Area 2 Committee Meeting Minutes

Date: March 15, 2006
Via: Teleconference

Designated Federal Official

• Terry Mapp, LTA Philadelphia

Panel Members Present

• Bill Bly, Wayne, PA
• Paul Brubaker, York, PA
• Emilio Cecchi, N. Bethesda, MD
• Lee Congdon, Washington, DC
• JoAnn Davis, Scott Depot, WV
• Blanche Davis, Rehoboth Beach, DE
• Robert Haines, Lebanon, NJ
• Sonny Kasturi, West Orange NJ
• Paul McElroy, Pfafftown, NC
• Bessie Moore, Mt Laurel, NJ
• Martin Romeril, Bethlehem, PA
• Thomas (Steve) Rue, Mechanicsville, VA
• Lynwood Sinnamon, Arlington, VA
• James Tarpey, Sunset Beach, NC
• Elizabeth Warnecki, Ladson, SC
• Beadsie Woo, Durham, NC

Staff Present

• Nancy Ferree, TAP Manager
• Inez De Jesus, TAP Analyst

Guests

• Susan Diehl, Philadelphia, PA

Quorum
Quorum is met. (9)

Approval of prior meeting minutes
The minutes of February 15, 2006 were approved by consensus.

Update on Philadelphia Face-to- Face meeting
The meeting will be held June 22-24, 2006 in Philadelphia, PA. The meeting will begin during the afternoon of June 22nd. TAP Analyst Inez E. De Jesus will be handling the hotel reservations at the Holiday Inn, Historic District, in Philadelphia. TAP Secretary Jenny Reyes will contact everyone about travel arrangements approximately 30 days prior to the event. Terry Mapp confirmed she has reserved a training room at 600 Arch Street, Philadelphia. PA for June 22nd and June 23rd. This is a federal building so please bring a picture ID in order to enter the building. On Saturday morning, June 24th, the meeting will be held at the hotel. More information will follow soon. Please start thinking about the agenda, and what items you would like covered, as well as any subject matter experts that may be needed. There will be no teleconference call the month of the face-to-face meeting.

Review/Approve Proposals
Sonny led a discussion of the Schedule D & D-1 proposal. Sonny mentioned he did a cost savings estimate for this proposal. Sonny answered questions from the panel members. Some members made suggestions for improving the wording of the proposal. Further discussion ensued among panel members. Joann Davis suggested a re-wording of the goal statement. Inez made the changes. More discussion ensued. Sonny stated that this recommendation relates to reducing taxpayer burden, rather than costs. The group agreed by consensus to send the referral to the Joint Committee.

The next item discussed was “Timely Response Required” on Envelopes. The committee agreed by consensus to elevate this referral to the Joint Committee.

Sub-Committee Reports

• On Hold Wait Time: Lee Congdon outlined the viewpoint of the sub-committee. The next step is to work with IRS personnel to see what changes are planned for the next year. Paul McElroy may have a contact to discuss this issue with. Some of these issues are standard options for telephone systems. General observations made are:
  1. Providing wait time is an important feature
  2. Don’t offer the caller many options
  3. Resources are better utilized by providing more personnel to answer calls
  4. Remind the caller about IRS.gov.
  5. Give wait time in minutes
  6. Indicate there will be no more messages until the call is answered
  7. Repeated messages could be annoying
  8. Give a status update so the caller doesn’t think he has been hung up on
  9. During heavy call volume, modify the message to advise to call back some time in the future based on low call volume times
  10. Some features are trade offs. Routing to a person, may land the caller with someone who doesn’t know the answers
  11. A degree of consistency among all the toll free lines is a good thing.

  The goal is to elevate in April. The sub-committee will coordinate a time for the program owners to address the issues by email.

  Beadsie suggested everyone announce their name prior to speaking. Everyone agreed.

• Pub 393 Household Employment: Martin Romeril led the discussion. Three suggestions to handle the issue:
  1. The forms were reviewed and there is a box on the form to check if the filer will no longer need to file
  2. Another is to put the box on the front of the form at the top
  3. The instructions should be made clear that the household is the business for purposes of filing this form. Most persons who file this form do it voluntarily and need to have a clear and easy method of filing the form. Martin will type the form and route it through the quality committee. Sonny suggested that the completed form be sent to the sub-committee then to Inez. Everyone agreed.

Outreach Report
Paul McElroy reported that the February report is on TAPSPEAK. McElroy complimented members for outstanding outreach events this past month and in January. Even the new members are doing outreach. Lee attended a congresswoman’s event (Eleanor Holmes Norton sponsored a tax day with more than 800 attendees) and spoke to about 10% of the attendees.

General comments and Joint Committee Report
The TAP Charter has been updated and signed. Panel members will be given the option of two or three year terms. Please be sure to respond to the email from Bernie. New members will be asked their preference next year after completing their first year.

The town hall meetings are continuing. The next meeting is in Jackson MS.

Recruitment is beginning March 21, 2006. Interested persons may apply on line thru the TAP website. (www.improveirs.org) by no later than April 28, 2006.

The TAP Annual Meeting will be in Washington DC during the week of November 13, 2006. Everyone attends.

Panel Members will meet with the Commissioner – dates TBD.

Bru, Lee and Emilio attended the IRS Oversight Board meeting in Washington DC. Bru represented the TAP Chair.

The TAP Chair Training was held in San Diego, and was a great success. Evaluations were consolidated and will be put on TAPSPEAK. Pipeline training will be available to all members and may be presented at the Annual Meeting.

If anyone has trouble with TAPSPEAK, please contact Nancy Ferree who will help.

Joint Cmte meetings—two face-to-face meetings. The chairs of each committee attend. The vice chairs attend if the chairs cannot.

Members can reference the federal travel website for information on available flights. www.fedtravel.com/gsa. Nancy will send the website to everyone.

Screening Committee
Emilio led the discussion regarding the recommendations of the screening committee. Paul reviewed the ground rules. After each issue is discussed, the committee will advise by consensus if there is agreement on the issue recommendation.

New Issue: 3743 –Form W-9 & LLC instructions- more information needed. Hold for next month screening committee.
Issue 3746- Dependency validity- exemption for the child. Drop this issue as this is not a TAP issue.
Issue 3747- Improve electronic filing – notate as Active
Issue 3757- K 1 Form to the taxpayer- Drop this issue as not a customer service issue
Issue 3735- State income tax treatment by IRS- Not an issue, Drop.
Issue 3736- Revise the EFTPS registration process--Active
Issue 3740- OIC appeals process- to be reviewed at the next screening meeting
Issue 3742- Private letter rulings user fees- move to the next screening meeting.
Issue 3228- e-filing alternatives & interactive forms- There were objections to dropping this issue and it was decided that it would be reviewed next month by the screening committee.

The remaining issues are moved to the next month’s agenda. Paul thanked the screening committee for the great job they did.

Guest
Ms. Diehl asked about how to bring up issues. Paul advised to call in to the toll free line, or email. Issues can also be input to the TAP website. www.improveirs.org.

The chair requested everyone please prepare the meeting survey form.

Emilio requested everyone please review the issues on TAPSPEAK prior to the meeting, so the process will go quickly. Emilio will prepare an email to everyone for their information.

The meeting was closed.

The next teleconference meeting is scheduled for April 19, 2006, at 2:30 PM ET.

These minutes were approved by the TAP Area 2 Committee on April 19, 2006.