September 2, 2003
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM

Participants (Committee Members)

• Mary Balmer, Chairperson, NC
• Richard Bobb, NC
• Anthony DiMartino, NJ
• Gerald (Jerry) Gensiejewski Jr., PA
• Robert Maziarz, NJ
• Patrick McCombie, DE
• Lou Romito, Designated Federal Official (DFO)
• Leonard Steinberg, NJ
• Faith Vinikoor, MD

Staff Members

• Inez E. De Jesus, Scribe
• Nancy L. Ferree, Program Manager

Members Not Present

• C. Morgan Edwards, NC
• Calvin Johnson, VA
• Karen Kerrigan, VA
• David L. Meyer, Vice-Chair, NJ
• Manning H. Mosley III, PA
• Theodore Perros, D.C.
• George Pruchniewski, MD
• Robert Taylor, PA

Public Participant(s)

• None

Welcome/Announcements/Roll Call
Chairperson Balmer began meeting by welcoming everyone and requesting that roll call be taken. Program Analyst De Jesus checked attendance and announced that quorum was not met. For the record, meeting would proceed but any matters requiring consensus would be carried over to the next meeting.

• Quorum=10 members
• 9 members present

Chairperson Balmer reminded everyone that the Joint Committee's face-to-face meeting will be held this week in Denver and Panel Member Leonard Steinberg will be representing Area 2 since she will not be in attendance. Panel Member Steinberg promised to send a review of the Joint Committee meeting to all upon his return.

Chairperson Balmer also shared that Area 2's Annual Assessment Report for 2003 is available for all to view on TAP Speak. A reminder to the panel to fill out Speakers Reports timely and to keep the TAP Staff informed was made in order to capture all outreach activities in future reports.

Travel arrangements are currently being made for the upcoming Annual Business Meeting in D.C., October 2-4, 2003.

Review/Approve Minutes from August 5, 2003 Meeting
Will be conducted during the next meeting (no quorum).

Action Items from Prior Meeting (August 5, 2003)
Program Analyst De Jesus confirmed the following completed/not accomplished action items:

As noted on page 2: Analyst provided Chair Balmer with a list of Area 2's open issues by Main Category and Subcategory.

As noted on page 3, Analyst posted the committees 2 recommendations on TAP Speak.

As noted on page 5, Program Manager Ferree did not have the opportunity to survey the tax professionals attending the 2003 Tax Forum in Atlanta, GA., on whether they are aware of the new “e-services” initiative and if so would they be inclined to use it.

As noted on page 5, Chair did share with Panel Member Gensiejewski the link to the “e-services” page.

As noted on page 6, Chair Balmer did not receive any responses from panel members who have access to AOL Instant Messaging.

Status Reports from Sub-committee Chairs

Subcommittee-Form 1041
Chair Patrick McCombie did not have any new information to share at this time and agreed to schedule a meeting in order to determine what are the next steps.

For the record: other members of this subcommittee are Meyer, DiMartino, and Mosley III.

McCombie mentioned the need to find out the value to the taxpayer if committee is to propose a modified Form 1041EZ. What would be the reduction of burden?

Subcommittee-W-4
Chair Bob Maziarz began by stating that he has been keeping everyone informed of his activities regarding the issue of replacing the amount to be withheld from wages on the W-4 form (Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate) with a percentage. Maziarz has been in contact with IRS Tax Specialist Ronald W. Gamble.

There was extensive conversation among the committee members and the following are highlights of what was discussed:

• It seems that there is nothing in the law that prohibits you from entering a percentage rather than a dollar amount on Line 6 of the W-4 form, “Additional amount, if any, you want withheld from each paycheck”. If there is agreement between the employer and the employee a percentage can be used rather than a dollar amount. It was noted that if you were to use the Form W-4P, Withholding Certificate for Pension or Annuity Payments, you could enter a percentage.
• There was also discussion about whether the issue brought forth to the committee was to recommend replacing the amount on Line 6 with a percentage, or if it was to recommend replacing the entire allowances method for withholding with a flat percentage. Chair Bob Maziarz will contact the taxpayer for clarification.
• While the committee agreed that replacing the entire allowances method for withholding with a flat percentage would be a good idea, and may serve to reduce taxpayer burden as many taxpayers find the W-4 Allowances worksheet confusing, the committee was not sure whether or not this would constitute a legislative or regulatory change.
• Panel member Faith Vinikoor stated that if it were in the regulations, Counsel would need to be contacted for advice. The committee requested that the TAP staff research this issue to identify whether it would be legislative or regulatory.
• Panel Member Gensiejewski, Jr. read from the Title 26, Internal Revenue Code, Subtitle C. Employment Taxes and Collection of Income Tax, code 3402. (a) 1. “In general. Except as otherwise provided in this section, every employer making payment of wages shall deduct and withhold upon such wages a tax determined in accordance with tables or computational procedures prescribed by the Secretary. Any tables or procedures prescribed under this paragraph shall….” Gensiejewski concluded that any suggestions from TAP concerning this particular issue would not be considered legislative.
• Panel member Steinberg supports a recommendation to replace the entire allowances method with a percentage.
• Panel member Dick Bobb asked: “How many persons does it affect?” The committee responded by saying they felt it would be a large number of taxpayers, but it would be difficult to confirm.
• Chair Balmer informed the committee that she had checked with the other Area Committee chairs that were working on various W-4 issues to ensure there would not be a duplication of efforts with respect to this particular issue, and had learned that no other committee was working this specific problem.
• Panel member Anthony DiMartino read to all the original issue submission from the taxpayer: “Caller would like to suggest a change to the W-4 form. He thinks there should be an option to have a percentage withheld. If income is sporadic, it's easier to ask for 10% of wages to be withheld.” The committee was still not sure whether the taxpayer was recommending the entire allowances approach be replaced with a flat percentage, or was recommending the additional amount to be withhold to be replaced with a percentage.

Action item(s): Research is to be conducted by Analyst De Jesus to verify if it is “regulatory” and to attempt to determine the number of taxpayers affected by it.

Program Analyst De Jesus is also to send Maziarz the contact information for the individual that brought this matter to the panel's attention in order to ask additional questions to this individual.

For the record: other members of this subcommittee are Edwards and Taylor.

Subcommittee-EFTPS: Panel Member Dick Bobb stated no additional information to be shared at this point since Sub-Chair Bob Taylor not available on this call.

Review of New Issue(s)
#2259 – Offer-in-Compromise (OIC) Processing Procedures-

Program Analyst De Jesus read the following issue:

“Enrolled Agent from New Jersey has a suggestion and would like feedback from the panel. She says that the OIC procedures need to be revised so that when an offer comes into the service centers, they immediately screen them to see if they are going to be worked in the Service Center or transferred to the field. She submitted an OIC for a client on December 2002, and was notified during the week of August 5, 2003, that the offer was beyond the experience of the examiner in the Service Center and would be transferred back to the field.”

Designated Federal Official Lou Romito explained the process of how offers are first screened for determination if they are processable or not. There is an issue regarding the number of offers received and the number of employees to process. Based on the complexity of an offer, it may require to be transferred to another site.

Panel Member Vinikoor stated there is definitely a problem. Although the IRS is aware of this and so is the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) as noted in the Report to Congress, Fiscal Year 2004 Objectives (pages 9 and 10).

Since there was no quorum to proceed with making a decision on whether to pursue this issue, Chair stated that this issue would be carried over and added to the next meeting's agenda. In the interim:

Action items for Program Analyst De Jesus:

1. For the benefit of the panel members absent, Inez is to post this issue on TAP Speak in the “discussion area”.
2. Then Inez is to send an email out only to the absentees advising them to please familiarize themselves with this issue and be ready to discuss during the next group meeting. A decision will be made on whether to pursue or drop this issue.
3. Prepare a response for Vice-Chair Meyer's review, to the Enrolled Agent that brought this matter to the panel's attention. Response should state that the NTA is monitoring the OIC program and that every effort is being made to improve the process.

Feedback on TAP Speak
Chair Balmer inquired and asked for input regarding how panel members felt about continuing to receive information via TAP Speak in lieu of emails. Chair interpreted silence to mean its okay.

The goal is to get everyone accessing TAP Speak and we will continue to use this approach for all communications.

Panel Member Steinberg expressed having problems accessing TAP Speak.

Program Manager Ferree made a note to follow-up and assist Steinberg and she suggested that in the interim he check with his server's technical support. Panel Member DiMartino shared also that at times he is timed out too soon. ( Action item for Program Manager Ferree)

Chair reminded all that the Annual Report has been posted.

Administrative News
DFO Romito announced that TAP Director Deryle J. Temple has moved on within the organization and is with the Systemic Advocacy (SAMS) team, in the Individual Advocacy area. Sandy Mc Quin, TAP Program Manager, from the Milwaukee office will be the Acting TAP Director until the position is filled.

Romito also shared that on SAMS, in the submit issues area, there are two input forms that submitters can use. One is for “external” and the other one is for “internal” submitters and he noticed that TAP is aligned with the internal just like IRS employees. This led to a brief discussion on TAP's independence from the IRS.

Program Manager Ferree reminded everyone that on Tuesday, September 9, 2003, from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm, EDT, “Tax Talk Today” will be hosting a live (free) webcast program entitled: “Professional Responsibility for Tax Practitioners”-1 CPE Credit. Chair noted that it can be viewed at a later date by requesting an archived version for those who may not be able to view it on September 9th. This lead to a discussion on how can TAP get on “Tax Talk Today” program. Ferree mentioned Les Witmer, former IRS employee and Public Affairs officer as being a lead person.

Ferree also mentioned that at one time CAP/TAP had a link to www.firstgov ** website.

Action item: Committee to discuss during next meeting whether they should write a recommendation requesting that TAP get on “Tax Talk Today” and or first.gov.

(**During the writing of these minutes, it was confirmed that this link is still available).

There was also mentioned that there is an internal issue regarding accessing Tax Talk Today from IRS computers since it is a drain on the network, others may have the same issue.

Public Input/Closing Assessment
Some panel members mentioned that they had not received hotel confirmations yet. Program Manager Ferree reassured everyone that this information is forthcoming and TAP Secretary Jenny Reyes will soon be contacting everyone that needs airline reservations.

Chair reminded the committee to please update their bios on TAP Speak.

Although a resident from D.C. registered to be on today's call as a public participant, she did not attend. For the record, she had learned about TAP when she recently attended the Tax Forum in Atlanta, GA.

Meeting adjourned timely.

Confirmation of next meeting:
General Annual Business Meeting, October 2-4, 2003, Washington, D.C.

Area 2 will be meeting as a committee on Saturday, October 4, 2003, from 8:30 a.m – Noon, EDT, conference room to be determined.