikoor

Members Not Present

• Lou Romito
• Calvin Johnson
• Manning H. Mosley III
• Harvey Schiff
• Doreen Scott

Staff Members

• Inez E. De Jesus, Program Analyst/Recorder

Guests

• Dan Rinke from Commerce Clearing House (CCH)

Quorum: 11 (15 participating members)

Welcome/Announcements/Roll Call
Announcement was made that TAP Program Manager Nancy Ferree will be acting Designated Federal Official (DFO) in the absence of DFO Lou Romito during this teleconference meeting.

Chairperson Balmer requested that Program Analyst De Jesus update the members on the upcoming face-to-face meeting scheduled for February 28-March 1, 2003 in the DC area. De Jesus provided a brief overview for those who had not made their lodging reservations yet.

The Chairperson shared that the Joint Committee will be holding its face-to-face meeting in the DC area on May 2 and 3, 2003. Further information is forthcoming.

Chairperson Balmer discussed briefly the email she had forwarded to all on February 6, 2003, regarding CCH Tax Briefing: "Impact Analysis of The Bush Tax Plan".

Program Analyst De Jesus took the roll call, and a quorum of 15 was met; as per Area 2, Mid-Atlantic States Operating Procedures a quorum of 11 is required. For the record, there was no public participation, only a non-participating guest.

C. Morgan Edwards thanked everyone for their well wishes and gift during recent surgery.

Review/Approve Minutes of January 7, 2003
Minutes were reviewed and accepted.

For the record, the following "action/follow-up" items from the last meeting have been addressed as follows:

1. DFO Romito will research the regulations regarding Tort Claim coverage when a panelist travels on government business at no charge to the government. TAP Director Deryle Temple is currently following up with Counsel Carol Campbell for an opinion on this.
2. Issue #1203- "Request for Simplicity on all IRS Tax Forms"-Panel Member Dick Bobb shared that he has not received examples of forms taxpayer had promised to submit. He will attempt to contact taxpayer again prior to next meeting.
3. DFO Romito mailed out to all committee members background information on the fraud referral process, including Form #3949, "Information Report Referral". This includes information on what the IRS can and cannot tell the informant and why.
4. Success stories from prior Citizen Advocacy Panel (CAP) was distributed by Program Analyst De Jesus on November 26, 2002, and if additional information is required, committee is to let Inez know.
5. DFO Romito sent out during the past month IRS contact points to all committee members.
6. Program Analyst De Jesus provided Chairperson Balmer with "canned messages: that the TAP staff uses when emails are received from the public via the website.
7. During the past month, DFO Romito, Chairperson Balmer, and Vice-Chair Meyer have met via teleconference calls to iron out the processing of issues received.

Chairperson Balmer inquired if everyone had received their government issued Sprint phone card. She also informed the committee that this card may be used to initiate teleconference calls, and it is a great tool for sub-committees to use when they hold their administrative meetings. She promised to test this feature and keep the committee informed of her experience. (For the record on February 5, 2003, Chairperson sent a detailed email to all committee members with pertinent information.)

Chairperson Balmer also shared that an official TAP Logo and letterhead are not available but there is a temporary template that is being used in the interim.

Checkbox Authority issue extended to three years, #1245, was briefly discussed.

Additional news from the Joint Committee is that the Power-point Presentation has been distributed to all Joint Committee members.

The Milwaukee TAP Staff will send report to Congress to all committee members by hard copy as well as by CD Rom if desired.

Update on process for working the issues-

Chairperson Balmer shared that the issues, which come to Area 2, should be prioritized and elevated to the Joint Committee and the Joint Committee will decide which ones will go onto the Report to Congress.

There will be a different process for legislative issues and what that process will be is still not clear. This subject has been added to the Joint Committee's agenda for their next meeting on February 18, 2003. All TAP Chairs attend these meeting and will keep their committees informed of outcome. In the interim, the questions that arose were, should a draft letter be sent to Treasury? Or should it go directly to the National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson?

Vice-Chairperson David L. Meyer, Area 2 Issues Coordinator, addressed whether it is appropriate for TAP to be handling/working legislative issues. Other members agreed that the TAP mission needs to be adhered to which is:

"The TAP members listen to taxpayers, identify taxpayer issues and make suggestions for improving IRS service and customer satisfaction."

On the other hand, there are some members who believe that the Area committees should accept and work legislative issues.

An idea that arose is that perhaps the Ad hoc committee creates a sub-committee to handle legislative issues only.

Closing letters were discussed, for example Issue #1216, (Problem Resolution Officers are no longer available for Practitioners) a draft-closing letter will be prepared.

Interim letter for Issue #1209, Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT) was also discussed - Panel member Theodore Perros mentioned that a copy of taxpayer's letter dated November 21, 2002, had been sent to all.

Vice-Chair Meyer will be monitoring issues and had sent a spreadsheet to all with updated issues received. He requested volunteers and the following is a summary of what transpired:

Vice-Chair Meyer will take the liberty of assigning issues that have no volunteers on a rotational basis. (Issues on agenda not discussed: #1252, 1257 and 1259)

Chairperson Balmer shared that Panel Member Scott had requested that her name be placed accordingly.

DFO Ferree provided the committee with information on the possibility of Area 2 participating in a focus group for the new "Free E-File Initiative" that was recently launched. The Commissioner through the Director of Electronic Filing has requested that Area 2 TAP Members evaluate the user-friendliness of this new process. (For the record, the Free File is the new IRS program in which a consortium of tax preparation companies have agreed to assist certain income levels of taxpayers in electronically filing their federal and state tax returns at no cost.) Further information is forthcoming and it is in the planning stages that IRS Free-File employees who are conducting research will be at the face-to-face Area 2 meeting in the DC Area. Approximate 2 hours will be required from the panel.

Panel Member C. Morgan Edwards mentioned an article he had just read dated February 4, 2003, The Charlotte Observer, Consumer News Analysis, "Beware: Free File tax services may find way into your wallet"-which he promised to have copies distributed to all Area 2 panel members.

Chairperson requested that the committee elevate agenda items for the upcoming face-to-face meeting.

Before meeting concluded the next two meeting dates and locations were announced:

February 28/March 1, 2003 Face-to-Face- @ One Washington Circle Hotel in Washington, DC and the following Area 2 meeting will be on April 1, 2003, via teleconference call, from 3:00pm to 4:30pm est.

Meeting ended timely.