Area 2 Committee Meeting Minutes

January 6, 2004
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM EST
Teleconference

Roll call was taken by TAP Program Analyst Inez E. De Jesus.

Quorum is 9, 11 members participated and the Acting Designated Federal Official (DFO).

Panel Members Present

• Mary Balmer, Vice-Chair, NC
• Richard (Dick) Bobb, NC
• Anthony DiMartino, NJ
• Nancy L. Ferree, Acting DFO
• Karen Kerrigan, VA
• Robert Maziarz, NJ
• Patrick McCombie, DE
• David Meyer, Chair, NJ
• Manning H. Mosley III, PA
• Theodore Perros, D.C.
• Leonard Steinberg, NJ
• Faith Vinikoor, MD

Members Not Present

• C. Morgan Edwards, NC
• Jerry Gensiejewski Jr., PA
• Calvin Johnson, VA
• Robert Taylor, PA

TAP Staff

• Inez E. De Jesus (Scribe)

Welcome/Announcements
Vice-Chair Mary Balmer opened the meeting by welcoming everyone.

Since DFO Lou Romito retired on January 2, 2004, TAP Program Manager Nancy Ferree will be the acting DFO for Area 2 until further notice.

Panel Member Perros suggested that a letter of appreciation be sent out to the former DFO acknowledging the committee's gratitude for his support. Committee was in agreement. Action item: Meyer will draft the letter.

Chair Meyer shared his concerns regarding the current budget restrictions the Treasury/IRS is experiencing due to the growing deficit, and expressed that “we should be more sensitive to cost constraints when planning our face-to-face meetings”. After committee discussed the pros and cons, it resulted in that the location of the June 11 and 12, 2004, face-to-face meeting will be held in Washington, D.C., and not S.C. as previously discussed. Also, it was confirmed that the March 2004 teleconference meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 2, 2004 from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm ET instead of March 5th as previously noted. Action item: TAP Program Analyst De Jesus will ensure that all the TAP calendars are updated accordingly annotating these 2 changes.

Committee discussed District Counsel's response to the W-4 issue to the question:

“If by allowing the taxpayer to enter a percentage rather than a dollar value, would this require a change in the regulations or would it simply be a change in the interpretation of Code Section 3402”. Response: “it would require a change in the regulations”.

Committee decided to pursue this issue and elevate it to the Joint Committee and the sub-committee will begin to write up the proposal to recommend that a change be made to line 6 on the Form W-4, whereby the option to use a percentage rather than a dollar amount be available. Action item: Maziarz will draft the recommendation and Perros will review/edit it.

Review/approve minutes from meeting on December 2, 2003
These minutes were reviewed and approved by consensus.

Action items from Prior Meeting(s)
Program Analyst Inez E. De Jesus reported the following:

• Issue # 37- “Treatment by IRS Employee” was closed on 12/04/2003.
• Issue # 599- “Taxpayer Had Problems Determining Balance Due to IRS (Direct Debit Installment Agreement – DDIA) was closed on 12/11/2003.
• Issue # 1490-“Improved Telephone Service by Private Consultant” was closed on 12/05/2003.
• Issue # 1531- “Paragraph about TAP in IRS Publications” – issue has been placed in “parking lot” status.
• Issue # 2074-“Practitioner Assistance at S.C. Taxpayer Assistance Center” was closed on 12/11/2003.
• Issue #2126- “Improve Menu Choices on Toll-Free Number Given on Notices” was closed on 12/05/2003.
• Analyst mailed, as requested, to Chair Meyer, copies of the 2 letters received from the citizen from S.C regarding Issue # 2115, “Suggestion to Improve Form 1040 NR Instructions (U.S. Non-Resident Alien Income Tax Return)

Action items that are still pending:

1. Bobb & Edwards: will get together to address the issue of getting the citizens/taxpayers from N.C. and S.C. knowledgeable of TAP's existence and mission.
2. De Jesus: to continue to make contact with Subject Matter Expert on Form 1041 and inform him of change of face-to-face meeting location and other date change. Analyst reminded everyone that this individual will not be available until after February 2004.

Review Goals/Objectives for Second Year Term
Chair Meyer suggested the committee address what is important. This resulted in the following discussions:

• Make IRS Forms/Informational Bulletins user-friendlier- Perros suggested that perhaps the staff might be able to arrange a meeting with someone who prepares informational bulletins for the IRS. (Cross-reference Issue #2389)
• Balmer suggested that it is important to focus more on outreach and getting the word out that TAP exists and what its function is.
• Acting DFO Ferree suggested that during the upcoming “Recruitment” period for new panel members would be an excellent opportunity for the members to assist with the marketing of the TAP program.
• Reaching out to local homeowner's associations and civic groups are also great avenues for getting the word out.
• Making contact with the local Taxpayer Advocate Service and the local Low Income Tax Clinics (LITCs) in order to be kept abreast of upcoming events that the panel can partner with are other avenues. Action item: Analyst De Jesus is to share with the panel the latest list of LITC's locations (Publication 4134).
• Being informed of IRS activities like the Tax Forums is another avenue for doing outreach efforts.
• This is an excellent time to begin outreach since it's the beginning of the tax season.
• Liaison with community newspapers. Since folks don't know that TAP exists, therefore, we are not getting issues to address.

In conclusion, the committee agreed that it would focus this coming year on engaging in more extensive outreach to better educate the public on TAP and continue to work on grassroots issues.

Status Reports from Sub-committee Chairs
Simplification of Form 1041 Issue- Sub-Chair McCombie will be setting up a sub-committee meeting soon in order to move forward with the recommendation to simplify the 1041 form or instructions. Action item for McCombie

McCombie stated that he has been waiting to hear from the Subject Matter Expert (SME) and analyst reminded everyone that SME will not be available until after February 2004 since he is currently tied up with the issuance and updating of IRS forms and publications.

Vinikoor mentioned that she had a few questions regarding the line-by-line breakdown of the report received from the IRS Economist on the 2002 1041 RTF.

Di Martino thanked Steinberg for the information that he shared with the committee on this same subject matter. Steinberg mentioned that he receives this type of data from “Quick Tax Finders Publishers”.

Vinikoor also mentioned that working on this issue ties in closely with Chair Meyer's objective for the committee to address how to make forms simpler.

CP-2000 Notices Issue
DiMartino shared with the committee that he had discussed this issue during his most recent meeting with the Notice Issue Committee and they agreed that this issue should be addressed by them. (Program Analyst Jim Cesarano will assist also with this issue). The Subject Matter Expert that the TAP Staff had tried to obtain will not be needed at this point. Committee agreed. Action item: De Jesus is to forward this issue to the Notice Issue Committee.

EFTPS Recommendation
After reviewing the draft recommendation prepared by Dick Bobb, the committee agreed by consensus that this issue is ready to be elevated to the Joint Committee. The essence of this recommendation is that the Electronic Filing Telephone Prompts System (EFTPS) does not differentiate between Calendar year-end and Fiscal year-end taxpayers. Action item: De Jesus will formalize this issue and ensure that it is incorporated into the Chair's monthly report to the Joint Committee.

Revisit “Elevated” Telephone Issue- Action item: Chair Meyer will address this during the next teleconference meeting.

Brainstorm Outreach Efforts

• Balmer mentioned that she and Perros are scheduled to attend on January 17, 2004, the Tri-State Enrolled Agents Seminar in Virginia, where they will be doing TAP outreach in conjunction with the Local Taxpayer Advocate.
• Balmer attended during the past month at Virginia Tech an outreach event where she had the opportunity to spread the word of TAP's existence.
• Vinikoor mentioned that she attended a Practitioner Seminar in Maryland, which turned out to be very successful despite the adverse weather condition. She was able to distribute TAP marketing materials at this event.
• Both Balmer and Vinikoor agreed that there still seems to be some confusion out there on the different functions of TAP vs. TAS (Taxpayer Advocate Service).
• DiMartino inquired on “how do we find out about these events?” and the response received was: “Contact your local advocate”.
• Perros shared that at many of the meetings he attends; he makes sure to speak about TAP. He inquired what type of questions the others got when they interacted with the public, and the response received was that the public wanted to know what the accomplishments of the TAP are so far.
• It was discussed that during outreach events there is not too much feedback received from the public.
• Mosley III mentioned VITA Program (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) as another outreach opportunity for all. The VITA sites are available on the IRS website.
• Bobb shared that last year he had been approached by a local radio station in N.C., and since it's the beginning of the tax season they recently contacted him again and he is scheduled to participate during the end of February 2004 tentatively.
• All agreed that it is a good idea to stay in contact with their local advocates, LITC's, and Media Specialists

Review of New Issues
None

Low Income Tax Clinic's Conference Report
Vinikoor shared she had attended the recent LITC National Conference in D.C., during early December 2003, and learned that the LITC Director Randy Swartz encourages the TAP to partner with their local LITC's.

Administrative News
None

Public Input/Closing Assessment
No public participation during this call. Chair adjourned the meeting and thanked everyone for their input and participation.

Confirm next meeting: February 3, 2004 at 3:00 PM ET.

*These minutes were approved by consensus by the Area 2 Committee on February 3, 2004.(ied)