January 17, 2003

Members in Attendance:

• Larry Barnard
• Mary Lou Beyreis
• Phil Bryant
• Helen Curol
• Charlotte Cassady
• Edward Hanna
• Tim Jarrell
• Keith Johnson
• Sharon Lassar
• Owen Oatley
• Buck Paolone
• George Sullivan
• Agnes Tillerson
• Steven Wood
• Nancy Ferree (acting DFO)

Staff:

• Sallie Chavez

Guests:

• Bill Garguilo - former CAP Chair
• Michael McAnnany - Practitioner
• Charles Rogers - Tampa Practitioner
• Mr. Y - Savanna, GA
• Janeene Culver - Melbourne, FL Practitioner
• Janice Flood - Price Waterhouse, Miami
• Tim Sosebee
• Lisa Jensen-Shaw - IRS Congressional Liaison, Plantation, FL

Panel Chair Edward Hanna welcomed everyone.

Roll call
Roll was taken. Quorum was met.

Overview of February meeting
Analyst Chavez went over the logistics of the February meeting. The meeting will take place at the Omni Jacksonville Hotel. All panel members were asked to return their TAP Travel Request forms to Jenny Reyes as soon as possible and to call with credit card information if they want Jenny to make the hotel reservations.

Review of December 20, 2002 Minutes
There were a couple of minor corrections to the December minutes. Motion to accept the minutes was made and motion was second (after corrections made); no objections. These minutes were accepted by consensus.

TAP ISSUES

W-4
Sub-committee chair Steve Wood reported that the committee had talked (along with Panel Member Oatley) about the issues. There are two (2). The first one deals with the exemptions listed on W-4. The committee thinks there may be a miscommunication about this issue. They think it only affects a small amount of taxpayers. They still have some questions about the issue like where do the W-4s go? This is not an urgent issue but one that should receive more attention. There is a possibility of raising the exemption limit form 10 to a higher number. Committee will continue to work this issue.

The second issue has to do with a correction that was elevated (from the Florida CAP) and the response received was not appropriate. The issue has come and gone and there is no need for this issue at this time. This issue is dropped.

Customer Fairness
Sub-committee chair George Sullivan wants to contact National Employee Union President to get information. Committee wants feedback from employees. They will develop an outline of how this will happen. They want feedback mostly from taxpayer assistors.

ACTION ITEM: Sub-committee chair will work with Analyst Chavez, Manager Ferree and DFO Moore.

Walk-in Review
Chair Ed Hanna will have additional information on this issue at the February meeting in Jacksonville.

Copy of Tax Returns
Chair Ed Hanna will have additional information on this issue at the February meeting in Jacksonville.

Industry Percentages for Inventory Capitalization
No Report

OIC
Analyst Chavez has arranged for a subject matter expert to attend the meeting in Jacksonville. Sub-committee chair Johnson questioned the penalty and interest accruing during the time the offer was being considered. He suggests a time limit while waiting for the offer to be worked. There was a short discussion about offers and the "NEW" Streamline OIC that takes a much shorter time. Subject matter expert can address these issues in February.

Financial Statement Standards
This is an issue that was raised by the former Florida CAP. It has to do with the financial disclosure for OICs and Installment Agreements. This may be better worked as a part of the OIC committee. It was moved to the OIC issue.

Notice Response Timeframe
Sub-committee chair Curol commented that IRS can accept payments but not post them. It can take several days to have a payment posted. This is very frustrating. She will have something written up for the February meeting.

One Call/One Accountability/Complaint Process Resolution
Sub-Committee Chair Paolone stated he has a meeting this Tuesday with the Local Taxpayer Advocate in Alabama. He told the panel about a discussion Nina Olson (National Taxpayer Advocate) had with the Ad Hoc Committee about expanding TAS authorities. He questioned the fact that the telephone number for the Taxpayer Advocate was not in the telephone directory. Acting DFO Ferree responded by stating that the number will be in the directories as the new one come out.

Recordkeeping
Sub-committee Chair Charlotte Cassady will have a report for the February meeting.

Schedule K-1s
Sub-committee Chair Owen Oatley will have a presentation for the February meeting.

Telephone Listing/Answering Quality
Sub-committee Chair Jarrell requests to visit a phone center. He will have more information at the February meeting

ACTION ITEM: Analyst Chavez (along with Manger Ferree) will arrange for panel member to visit phone center.

Other Issues
It was pointed out that the April meeting was scheduled for Good Friday. The April meeting will be changed to April 25.

Chair Hanna reminded everyone about submitting speaker forms. Panel Member Lassar stated she has already submitted several. Panel Member Johnson said he has a couple of speeches coming up in January. Manager Ferree advised the panel about a meeting she and Panel Member Handelman attended on January 15 at the Ft. Lauderdale Mayor's office. She stated the meeting went very well and they are planning additional meetings.

Citizen Input
Several citizens have contacted the panel with issues and were unable to attend the meeting. Analyst Chavez presented the issues to the panel for the citizens.

A practitioner in Hollywood, Florida wrote to the panel about EINs. He states sometimes he needs an EIN in a hurry and can't get it. He would like to suggest that IRS provide a "Block" of numbers to practitioners to use. This was an issue that the Florida CAP addressed and decided not to pursue due to the new EIN process. Several of the panel members responded by stating that EIN can be obtained in one day and they did not think it was necessary for practitioners to have "Blocks" of numbers. Analyst Chavez also told the panel about a news article she read earlier in the week about the IRS possibly having an EIN request application on the Internet.

ACTION ITEM: Analyst Chavez will respond back to the practitioner that the panel will not address this issue.

A practitioner in New Orleans, Louisiana suggested a way to access estimated tax information on the IRS Web Site similar to checking on refunds. The panel would like to pursue this issue.

ACTION ITEM: Analyst Chavez will respond back to the practitioner that the panel will pursue this issue.

A citizen in Arkansas sent in an email (via the web site) asking about the EIN and questioning the Adobe fill-in documents. Analyst Chavez will address the EIN information. As far as the Adobe fill-in documents, the citizen probably does not have the Adobe version to be able to save the documents.

ACTION ITEM: Analyst Chavez will respond back with the proper information.

A citizen in Georgia sent in an email (via the web site) commenting on why taxpayers have to pay a fee to submit their returns electronically. It was discussed that many do not have to pay the fee (depending on income level). Panel stated they would like to pursue possibly raising the income levels.

ACTION ITEM: Analyst Chavez will respond back to the citizen that the panel will pursue the issue.

One of the panel members brought up an issue of Form 1099s. Social Security does not require "RED" copies any more but IRS does. Panel Chair said to bring this up at the February meeting.

Meeting was adjourned.