Area 2 Committee Meeting Minutes

Date: August 3, 2004 (3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET)
Via: Teleconference

Roll call was taken by TAP Program Analyst Inez E. De Jesus
Quorum=8

Quorum was met; 8 members and the Designated Federal Official (DFO) were present on this call.

Designated Federal Official (Acting)

• Terry L. Mapp

Panel Members Present

• Mary Balmer, NC
• Richard (Dick) Bobb, NC
• Anthony DiMartino, Acting Chair, NJ
• Karen Kerrigan, VA
• Patrick McCombie, DE
• Theodore Perros, D.C.
• Leonard Steinberg, NJ
• Faith Vinikoor, Co Vice-Chair, MD

Members Not Present

• C. Morgan Edwards, NC
• Jerry Gensiejewski Jr., PA
• Calvin Johnson, VA
• Robert Maziarz, NJ
• David L. Meyer, NJ

TAP Staff

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

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda
Anthony DiMartino opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and by announcing that he will be chairing today’s meeting since David Meyer is on vacation.

Joint Committee News
DiMartino shared the following information based on the Joint Committee’s July 20, 2004 teleconference meeting (and at times DiMartino relied on Steinberg since Steinberg participated on this call):

• TAP Director has requested that TAP have no meetings in October 2004 since the staff will be busy preparing for the national meeting in November, and a number of panel members will not be available since their term ends on September 30, 2004.- Steinberg stated that he believes that he and Bob Meldman are the only chairs that are not remaining. In addition, the chairs terms have been extended to include the national meeting.
• The Joint Committee will have a short meeting in October and Barbara Toy will soon be sending out an email on the annual meeting.
• Program Manager Nancy Ferree clarified that an email had been sent out to all panel members from Mary Ann Delzer requesting feedback and suggested agenda items from all members regarding the upcoming annual meeting. Calendar notes for members staying for the third year are annotated in this email. Steinberg found the email and read it to all, and promised to send it to Karen Kerrigan who had indicated she had not received it. Action item for Steinberg: to forward this email to Karen Kerrigan.
• DiMartino also shared that a draft exit interview form is being discussed and reviewed by the Joint Committee.
• The Joint Committee has requested that the Program Managers inform the analysts to start tracking their issue committee’s recommendations and perform any necessary follow-ups.
• DiMartino inquired if anyone had not received the TAP Annual Report and there was no response. Leonard expressed his appreciation to Patti Robb, Milwaukee Office TAP Secretary, for preparing the TAP Annual Report for publishing.
• The message on the Refund Check Envelope was briefly shared with the panel.
• One of the Joint Committees’ action items is to change the name of Earned Income Tax Credit Committee (EITC) to Earned Income Credit (EIC) Committee.
• The Outsourcing Tax Preparation Issue proposed by Area 3 with one member objecting and submitting a minority report led to a discussion among the Area 2 committee. Perros shared that the television program “60 Minutes” recently had a feature on Outsourcing. Steinberg shared that during the Joint Committee meeting that he, and Bob Meldman shared their views that this is not within the TAP’s mission and also David Meyer had expressed that this issue was getting close to being legislative and would require a legislative regulatory change.
• DiMartino inquired what was meant by “What’s on TAP”- and Nancy responded that it is a newsletter created by Area 4 and it is being considered to be used nation-wide or area by area.

Steinberg requested that “if you have any issues you want to bring to the Joint Committee’s attention” for when they hold their face-to-face meeting in Denver in September, please bring them to David or his attention. Action item for the entire committee- agenda items for Joint Committee’s face-to-face meeting.

Review/approve meeting minutes of July 13, 2004
The minutes were approved unanimously.

Review all Action Items from Previous Meeting
Inez reported the following updates:

• On Page 3, DFO Mapp requested that the committee allow time for the staff to obtain information on what outside focus groups are being used by the IRS to review revised forms and/or publications. Still an open action item for Inez— Inez shared that she has made inquiries and is awaiting a response.
• On Page 5, The “Evaluation Survey-on Lessons Learned during the Past 2 Years-that May be Shared with Future TAP Committees” project coordinated by Dick Bobb, which entails a summary of responses received by this committee and the preparation of a draft recommendation to be elevated to the Joint Committee has been tabled to the September 2004 meeting. Still an open action item.
• On Page 5, “to add Publication 4255, IRS Tax Help Insert, to the August 3, 2004 teleconference meeting agenda has been done.
• On Page 6, TAP Communication Strategy, done, Inez did re-send the June 16, 2004, email to the entire committee, requesting that they review and forward their responses directly to the Chair by no later than July 19th.
• On Page 6, Response to Congress-Simplify Tax Code, done, this subject matter was added to the August 3, 2004 meeting agenda.
• On Page 7, for the record, 1) Mr. Weinstein did send as promised the specific information regarding the Notices and the telephone numbers referenced on each notice that he had referenced earlier. 2) Inez shared that she was able to do some research and concludes that Mr. Weinstein’s concerns are related to the “Toll Free Automated Routing Process”. She explained how the assistors reached on the IRS’ toll free numbers are not always available to address issues immediately based on their expertise. Tony DiMartino stated that just recently he had this experience and that after his call was routed accordingly, he received the assistance he needed. 3) Inez also referenced the IRS Strategic Plan for 2005-2009 and the National Taxpayer Advocate’s 2002 and 2003 Report to Congress which addresses how the IRS has on its radar screen ways to provide improvements in the area of “providing tools to ensure accurate, timely and accessible responses to tax law and account issues and inquires” are made. 4) Vinikoor made an inquiry on what specifically was the Practitioner looking for and DFO Mapp responded that she had a copy of the letter he sent to Inez and it seems that he wanted to be able to reach someone immediately on the toll free number that could address his issue. 5) New action item as the result of this discussion: TAP Program Manager Nancy L. Ferree will prepare response to the Practitioner from Maryland and then share the draft response with the committee chair, and panel for their approval. (Issue #3139)
• On Page 7, the update - face-to-face meeting has been added to today’s meeting. (Done).

Status Report(s) from Sub-Committee Chairs
McCombie reported on the issue, Simplifying the Form 1041, and stated that since the last meeting he distributed draft among the sub-committee members and had received responses back from DiMartino and Vinikoor. Vinikoor asked for additional information. Ferree responded to a question McCombie had related to the TAP Mission Statement: “if the committee makes a recommendation to the IRS, the staff conducts the research if needed, and the committee does not have to tell the IRS how to do it. The IRS evaluates the recommendation and gives it to the appropriate program owner.”

Faith suggested that examples be used. McCombie stated that within a week or so, a draft will go out and the next step will be to present it to the entire committee. Action item for McCombie.

Outreach Efforts
Nancy Ferree stated that she will be sharing outreach opportunities with the DFO, Committee Chair, and Panel. She suggested it would be a good practice for the panel to contact their local Taxpayer Advocate Service offices. Most advocates are aware of TAP and its mission. If assistance is needed from the staff, please don’t hesitate to do so. It is the staff’s responsibility to make sure that outreach opportunities are made available to the panels.

Nancy shared that the following are upcoming events, and if there is an interest from any Area 2 member, please let it be known to her or to Inez:

• IRS offers Practitioner Seminar-in Spartanburg, SC, on September 21, 2004.
• “Working Together Conference”- is a partnership of public and private tax professionals in which practitioner groups jointly sponsor an annual conference with IRS and the PA Department of Revenue.
  September 24, 2004.

Leonard Steinberg shared that on August 23, 2004, he will be attending the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA), New Jersey Chapter, meeting in Springfield, NJ, whereby he will also be addressing TAP.

Inez reminded everyone to please keep her informed of their outreach activities so that it may all be captured in the committee’s annual report.

Review of New Issues
Inez read the new Issue #3123, which had been received on August 3, 2004, from a Citizen from Maryland:

“Taxpayer said he got a notice that he had made an error on his tax return and that he owed money. He sent in a payment, but two months later he got another notice saying that he still owed the money. It took over two months for the payment to get posted to his account. This is very stressful and causes a lot of frustration. The system needs to be fixed. He also feels that the name Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is too close to Taxpayer Advocate Service and causes confusion. The Panel’s name should be changed.” (For the record, since this issue had 2 separate suggestions, a separate number has been assigned to the TAP Name Change, # 3141.)

This led to the following dialogue among the members:

• Steinberg: “Did the taxpayer send check by certified return receipt”? Steinberg shared that he recommends to his clients that they do so.
• Taxpayers sometimes get notices from the IRS stating that payment was not received but the bank shows that the IRS did cash the check.
• Recent New York Post article stated that many banks will only give you a copy of the front part of the check and not the back part of the check which has pertinent information that the IRS needs in order to trace a payment.
• At one point, Program Manager Ferree reminded all that focus should be on TAP’s mission and not on advising banks how to operate.
• Action item for Analyst De Jesus: Ferree asked: 1)“ How many of these type of calls or issues are we getting? “ Research is required- statistics are needed- we can not react to just one call. DFO Mapp stated that these statistics are available. 2) Did the taxpayer place his or her social security number or employer identification number on the check and indicate which period he or she wanted it applied to? DFO Mapp stated that in order to do a “payment tracer”- the front and back of the check is what is used. In the Taxpayer Advocate Service Office, this is how problems like these are corrected and resolved.
• Dick Bobb stated that a taxpayer should not have to pay extra monies to send mail/checks by certified return receipt.
• Vinikoor asked “How is the IRS to know what is in an envelope?”.
• It is not always an IRS problem. This may be an isolated incident.
• Conclusion: DiMartino volunteered to respond back to the taxpayer.

Response to Congress — Simplify Tax Code
Vinikoor stated that she would pass on this for now. Primarily she has a question for Chair David Meyer on this matter which she will follow-up on. For the record, Nancy Ferree had shared with the committee “Legislative Affairs Tidbits” for the week of May 31, 2004. It detailed the following:

“The House June 2 passed (418-0) H.R. 4109 which requires the IRS to develop a new simplified tax form for use by taxpayers age 65 or over. Seniors would be allowed to use the new form regardless of their taxable income and would be able to report Social Security benefits, distributions from a qualified retirement plan, annuity, or other deferred payment arrangement, interest or dividends, and capital gains or losses on the new form. The form would be available for tax year 2005.”

Publication 4255, IRS Tax Help Insert
Steinberg requested that this issue be tabled till next month’s meeting. Action item for Inez: carry-over to next month’s agenda.

Update on Face-to-Face Meeting
Nancy shared that at the request of Chair David Meyer (while Inez was on vacation) she sent an email out to the entire committee requesting feedback regarding:

1. Interest in having a Area 2 face-to-face meeting,
2. Preference for a location for the meeting (previous location was Washington, D.C
3. Availability to attend the face-to-face meeting
4. The preferred date, at this point, the target date is August 27 and 28, 2004 — travel on the 26th and the 28th
5. Notation, that if we are not able to get a quorum, we will not be able to hold the meeting

Responses received indicated that the majority said yes and were available, but she wanted to share the following information: DFO Mapp, Analyst De Jesus and Nancy Ferree are not available to attend during these dates. She questioned whether a face-to-face meeting could be coordinated within such a short time frame. She had looked at the TAP Master Calendar, and took into consideration that many members will be attending their issue committee face-to-face meetings.

Vinikoor inquired jokingly if it would be possible to get brownie points for next year and have a face-to-face early in the year and another one later on. This was followed by a comment from Perros, “does TAP give out bonuses”.

Conclusion: Timing is not good now. After discussion among the members, it was agreed upon by consensus, that they will pass on holding a face-to-face meeting and believed that business can still be conducted via teleconference meeting. No one opposed.

News from the Staff
Inez informed the committee that the IRS Strategic Plan 2005-2009 has been ordered for all, and that if anyone did not want to receive the hard copy to please let her know. Based on no responses received, DiMartino reaffirmed that Inez will be sending publication out to all as soon as the order arrives. Action item for Inez.

(On August 2, 2004, Leonard Steinberg had sent out the link to all when the IRS Strategic Plan was announced: http://www.irs.gov/irs/content/0,,id=101098,00.html )

Nancy shared that from now on the staff will be fully involved with the coordination of the Annual Meeting. She reminded everyone that if they had any issues they wanted added to the agenda to please respond to TAP Program Manager Judi Nicholas’ email since Ms. Nicholas is the contact person.

Public Participation/Input
None

Closing Assessment
The “Evaluation Survey” project has been tabled till the next meeting.

DiMartino asked the panel whether anyone else besides Faith and himself have had the opportunity to participate with the interviewing of prospective new panel members. He went on to share that the quality of the candidates was excellent and he found himself hard-pressed to make a choice. He was very impressed with the caliber of the candidates.

Perros asked Steinberg in reference to the Joint Committee’s Chicago meeting Leonard had shared information on before, and the W-4 issue that the Payroll Taxes Issue Committee is currently addressing, that he strongly believes there should be a “Standing Committee to Review IRS Forms and Publications” and that it be made available for new panel members. Steinberg responded that the TAP Director, Bernie Coston, supports this idea. Leonard reminded everyone again to please share their ideas. DiMartino said he endorses this concept as well. This also relates to Issue #2389, “Improve Communications to Taxpayers” which Perros has brought to Area 2’s attention.

When Perros made a statement about a large sum of delinquent taxes that are not being collected, Ferree responded that when you look at all reports either from the Commissioner of the IRS or from the National Taxpayer Advocate, all resources are going to “Enforcement”.

DiMartino thanked everyone for their participation and to the staff. DiMartino also confirmed next meeting: September 7, 2004 at 3:00 PM ET — it was also noted that this will be the committee’s last meeting for this fiscal year.

The Area 2 Committee reviewed and approved these meeting minutes by consensus on September 7, 2004.