Area 2 Committee Meeting Minutes

August 16, 2006
Teleconference

Designated Federal Official

• Terry L. Mapp, Philadelphia Local Taxpayer Advocate

Members Present

• Bill Bly, Wayne, PA
• Paul Brubaker, York, PA
• Emilio Cecchi, N. Bethesda, MD, Vice-Chair
• JoAnn Davis, Scott Depot, WV
• Blanche Davis, Rehoboth Beach, DE
• Robert Haines, Lebanon, NJ
• Sonny Kasturi, West Orange, NJ
• Paul McElroy, Pfafftown, NC, Chair
• Martin Romeril, Bethlehem, PA
• Lyn Sinnamon, Arlington, VA
• James Tarpey, Sunset Beach, NC
• Elizabeth Warnecki, Ladson, SC

Members Absent

• Bessie Moore, Mt. Laurel, NJ
• Lee Congdon, Washington, DC
• Lillian (Beadsie) Woo, Durham, NC

Staff Present

• Nancy L. Ferree, TAP Program Manager
• Inez E. De Jesus, TAP Program Analyst
• Isai Pallango, Intern & Note taker

Guests

• Mr. Benson Chapman (Potential Panel Member from New Jersey)

Welcome
Chair Paul McElroy opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and acknowledged guest, Mr. Benson Chapman from New Jersey.

Roll Call
Quorum of 8 was met.

Joint Committee Report
Chair Paul McElroy discussed the Joint Committee’s face-to-face meeting in Denver, and the five key issues that the TAP had been asked to provide input to by the IRS Commissioner. The Joint Committee reviewed the five issues and approved them.

1. Election of Chairs and Vice-Chair Prior to the Annual meeting - Chair McElroy stated that he brought up the issue of needing to have the TAP Chair and Vice Chair election results known before the Issue and Area Committees Chair and Vice Chair elections at the Joint Committee Meeting. This resulted in the questions we were now being asked to vote on. Larry Combs, TAP Chair, sent out an email with the Options that were being considered, and Paul needs to respond back to the Joint Committee on Area 2’s position regarding this matter. This led to the following dialogue:
   
   • Blanche Davis was in favor of Option two.
     
   • Emilio Cecchi stated that the candidates should have TAP experience, and be available to meet every three months. He prefers Option Two; it’s important for Chair and Vice Chair to have some experience.
     
   • Mc Elroy requested a count of the number of members in favor of each option, the count was 11 for Option 2 (actually 12 since one member who was not on the call sent their preference in by email) and one for Option 1 (with the Joint Committee selecting the TAP chair and Vice Chair). This person later said he could go along with Option 2 if we needed a consensus.
     
   • It was also discussed that with Option 2 new members should be eligible to run (most likely for Vice Chair) either through write-in on the ballot at the annual meeting or by submitting their names before hand. In case of the latter, perhaps improveirs.org might be a better website to use since new members would have problems getting on TAPSpeak.
     
   • The committee was not in favor of electing Committee Chairs before the annual meeting, since that would create the original problem in reverse, elected Area or Issue Committee chairs would either not be eligible to run for TAP Chair or Vice Chair or would have to resign as committee chairs if elected.
     
2. Suggestion(s) for Annual Meeting -Chair McElroy stated that the Joint Committee will be discussing other issues in October at the face-to-face meeting, and if committee members have any suggestions, to please forward them by e-mail to TAP Manager Ferree or TAP Analyst De Jesus.

Recruitment for TAP Members 2007
Tap Manager Nancy Ferree stated that the next step is to make a list of the potential selections, which has to be approved by the National Taxpayer Advocate, the IRS Commissioner and the Liaison to The White House. It is expected that the final decision will be made by the end of September or the beginning of October.

Review & Approve Meeting Minutes-June 2006
These minutes were approved by consensus.

Review and Approve Draft Proposals:

• Issue 3634 Self-employed Taxpayers’ Free Tax Preparation - Sub-committee member Beadsie Woo was not available on this call in order to update everyone; instead Martin Romeril shared that the recommendation should reflect:
  1. Increase the limit of expenses to $10,000 for Schedule C-EZ and index the limit to the cost of living.
  2. Allow multiple Schedule C-EZ’s for each taxpayer.

  Sonny Kasturi brought up reservations regarding this proposal. It was agreed that this proposal was not ready for review and was sent back to the subcommittee.

• Issue 3925 Option for Access to Person on IRS Toll-Free lines- Chair McElroy stated that the revised proposal was not ready for review at this time, and it will be revisited at the next meeting.

Status of Elevated Issues Since Last Meeting:

• 3702 Revised Pub393 Household Employment Filing - Chair McElroy informed everyone that this issue was approved by the Joint Committee.

• Issue 3736 Revise EFTPS Registration Procedure - Chair McElroy stated that this issue was returned by the Joint Committee with some recommended suggestions. Subcommittee members’ Elizabeth Warnecki, and Bill Bly acknowledged this and stated that they will address this during the next month.

Sub-committee Report:

• Issue 3228, E-file Alternates and Interactive Forms
  Panel member Elizabeth Warnecki stated she was monitoring other related issues or committees’ works regarding interactive forms and will be giving a quarterly update based on her findings by next month’s call.

• Issue 3739, Suggest Delayed Billing or Rewording of Notices
  Panel member Martin Romeril stated that the IRS is in the process of re-wording all billing notices; this was recently done in Detroit. Martin Romeril stated he needed more time to research this matter.

• Issue 3740, Offer-in-Compromise (OIC) Appeals Process
  Elizabeth Warnecki shared that she had recently spoken to former panel member Steve Rue since he had submitted this issue to the panel and that she and Robert Haines are in the process of developing a proposal. Elizabeth Warnecki and Robert Haines will have additional information available by the next teleconference meeting.

• Issue 3742, Private Letter Rulings-Increased User Fees
  Panel member Sonny Kasturi stated he had nothing to report at this time.

• Issue 3743, Revise Form W-9 & LLC Instructions
  Elizabeth Warnecki stated she had nothing to report at this time.

Review Highlights- National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA’s) 2007 Report to Congress: TAP Manager Ferree stated that NTA Nina Olson recently issued the “2007 Objectives Report to Congress” and Ferree briefly gave an overview of the Report. She also suggested that panel members read and become familiar with this document since it relates to issues received by the committee from citizens. Program Analyst Inez De Jesus provided an additional overview of the 4 Areas of Emphasis mentioned in the report.

Outreach Events Reports
Chair McElroy stated that Emilio Cecchi was the “Outreach Person” for the Month of July since he was the only person reporting an outreach event. McElroy also stated that members should attempt to do more outreach activities.

New & Parking Lot Issues Report from the Screening Committee
Due to time constraints, Vice Chair Cecchi shared that this information will be discussed during the next meeting.

Public Input
Mr. Benson Chapman (Potential Panel Member from New Jersey) stated that the meeting went well and he was looking forward to participating on future calls. He expressed appreciation for being allowed to participate.

Closing Assessment/Q&A
Chair McElroy reminded everyone to please complete and submit their meeting survey responses after the call. One of the Panel members suggested that the next meeting should be started earlier or extended. A majority of members agreed to start early. Chair McElroy will remind everyone via e-mail of the next meeting time and of topics to discuss.

The next teleconference meeting scheduled for September 20, 2006 at 2:30 PM ET

Certification: These meeting minutes were approved by the TAP Area 2 Committee by consensus on: September 20, 2006.