Area 3 Committee Meeting Minutes

February 1, 2005

Members in Attendance:

• Nancy Allen, Roswell, GA
• Helen Curol, Lake Charles, LA
• Gwen Handelman, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• Edward Hanna, Tampa, FL
• José Irizarry, San Juan, PR
• William Matheny, Long Beach, MS
• Bradley Moore, Decatur, GA
• Joyce Natter, Miami, FL
• Owen Oatley, Holly Hill, FL
• Francis (Buck) Paolone, Hoover, AL
• Deborah Thomas, Fayetteville, AR
• James (J.T.) Wright, Carrollton, GA
• Alexander Vivona, Sarasota, FL

Members Absent

• Charlotte Cassady, Talbotton, GA

Staff:

• Carolyn Lewis, LTA/DFO
• Sallie Chavez, TAP Program Analyst
• Nancy Ferree, TAP Program Manager

Opening/Welcome
Committee Chair Ed Hanna welcomed everyone. He announced that Committee Member Bill Matheny would be the new Vice-Chair since Committee Member Don Miller was transferred to Area 4. Committee Vice-Chair Matheny will be the coordinator for the new concerns and will assign these new concerns to subcommittees.

Roll call
Quorum of eight (8) was met.

Review of Prior Minutes
Meeting Minutes were accepted by consensus.

Review of Joint Committee Call
Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated that Tennessee has now been assigned to Area 4. Area 3 has transferred two (2) committee members to Area 4.

A new issue committee has been created. It will be the Communications Committee. This new committee was created because the issue committees were too large.

TAP Program Manager Nancy Ferree apologized because some members did not get the email about the new issue committee or the realignment. The email was resent and the deadline for the new issue committee has been extended. Everyone will be notified as soon as the decisions are made.

Issues
Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated that Area 3 has presented a recommendation twice to the Joint Committee and they rejected it both times to make a change to the K-1. Now a new K-1 was introduced and line 16 contains the changes the committee was recommending.

Contact #3242
Committee Chair Ed Hanna said this sub-committee of Committee Members Helen Curol, Al Vivona and Bill Matheny has been working on the issue. Committee Member Vivona said there needs to be guidance to the taxpayer on what is needed. Page 58 on the 1040 gives instructions. This information needs to be put into the Pub 17 and the VITA Training Publication. Committee Member Matheny stated there is no clear-cut information from IRS on what is required.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna reviewed the issue. Committee Member Gwen Handelman has a problem separating the volunteers from the paid preparers. Preparers are required to sign prepared returns as an individual whereas the volunteers do not.

TAP Program Manager Nancy Ferree advised the committee that the National Taxpayer Advocate has a section of her Report to Congress on the issue of VITA. Committee Member Gwen Handelman stated that Area 4 is working on an aspect of this report.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna asked Sub-committee to write up a recommendation and forward it to the entire committee before the next meeting.

Contact #2916
This concern is about IRS “losing” Form 2553s. Subcommittee Chair discussed the concerns. It was decided that the subcommittee does not have the scope of the problem. TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez will research this issue.

Contact #3136
This concern is about eliminating or automating the Form 2553. There was discussion about combining the Forms 2553 and SS-4 but most of the committee did not think that was practical. Electronic was possible but each shareholder would have to approve. After much discussion is was agreed by consensus to drop this issue.

Contact #3330
This concern is about the whether the IRS will accept a fax copy of the Form 2848 Power of Attorney (POA). This concern was discussed. DFO Carolyn Lewis stated that IRS employees accept faxed Form 2848. TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez stated when she worked on the Practitioner Hotline several years ago she would accept a fax copy of the POA and would forward it to the Service Center to be input on the Central Authorization File (CAF). TAP Program Analyst Chavez will check and make sure this is still the procedure.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated this was taking longer than he thought it would. TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez will send out information on all the issues that are in Area 3. Subcommittees will work on their issues and report what they have completed at the next meeting.

Abatement of Low-Dollar Balance Due Accounts
Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated that IRS had responded on the recommendation. He stated the IRS agreed that the amount should be raised but not to the $25 amount Area 3 had recommended. Since the committee had not had the opportunity to review this response, it will be discussed at the next meeting. TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez will forward this response to the entire committee. Committee Member Gwen Handelman suggested that everyone email Committee Chair Ed Hanna so he can respond to the Joint Committee during the February call.

Members Report of Presentations
Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated he was very impressed with the presentations made during the month. TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez asked that everyone please complete the form and forward it to her by the 1st of each month so that the information can be put into the database and a report can be sent to the chair for his monthly report, which is due to the Joint Committee on the 5th of each month. She will forward the forms to the entire committee.

Members discussed their presentations.

Plans for Face-to-Face Meeting
TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez said that since Tennessee was no long part of Area 3 a new location will be selected for the face-to-face meeting. Locations mentioned included Little Rock, Birmingham, Jackson, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, Mobile and Montgomery. There was discussion about the cost and the budget. Ft. Lauderdale was the least expensive but committee had already had a meeting in Florida two (2) years ago.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna requested the spreadsheet with the locations be emailed to committee members. He asked that each member respond no later than February 7 with his or her selected location. He reminded everyone the meeting was July 21 – 23, 2005.

Meeting Close
Committee Member Ed Hanna thanked everyone for attending. He asked them to keep up the outreach work. Bring back concerns. Next meeting will be March 1, 2005 at 11:00am ET.