Area 3 Committee Meeting Minutes

December 19, 2003

Members in Attendance:

• Charlotte Cassady
• Helen Curol
• Gwen Handelman
• Edward Hanna
• Owen Oatley
• Buck Paolone
• George Sullivan
• Agnes Tillerson
• Carolyn Lewis – DFO

Staff:

• Sallie Chavez – TAP Program Analyst
• Nancy Ferree – TAP Program Manager

Welcome
Committee Chair George Sullivan welcomed everyone to the December meeting.

Roll call
Roll was taken. Quorum was met.

Review of November 21, 2003 Minutes
Committee Member Gwen Handelman stated that she was not aware of the previous meeting (October) minutes being approved. She said she had some corrections. TAP Staff will send her a copy of the approved minutes for her review.

Committee Member Gwen Handelman asked if this would be the correct time to make a suggestion about the minutes. She would like to see a list of assignments at the end of the minutes. This way everyone will know what he or she is assigned for the next meeting.

Committee Member Owen Oatley stated he had a couple of changes for the minutes. The minutes were accepted by consensus, after several corrections are made.

Communications
Committee Chair George Sullivan asked if everyone had received the email concerning the new Director. Everyone had.

Committee Chair George Sullivan stated that there was a recent resignation from our committee. Committee Members Keith Johnson has resigned as of January 1, 2004. Committee Chair asked TAP Analyst Sallie Chavez to take the appropriate action and send him a thank you letter for participating on the TAP.

Office of Notice Gatekeeper – Request for Assistance
Committee Chair George Sullivan asked if everyone had received a copy of the request. Everyone confirmed they received it. Committee Chair Sullivan does not think it fits in with Area 3. He suggests that maybe it be sent to the Ad Hoc Issue Committee. He asked for comments.

Committee Member Gwen Handelman agrees that it is more of an issue for an issue committee than an area committee. The Ad Hoc Issue Committee seems like the appropriate place to send it. It is not a “grass root issue”.

Committee Member Agnes Tillerson stated that there are reports that address these issues. Committee Member Gwen Handelman reminded her that this request was only about the website.

TAP Program Manager Nancy Ferree stated that she has sent the information to other committees to see if they are interested in pursuing it.

Committee Chair George Sullivan requested TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez to contact Steve Bayder and thank him for the information and tell him we are going to be referring this to the Joint Committee to possibly be reassigned to the Ad Hoc Issue Committee.

Area 7 – Offer in Compromise
Committee Chair George Sullivan asked if everyone had received this recommendation. TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez stated that she only sent it to the sub-committee dealing with the OIC issue. He would like the entire committee to have a copy. TAP Program Analyst Chavez will forward to the entire committee.

Confirmation on 1040X Direct Deposit
Committee Chair George Sullivan stated that this proposal was raised to the Joint Committee and was accepted and forwarded to the appropriate organization. 

3rd Party Authorization Form
Committee Member Ed Hanna wants to know if the committee still wants to proceed with this issue. He stated that council had responded that the checkbox was good for one (1) year. Does the committee want to pursue all the open years?

There was much debate about this. It was not clear that council had answered this question. There was discussion as to whether this was a legislative proposal. After all the discussion it was decided that Committee Chair George Sullivan will contact TAP Joint Committee Program Analyst Barbara Toy and ask to have this put on the agenda for the Joint Committee call for next month. Committee Member Ed Hanna will send information to Committee Chair Sullivan so he will have the proper questions to ask.

Outsourcing
Committee Chair George Sullivan stated that he had a telephone conversation with Designated Federal Official (DFO) Carolyn Lewis about this. DFO Lewis stated that this issue is either legislative or not a panel issue. She has reviewed all the information. She feels it is a good proposal. She talked to Committee Chair Sullivan about it and they agree that the taxpayer should be informed. However, is this an issue the IRS can do anything about?

Committee Member Owen Oatley stated that Code Section 7216 (Disclosure or Use of Information by Preparers of Returns) and the regulations under this section provided a reasonable basis for the Internal Revenue Service to respond to this issue. Regulation 301.7216-2(h), which deals with “disclosures by tax returns preparer to tax return processor” was cited. There would be a reasonable basis for IRS to respond. DFO Carolyn Lewis stated she has done some research on this. IRS disclosure only gets involved after the tax return is filed. Circular 230 does address the requirement of the practitioners. The IRS, however, doesn't legislate to preparers. She does feel taxpayer should be told if a return is being sent to a 3rd party . Committee Member Owen Oatley explained that Code Section 7216 and Treasury Regulations Section 301.7216(2)(h) prescribe criminal penalties for unauthorized disclosure of return information by preparers. Thus the IRS does regulate relations between taxpayers and their preparers with respect to privacy of return information.

There was much discussion about this issue. Committee Member Gwen Handelman stated that this issue was discussed at the Low Income Tax Clinic (LITC) conference. She said that there is a proposal to change the regulations in 2004.

Committee Chair George Sullivan suggested that Committee Members Owen Oatley, Agnes Tillerson and Gwen Handelman work with DFO Carolyn Lewis to look into this issue and rewrite the proposal. They will address this issue as “3rd party” outsourcing instead of “foreign country” outsourcing.

Area 3 TAP Issues

Schedule K-1
Committee Member Owen Oatley stated that he rewrote the previous recommendation that the Joint Committee did not accept. Committee Member Gwen Handelman asked if this was the same proposal that was made before. Committee Member Oatley said basically it was the same proposal. Since the individual on the Joint Committee who was against the recommendation is no longer on the Joint Committee it may go forward. Committee Member Ed Hanna said they do have support from other members. Committee Chair George Sullivan asked if it had been changed enough. Committee Members Oatley and Hanna stated it had.

Committee Member Buck Paolone asked if the “Barriers” could be expanded. Committee Member Owen Oatley stated that it involved contribution to capital. A taxpayer would have to look at appropriate places in his books to find the information. Committee Member Gwen Handelman stated that it doesn't involve reviewing prior years. Committee Member Oatley stated that was correct. The way it is now a taxpayer may have to go back 10 years to get information. Committee Member Gwen Handelman suggested changing the Barriers to Approval to:

“Some individuals might believe that the extra work reviewing the current year tax years business records involved in providing this additional information does not outweigh the benefits.”

TAP Program Analyst will make this correction. It was agreed by consensus to forward this recommendation to the Joint Committee.

Walk-in Office Review
Committee Chair George Sullivan thanked Committee Member Ed Hanna for the list of items for the criteria on the walk-in office visits. Committee Member Ed Hanna stated he wanted approval from the TAP Staff and DFO before the committee begins using it. DFO Carolyn Lewis states she did not received it. Committee Chair George Sullivan will send it to TAP Analyst Sallie Chavez who will forward it to the entire committee.

Committee Chair George Sullivan stated he received Committee Member Charlotte Cassady's review and was very impressed with it. It was a very good review. Committee Member Charlotte Cassady stated she had visited the office in previous years but hadn't been there recently. She was very impressed with the look of the new space. She was especially impressed with the improvements made to the privacy.

Refund Check Envelope
Committee Chair George Sullivan stated that he had requested this issue be put on the agenda for the Joint Committee call on Tuesday but he had to leave the call early and he wasn't sure if it was discussed or not. Committee Member Gwen Handelman stated that it was not and will be taken up at the next meeting.

New Issues/Referrals from Taxpayers

Contact #822 – This is an old issue that was previously presented to the committee in March. It has to do with Service Center “losing” Form 2553s ( Election by a Small Business Corporation) . This issue was “put on hold until the next fiscal year”. Revisited it to see what committee wants to do with it. This was discussed. It was decided that DFO Carolyn Lewis will work with TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez on this issue.

Contact #990 – This issue (concerning putting telephone numbers on the bottom of tax returns) was discussed at a previous meeting. It was decided that this could not be done because of budgetary reasons. TAP Program Analyst will contact taxpayer and close the issue.

Contact #2379 – This issue (concerning a hold on fund from the sale of an IRA in a brokerage account) was discussed. The TAP Program Analyst was not certain whether this was an IRS regulation or a brokerage regulation. TAP Program Analyst will research in more detail.

Contact #2387 – This issue was suggested by Committee Member Keith Johnson. He suggested a central location for addresses and phone number on the IRS website. This information is on the website however not in a central location. TAP Chair George Sullivan asked TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez to forward this information to IRS Manager Steve Bayder.

Citizen Input
There were no citizens on the call.

Meeting Close
Committee Chair George Sullivan thanked everyone for his or her time. The next meeting is schedule for the January 16, 2004 at 11:00am EDT. He wished everyone a happy holiday.

Meeting was adjourned.

ASSIGNMENTS

TAP Program Analyst

1. Send copy of October meeting minutes to Committee Member Gwen Handelman.
2. Send thank you letter to Keith Johnson.
3. Send letter to Steve Bayder thanking him for the information and telling him it will be referred to the Ad Hoc Committee.
4. Forward Area 7 OIC recommendation to entire committee.
5. Make corrections on the K-1 recommendation and send it out to all committee members.
6. Forward email from Committee Member Ed Hanna concerning the TAC Office Visitations to all committee members.
7. Contact #822 – DFO Carolyn Lewis and TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez will work on this issue.
8. Contact #990 – send contact letter to taxpayer and close issue.
9. Contact #2379 – research more on issue.
10. Contact #2387 – forward this information to Steve Bayder.

Committee Chair George Sullivan

1. Contact TAP Program Analyst Barbara Toy about the 3rd Party Authorization.

Committee Members

1. Forward to Committee Chair George Sullivan information about the 3rd Party Authorization.
2. Committee Members Owen Oatley, Agnes Tillerson and Gwen along with DFO Carolyn Lewis will look into rewriting the outsourcing proposal.