June 20, 2003

Members in Attendance:

• Charlotte Cassady
• Helen Curol
• Gwen Handelman
• Edward Hanna
• Tim Jarrell
• Keith Johnson
• Sharon Lassar
• Owen Oatley
• Buck Paolone
• George Sullivan
• Agnes Tillerson
• Steven Wood
• Sandy McQuin - Acting DFO

Staff:

• Sallie Chavez - TAP Analyst

Guests:

• Cindy Travis - Analyst W & I, CAS
• Mike McAnnany - Florida Tax Preparer

Welcome
Committee Chair Edward Hanna welcomed everyone.

Roll call
Roll was taken. Quorum was met.

Review of May 16, 2003 Minutes
The minutes were accepted by consensus.

Report by IRS Representative RE: Red Border Forms
Cindy Travis, Analyst with Wage & Investment (Customer Account Services) addressed the questions posed by Committee Chair Ed Hanna.

Question 1 - Can we dispense with the red border forms? If not, why not?

Ms. Travis answered "No". Red filtering scanners are used to read the forms. These scanners filter the red out and only read the black and white on the forms. The scanner doesn't see red ink. Script contractors would have to rewrite the information and there would be a charge for this service.

Question 2 - If we cannot, why have W-2s been allowed to be submitted in all manner and sizes?

Ms. Travis advised that W-2 are used by the Social Security Administration and are controlled by them.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated that this confirms the information he received from the TAP staff. He thanked Ms. Travis for the information.

Area 3 TAP Issues
Committee Chair Ed Hanna discussed how he would like the next few meetings to go. He would like to finalize Committee Members George Sullivan and Owen Oatley's suggestions on Customer Fairness & Respect. Not all committee members received this email. Committee Chair Ed Hanna will send out again to all committee members. Please respond back to Chair when you get the email.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna would like a confirmation from the Notice Issue Committee that they have accepted the issue that the Area 3 Notice Subcommittee forwarded to them.

Action Item: Analyst Sallie Chavez will get confirmation from the Notice Issue Committee.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna would like to start no more new issues until the end of the fiscal year. This committee is one of the most active committees. The committee may be trying to do too much. Can't do everything. Biggest issue is telephone issue. He would like each member of the committee to become involved in this issue and send some recommendations up to the Joint Committee by September 1, 2003.

Chair asked Committee Members Tim Jarrell and Buck Paolone to assign work to everyone except Committee Members Gwen Handelman and Sharon Lassar, as they are Issue Committee Chairs.

Committee Member George Sullivan asked if the committee would still be working on other issues they are currently involved with. Chair said yes. Finalize them and get them out.

There was consensus on this item.

Telephone Listing/Answering Quality
Sub-committee Chair Tim Jarrell stated he had a long conversation with Area 2 Committee Member Faith Vinikoor concerning what their committee was doing on this issue. She told him they were working on telephone answering and routing. He would like to try and coordinate and share ideas. They have drafted a report. He will send this report to all committee members.

Sub-committee Member Buck Paolone stated he requested information from TAP Manager Nancy Ferree. He asked for the IRS source responsible for telephone number listing. He also requested routing information. How calls are routed, see if they corresponde with the taxpayer's needs. He also asked for information on the sampling of calls and the responses. There is a list of 15 questions that Area 2 has prepared. TAP Analyst Sallie Chavez advised that TAP Manager Nancy Ferree was in Philadelphia today for the Area 2 face-to-face meeting and that they were having a Subject Matter Expert at the meeting to answer those 15 questions. She is taping the session and will submit the finding to TAP Analyst Chavez for the Area 2 committee. TAP Analyst Chavez will send the information as soon as they are available.

Action Item: TAP Analyst Chavez will send all committee members the 15 questions and the answers.

Sub-committee Chair Tim Jarrell stated that he heard there was a video available on telephone training. TAP Analyst Chavez asked him to put a request in writing and we will see if we can get it. Acting DFO Sandy McQuin stated there was a book on telephone answering available. It's a probe and response guide.

Action Item: Analyst Chavez will try and find this probe and response guide.

Sub-committee Member Buck Paolone stated he heard there was a test program where 45,000 taxpayers will be assigned an individual IRS employee to handle their problems.

Sub-committee Member Buck Paolone stated that TAP Manager Nancy Ferree sent him a package of information that he thinks that all the committee members should have.

Action Item: TAP Analyst Sallie Chavez will get the information from TAP Manger Nancy Ferree and send it to all committee members.

Sub-committee Member Buck Paolone suggested that committee members make calls to toll-free number and see where the call goes. Committee Chair Ed Hanna recommends the sub-committee members assign specific tasks. They have eight or ten issues. They should be able to get one or two of these completed and elevated. The rest can wait until next year.

Committee Member Gwen Handelman stated that she heard about a problem out of Maine where the local IRS telephone number was in the telephone directory but it was a toll call. When the taxpayer called the number, it was a recording with the option of leaving a message. She would like to propose that a note be put in the directory when there is only a recording and not a live person to answer.

Sub-committee Member Buck Paolone said he still would like to suggest to have color cards in Post Offices, State Offices and IRS Offices of telephone numbers available to get help from the IRS.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna suggested three sub-committees on this issue: Telephone Listing, Telephone Routing and Telephone Quality. Please email Committee Member Tim Jarrell or Buck Paolone your preference of which sub-committee you would like to work on by Friday, June 27, 2003. Committee Chair Ed Hanna requested Committee Member Tim Jarrelll to put out an email to everyone concerning this request.

Military Special Information
Committee Chair Ed Hanna asked Committee Member Owen Oatley about this issue. He said there was a lot of information on it but he and Committee Member Steve Wood would like to hold on to it for a while.

New Issues
TAP Analyst Sallie Chavez reported that there were only two (2) new issues to present to the panel. The first dealt with the estimated tax penalty. The taxpayer stated that he was being penalized every year for not paying his taxes in advance. He is retired and doesn't think that a taxpayer should be penalized for pension income. He suggests "abolishing" the estimated tax penalty. The Committee already has an issue on this. Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated that he sent out an email stating 20% minimum federal income tax withholding is required of pension income. Sub-committee Chair Steve Wood said he would like to review this and hold on to the issue.

The other issue was an issue submitted by Committee Chair Ed Hanna from one of his partners. His partner called the IRS and tried to resolve a problem. He talked to a person who agreed that the IRS made an error but stated she could not correct it and suggested he call another number and tell them that she suggests they make the correction. When the preparer called the other number the person told him he could not take the preparer's word. He was told to write to the IRS and request the change. This falls into two of the sub-committees issues (Quality and Routing).

New Business
Committee Member Gwen Handelman asked all of the preparers on the committee to respond to a request she sent out for feedback on the EITC forms. Please respond back directly to her as soon as possible.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna said that it was discussed with the Joint Committee about having a special session of the orientation to deal with IRS issues for non-tax preparer members. It would last about 2 hours. He wants to know how the committee feels about this.

Committee Member Owen Oatley said he throught that it would be a good idea to "buddy up" with non-practitioners.

Committee Chair Ed Hann did a role call of non-preparers.

• Committee Member George Sullivan - yes
• Committee Member Tim Jarrell - yes
• Committee Member Buck Paolone - mentor - he was afraid he might get too "institiutionalized"
• Committee Member Helen Curol - yes
• Committee Member Agnes Tillerson - depends on what's on the program
• Committee Member Steve Wood - technical issues would be valuable but he would also like paring up with practitioner

Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated there was a conflict with the staff during the schedule August meeting. He asked if it would be a problem to change the meeting from August 15 to August 22. There were no objections. Meeting will be changed.

Committee Member Buck Paolone wanted to report on his Ad Hoc Issue Committee Meeting last month. He said their issue on licensing of preparers had only a 57% approval rating. IRS thinks it should be a state issue. This is a dead issue. They also discussed "financial literacy". The IRS has a curriculum about this on the IRS web site. They are crafting a letter to executives to market this product to the schools. They also discussed a change of name for the TAP to the Treasury Advisory Panel. Committee Chair Ed Hanna and Committee Member Gwen Handelman stated that the Joint Committee has discussed this change and has rejected it. The last thing they discussed was TAP marketing. They suggested having all the marketing items that CAP had including name badges. All the marketing items will be done in-house.

Committee Member Owen Oatley said he had a rejected OIC that he wanted to discuss. Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated that he would like the committee to have this type of information before the meeting not during. Please forward it to all the committee members and it will be put on the agenda for the next meeting.

Meeting Close
Committee Chair Ed Hanna thanked everyone for his or her time.

The next meeting is scheduled for the July 18, 2003.

Meeting was adjourned.