Area 2 Committee Meeting Minutes

June 22-24, 2006
Face-to-Face Meeting
Philadelphia, PA

Day #1, June 22, 2006- IRS Federal Building,
Conference Room A

Designated Federal Official

• Terry L. Mapp, Philadelphia Local Taxpayer Advocate (Absent on 06/24/06)

Members Present

• Bill Bly, Wayne, PA
• Paul Brubaker, York, PA
• Emilio Cecchi, North Bethesda, MD, Vice-Chair
• Lee Congdon, Washington, DC (Absent on 06/22/06)
• Blanche Davis, Rehoboth Beach, DE
• Jo Ann Davis, Scott Depot, WV
• Robert Haines, Lebanon, NJ
• Sonny Kasturi, West Orange, NJ
• Paul McElroy, Pfafftown, NC, Chair
• Martin Romeril, Bethlehem, PA
• Lynwood Sinnamon, Arlington, VA
• James Tarpey, Sunset Beach, NC
• Elizabeth Warnecki, Ladson, SC
• Lillian (Beadsie) Woo, Durham, NC

Members Absent

• Bessie Moore, Mt. Laurel, NJ

Guests

• Linda M. Adams, Aspect Systems Administrator, Philadelphia, PA
• Richard Furlong, Senior Stakeholder Liaison, Mid-Atlantic Area

Staff Present

• Inez E. De Jesus, TAP Program Analyst & Note Taker
• John Fay, TAP Senior Program Analyst
• Nancy L. Ferree, TAP Program Manager

Welcome and Announcements
Chair Paul McElroy opened the meeting by welcoming everyone.

DFO Terry Mapp welcomed the TAP Area 2 Committee to the City of Philadelphia where she is the Local Taxpayer Advocate, and pointed out the display she had for all present on “Historical Philadelphia” plus goodies representative of Philadelphia. DFO Mapp also introduced James Jacob, Program Analyst, from her staff that had been very instrumental in the coordination of this meeting.

Mapp also introduced Richard Furlong, Senior Stakeholder Liaison for the Mid-Atlantic States who stopped by to greet the committee. Mr. Furlong has been instrumental by inviting this committee to the annual “Working Together” conference at Philadelphia University during the past few years. The “Working Together” Conference is a joint effort of public and private tax professionals; it promotes the on-going relationship between the tax practitioner community and two taxing agencies. Mr. Furlong shared that this committee is welcomed to review the issues from IMRS (Issue Management Resolution System).

The IMRS is similar to the SAMS, Systemic Advocacy Management System.

Recruitment Updates
Nancy Ferree and John Fay jointly shared that the Recruitment for new panel members has started. In total, 780 applications were received. According to the cut-off score, there are 90 interviews scheduled for area 2; this is for members and alternate vacancies. An email was sent out for soliciting volunteers to participate with the upcoming interviews. The goal is to complete the interview process by the end of July 2006.

Roll Call
Quorum of 9 was met; 13 members were present. Each member introduced themselves.

Review/Approve Meeting Minutes- May 17, 2006
The minutes from the previous meeting were approved by consensus.

National Office Representative Comments-John Fay
Senior Analyst expressed TAP Director’s Bernie Coston regrets at not being able to attend the area 2 face-to-face meeting, and John Fay was glad to be here and see many familiar faces.

John Fay also shared that regarding Recruitment this year there has been a lot of interest shown from the public. Marketing was very successful. There is a good balance and representation of taxpayers at large. The goal is to have the selections made so that the new members can attend the TAP annual meeting in DC, December 11-14, 2006. Keep in mind that the selections need to be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Fay also shared that National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson was very pleased with the Town Hall Meetings.

The TAP is addressing the issue of the actual hours volunteers spend on TAP work. There has been a loss of membership due to time commitments. This year emphasis will be made on time commitment during the interview process. The reality is that it is more like 500 hours than 300. The interview panelists will be probing prospective applicants to be sure that they can do it. Brubaker requested for an estimate of area 2 members time they spend on TAP activities.

Jo Ann Davis suggested that the interviewees be made aware that they will have to put money up front when they do traveling for TAP, and then be reimbursed afterwards. All agreed that this is a good point.

Joint Committee Briefing
No news at this time. The JC face-to-face meeting is scheduled for next week in Denver, June 29 – July 1, 2006.

Regarding the Commissioners’ issues, Area 6 is taking the lead on the confidentiality of taxpayer’s information being shared. (Issue 3868)

The committee agreed to schedule their October & November 2006 teleconferences, and the dates are as follows:

• October 18, 2006 at 2:30 PM ET
• November 15, 2006 at 2:30 PM ET

The TAP Master Calendar will be updated accordingly.

TAP 06-003 Schedule D and D-1 Consolidation- Nancy L. Ferree
Ferree informed everyone that this issue has already been addressed. Sonny Kasturi stated that Area 2 had insisted on elevating the issue even though there was a disagreement with the answer to Question #5.

Action item for Ferree: Coordinate a teleconference meeting between Bob Erickson, Senior Technical Advisor, Tax Forms and Publications and the Area 2 subcommittee (Kasturi, Brubaker, Sinnamon, and Warnecki).

Meeting Objectives
Chair McElroy reviewed the agenda, and it was accepted.

This led to the following discussions:

• Bill Bly addressed the Burden Reduction occurrence.
• Sonny Kasturi suggested that issues be moved quicker.

Review/Approve Proposals

1. Issue 3702, Revise Pub 393, Household Employment-
   Goal Statement: To clarify IRS instructions to state that taxpayers need not file if they no longer have household employees, and to clarify the terms “Household” and “Business” used to identify who must file. This issue was approved by the committee by consensus and it will be sent to the Quality Review team after Beadsie Woo makes some corrections.
   
2. Issue 3736, Revise Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) Registration Process
   Goal Statement: To encourage individual taxpayer’s participation in the EFTPS, the IRS needs to make registering uncomplicated and allow immediate access just as is extended to businesses. This issue was approved by the committee by consensus.

Telephone/On Hold Wait Time (Issue 3685) Subject Matter Expert-Linda Adams, Aspect System Administrator
Ms. Adams made a presentation before the committee on the “Enterprise Queue” a new system that begins on September 1, 2006. The Enterprise Queue will provide the platform where telephone customers will be held in a central queue until an agent becomes available. This will improve customer service and speed up the answering of calls to the right agent that can address the caller’s concerns. The caller will be told how long they will have to wait.

Abandoned calls were discussed among panel members and Ms. Adams. John Fay stated that studies have been done by contractors in the past. What are the best business practices that IRS may learn from?

Action/Follow-up: When testing of this new system occurs, can TAP be involved?

Action item for Linda Adams: Provide the panel with the Call Control Tables for PPS and 1040 if permissible.

The committee decided by consensus to place this issue in Parking lot status for now and Lee Congdon volunteered to monitor the implementation of the Enterprise Queue system.

The committee expressed their appreciation for the information shared by Ms. Adams.

Review 2005 Annual Report- Lyn Sinnamon & Elizabeth Warnecki
Lyn Sinnamon opened the discussion by asking the members how many had read this report and/or have used it as an outreach tool? The goal is to improve the 2006 document.

Sinnamon’s motion to the Joint Committee:

• TAP Director be given the opportunity to include the names of the IRS Staff (19 support staff)
• TAP Issue- compile with Charter successes.
• More success stories should be included.
• Summary of financials not mentioned.

The area 2 committee provided support to Lyn Sinnamon by consensus.

Action item for Lyn Sinnamon: Lyn will draft a paragraph with the proposed recommendation that will be forwarded to the Joint Committee. It will read as follows:

“The Area 2 Committee resolves that the TAP Chair and the members of the Joint Committee prepare an annual report that complies with the requirements of the TAP Charter that reports on the efforts of the TAP volunteers, the IRS full time equivalents assigned to TAP, and the IRS funds used by TAP. The TAP Director would be encouraged to recognize the IRS staff that supports TAP by name.

This report would go to the offices named in the TAP Charter and be posted on TAPSpeak and www.improveirs.org.

The Joint Committee would then extract the appropriate material from the report for a document that recognizes the volunteers, the TAP IRS professionals, and the successes for the year for a marketing document that could be used for outreach and recruiting.”

Wrap Up of Day One
Brubaker spoke briefly about the Commissioner’s issues.

Questions arose about how many volunteers have left TAP.

Action item for John Fay: Fay will obtain this information and share it with the area 2 committee.

Questions arose also on whether TAP was addressing those who are not engaged.

Chair adjourned the meeting.

Day #2, June 23, 2006-IRS Federal Building,
Conference Room A

Roll call- Confirm Quorum
Quorum of 9 was met; 14 members were present

Administrative
None

Screening Committee-Goals & Procedures- Emilio Cecchi
Emilio Cecchi led the dialogue regarding the current procedures conducted when new issues were received. He welcomed comments and suggestions from all. The current screening committee members are: Cecchi, Bly, J. Davis, Congdon, and Tarpey. Highlights from the discussion were as follows:

• Is the screening committee needed? Can we expedite the process? What can be done to accelerate the proposals to the Joint Committee?

• The fact that area 2 had a high number of issues in parking lot status for a while. All agreed that there should be a periodic review of issues in this status. Action item for Cecchi: will send out an email to all with the prioritization of the issues in Parking lot status – from high, medium and low.

• All agreed by consensus that preliminary research is necessary before it is presented to the screening committee. Inez is to continue to follow this guideline.

• All agreed by consensus that the screening committee is needed and appreciation was expressed for the work done so far.

• The screening committee is usually held a week before the monthly call and as always, everyone is invited to participate in addition to the current screening committee members.

• There were no new issues as of June 21, 2006.

• The screening committee is committed to ensure that the issues accepted are in consistent with the TAP mission.

• The screening committee will continue to make recommendations to the entire committee. Prioritization will be looked at on a monthly basis.

• There will be a rotating of screening committee members in order to give everyone the opportunity to participate.

For the record, the Quality Review team is composed of: Sinnamon, J. Davis and Tarpey

Actual Screening Committee Meeting Led by Emilio Cecchi
The following are “new issues” that were reviewed and the entire committee agreed by consensus on the following decision(s) to either drop it, make it active or place it in parking lot status; this was an exercise conducted by the screening committee whereby everyone participated with the process:

1. Issue 3915, Transmission of Supporting Details in E-filed Returns – was returned for further review; Status: Accepted - “Parking”
   
2. Issue 3887, Disclosure, Who Claimed My Child? Status: “Drop/Close it.”
   
3. Issue 3925, Option for Access to Person on IRS Toll-Free Lines, Status: “Active” – the following members worked afterwards during this meeting in the creation of a proposal: Brubaker, Congdon, B. Davis, Romeril, and Sinnamon. This issue was also combined with Issues 3685 and 3941.
   
4. Issue 3944, Tax Treatment of Securities Litigation Settlement, Status: Accepted- “Parking”- Action for Inez: research to see if there had been any changes made to the tax law?
   
5. Issue 3945, Distribution of Forms at TAC Offices, Recommendation to drop this issue- Status: “New,” return to the screening committee to review again; Kasturi had suggested that a letter be written to the IRS since there are some taxpayers who don’t have personal computers. Kiosk may be a solution or have forms available at local libraries. Kiosks are usually located where there are no IRS offices.
   
6. Issue 3946, Filing of Charitable Remainder Trusts, Status: “New” return to the screening committee to review again; R. Haines submitted this issue; the committee discussed that the issue of combining Forms 5227 and 1041 was not to redesign the form but just to let the IRS know why do they have 2 forms that are basically the same. Action item for Ferree, and Cecchi – obtain Subject Matter Expert via Sue Sottile.
   
7. Issue 3948, Form 944, Change Threshold, Status: “Parking”- this is a new procedure that requires monitoring.
   
8. Issue 3949, Eliminate Form 2553, Status: “Drop/Close it”
   
9. Issue 3951, Pubs 560 & 590 Instructions-Simple IRA Rules, Status: Accept it, “Parking Lot”
   
10. Issue 3952, E-file and Direct Deposit 2006- Good for Seniors?- Status: “New” return to the screening committee; Kasturi submitted this issue. Kasturi, Brubaker and Sinnamon expressed an interest in this issue.
    
11. Issue 3953, IRS Completing Simple Returns, Status: “Parking Lot”

It was agreed that the New Parking Lot Issues will be placed in the following priority order in which they will be worked (this will be an ongoing activity as new issues are received:

1. Issue 3915
2. Issue 3951
3. Issue 3944
4. Issue 3953
5. Issue 3948

The following current issues in Parking Lot Status were reviewed:

1. Issue 3868-Object Sale of Private Tax Information to Third Parties- Area 6 has the lead on this issue and is in the process of preparing the Position Paper that will be sent to the IRS Commissioner. Parking Lot Status.
   
2. Issue 3228- E-filing Alternates & Interactive Forms- New Active Issue- Warnecki and team will monitor- (Kasturi, J. Davis, and Tarpey)
   
3. Issue 3609- Review Processing of Form 4868- Drop issue- Action item: Write letter to Citizen from NC, inform individual that the IRS Commissioner has recognized this matter and is taking action.
   
4. Issue 3743- Revise Form W-9 and LLC Instructions - New Active Issue- Subcommittee: Kasturi, Warnecki and Tarpey-Action Item: Inez is to obtain contact information.
   
5. Issue 3739- Suggest Delayed Billing/Rewording of Notices- New Active Issue- Subcommittee: Romeril, J. Davis & Tarpey- Action Item for Inez: Find out what notice is being referred to and if it is being addressed by the Notice Committee, and get back to the subcommittee with findings.
   
6. Issue 3740- Offer-in-Compromise (OIC) Appeals Process-New Active Issue-
   Subcommittee: Haines, McElroy & Warnecki- Action Item for Inez: Share information with the team regarding Issue 2559, OIC Procedures that were being addressed by Area 5.
   
   Also, Haines will check on the specific regulations and Warnecki will contact Steve Rue since he had submitted this issue.
   
7. Issue 3741- ACS Line Has Six Options- this issue was combined with Issue 3925 & 3685.
   
8. Issue 3742- Exceptions to Private Letter Ruling Fee Increases- New Active Issue- Subcommittee: Kasturi, Woo, Brubaker, B. Davis & Sinnamon- This issue will be re-written.

How New Issues are Raised- Emilio Cecchi
Emilio Cecchi conducted an overview of how this process works.

Sub-committee Breakout(s)
The sub-committees worked together on their individual issues and several proposals were drafted or re-worked.

Wrap Up of Day Two
The committee’s goal is to attempt to elevate proposals to the IRS that may be added to the Joint Committee’s face-to-face meeting in Denver next week.

The Chair expressed appreciation to the screening committee for their hard work.

Chair adjourned the meeting.

Day #3, June 24, 2006-Holiday Inn
Sherman Conference Room

Roll call-Confirm Quorum
Quorum of 9 was met; 14 members were present.

Nancy L. Ferree, Acting DFO

Sub-committee Reports
In conclusion, this is what was agreed upon by consensus:

• Issue 3634, Free Tax Preparation for Self-employed Taxpayers-proposal needs to be changed; Beadsie Woo will be making the adjustments and sending it to Inez to share with all. This will be an August agenda item. Action item for Beadsie & Inez

• Issue 3702- Pub 393-Household Employment Filing- Approved by the committee on June 22, 2006. *On 06/27/2006, Inez forwarded this proposal to Barbara Toy for the JC Quality Review Team.

• Issue 3736- Revise EFTPS Registration Procedure-Approved by the committee on June 22, 2006. On 06/27/2006, Inez forwarded this proposal to Barbara Toy for the JC Quality Review Team.

• Issue 3747- Electronic Filing of 1099’s.- Approved by the committee on June 23, 2006. On 06/27/2006, Inez forwarded this proposal to Barbara Toy for the JC Quality Review Team.

• Issue 3925-Option for Access to Person on IRS Toll-Free Lines- this “new” issue became an “active issue” and then an “elevated issue” during this meeting.- Committee decided to combine this issue with Issue 3685, On Hold Wait Time for All IRS Toll Free Lines.-& Issue 3741- ACS Automated Collection System Line has 6 Options- On 06/27/2006, Inez forwarded this proposal to Barbara Toy for the JC Quality Review Team. The JC Quality Review Team returned this proposal back to the committee. The draft re-written proposal will be an agenda item for the August call. Action item for Lee and sub-committee: update the proposal based on the feedback received.

Outreach Activities-Chair Paul McElroy
Chair McElroy reviewed the May 2006 outreach report and there were a total of 7 events. Kasturi had 2, Lyn had 2, Bly had 2 and JoAnn continues to conduct outreach at “Open House” events since she is a realtor. Chair emphasized that members should seek the opportunities to speak about TAP to others.

The following conversation took place regarding outreach creativity:

• Lyn Sinnamon suggested that members partner with the stakeholders meetings in their States by visiting www.irs.gov. The best way to know what is going on at the IRS is to get on their mailing list.

• Sinnamon also shared that TAP Program Analyst Steve Berkey is trying to find out why the Taxpayer Burden group did not include TAP as an avenue to obtain support/feedback.

• Sonny Kasturi suggested that when you have an issue, you should test it with your public and get their input on your proposal.

• Send letters to your local Kiwanis and Rotary clubs.

• Partner with your local Seniors Centers.

• As a local resident, attempt to get an article written about your TAP activities in the local newspapers.

• Tell your neighbors.

Telephone Etiquette-Nancy L. Ferree
Ferree began by stating that not everyone speaks sometimes. The following were briefly discussed:

• It was suggested that members attempt to sign in before the call begins.
• It is important to have quorum in order to make decisions.
• If you are going to disconnect, let it be known ahead of time.
• Identify yourself before speaking.
• Everyone should participate.
• At the end of the call, obtain feedback from all participants. Create an opportunity for this. The chair will ask for any additional comments.
• Use the mute button.

General Questions
Ferree asked who would be available to conduct telephone interviews and the following members responded:

July 3, 2006 at 9:00 am ET, Romeril volunteered- Nancy will be emailing information to him.

July 5, 2006 at 9; 00 am ET, Brubaker volunteered

July 6, at 9:00 am ET Romeril and at 10:30 am Beadsie Woo

July 7, was left open for now.

Wrap Up of Day Three
Members were reminded to fill out the meeting survey and to submit their travel vouchers with the original hotel receipts to either Nancy or Inez.

Chair adjourned the meeting and wished everyone a safe trip back home. Chair expressed appreciation for the hard work done by all the sub-committees.

Next Meeting via Teleconference: August 16, 2006 at 2:30 PM ET

Certification: These minutes were approved by consensus by the TAP Area 2 Committee on August 16, 2006.