Area 3 Committee Meeting Minutes

March 1, 2005

Members in Attendance:

• Nancy Allen, Roswell, GA
• 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
• Alexander Vivona, Sarasota, FL

Members Absent

• Charlotte Cassady, Talbotton, GA
• Helen Curol, Lake Charles, LA
• James (J.T.) Wright, Carrollton, GA

Staff:

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

Roll Call
Quorum of eight (8) was met.

Review of Prior Meeting Minutes
Meeting Minutes (with one correction) were accepted by consensus.

Review of Joint Committee Call
Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated 500 copies of the TAP Annual Report will be printed and will be available to all members and organizations that have an interest in TAP. Committee Member Gwen Handelman stated if anyone identifies groups and individuals who would be interested in TAP, they should be advised to review the Annual Report on the TAP website at www.improveirs.org. It was suggested to provide copies to Congressional Offices.

ACTION ITEM — TAP Program Manager will see who will be providing Annual Reports to the congressional offices.
The Joint Committee discussed the feedback surveys. These surveys will be sent out after each meeting. The results will be sent to the chair, vice chair and DFO. They will be posted on TAPSpeak.

ACTION ITEM — TAP Program Analyst will forward feedback surveys to committee members after each meeting.

The Joint Committee discussed legislative submissions. These concerns/issues are to be forwarded directly to NTA Nina Olson. It was also stated that the majority of the committee’s time should be spent with customer service issues.

Committee Member Owen Oatley stated that another issue that was discussed at the meeting was about feedback on recommendations. Committee Member Gwen Handelman said the TAP Program Manager and the TAP Program Analyst along with the chair should decide what to do if the committee hasn’t gotten a final answer on any issues.

ACTION ITEM — TAP Program Manager and TAP Program Analyst will review all the Area 3 issues and determine what requires a response.

TAP Program Manager commented on the issue that was elevated on raising the tolerance from $5.00 to $25.00. The IRS, in its response, stated they would consider raising the limit but that $25.00 was too high. She thinks this issue should not be closed but put into a holding status.

ACTION ITEM — TAP Program Manager will find out about procedures to follow-up on recommendations that are not totally rejected by the IRS.

Concerns/Issues
Committee Vice-Chair Bill Matheny commended the subcommittee chairs on their work. He also thanked TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez for working on the spreadsheet. There was some discussion about the spreadsheet.

ACTION ITEM — TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez will input a revision date on the spreadsheet when it will forwarded to members monthly.

Contact #3333 — Preparer Reimbursed from Refund
Subcommittee lead Buck Paolone reviewed this issue. His subcommittee decided there were legal prohibitions and it was too cumbersome. They recommended dropping the issue. Committee Chair Ed Hanna would like to hold off on dropping this issue. He has some additional information that he would like to submit to the subcommittee about RALs. There was much discussion about this. There needs to be more publicity about the fact that a taxpayer will receive a refund within 10 – 14 days if they file electronically. It was agreed to put this on hold pending additional information from the chair to the subcommittee.

Contact #2924 — TAP Signs in TAC Office
Subcommittee lead Buck Paolone reviewed this issue. The subcommittee decided the new Communications Issue Committee would best work this. The entire committee agreed by consensus to transfer this issue to the new issue committee.

ACTION ITEM — TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez will transfer Contact #2924 to the Communications Issue Committee.

Contact #2148 — Telephone Quality
Contact #1989 — Toll-Free Telephone Service Quality
Contact #2915 — Toll-Free Telephone Service Quality
Subcommittee lead Buck Paolone stated these issues are similar and they will be handled as one issue. He said there have been several recommendations sent to the IRS and they were not very receptive to the recommendations. All have been rejected. There was a great deal of discussion about these issues. It was decided to separate Contact #2915 because the issue there is requesting the caller to leave their name, telephone number and a message after a very long wait. TAP Program Manager Nancy Ferree stated she did not think it was possible to leave a message on the 1040 toll-free line. She will check into this. Another committee member asked for stats on the number of calls received and the wait time on these calls. Staff will obtain these stats.

ACTION ITEM — TAP Program Manager will request information about leaving a message on the 1040 toll-free line.

ACTION ITEM — Staff will obtain stats on number of call received and the wait time on these calls.

Contact #3242 — Volunteer Assistor’s Guide Form 13614
Committee Member Al Vivona reviewed this issue for committee. The subcommittee has prepared a recommendation. Committee Member Gwen Handelman stated she responded to the recommendation with some changes. It was agreed, by consensus, to elevate this issue after the changes were made.

Contact #3332 — Database for entity information
Committee Member Bill Matheny stated that the subcommittee determined this was not feasible under privacy regulations. The subcommittee recommended dropping this issue. Committee Chair Ed Hanna does not agree with this. Committee Member Gwen Handelman stated she would need to see a specific recommendation before she would support it. There was much discussion about this issue.

ACTION ITEM — Committee Chair Ed Hanna will prepare recommendation for the next meeting.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated there was no more time to discuss issues. The remaining issues will be discussed at the next meeting.

Plans for Face-to-Face Meeting
TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez said she received choices from members on the location for the face-to-face meeting of 6 for Orlando and 4 for Ft. Lauderdale. Several did not send in a choice. Many of the choices contained a caveat of “whatever costs the least”. She has contacted more than 30 hotels in the Orlando area. Most do not have the availability or the meeting room is too expensive. She went ahead and prepared a cost comparison for Atlanta, GA. It costs $2,000 less than Orlando does. She is holding her issue committee meeting in Atlanta and has found a hotel (with the help of TAP Director Bernie Coston) that will provide the meeting space at no cost. Betty Allen, LTA, recommended the hotel, also. The hotel is the Best Western Inn at the Peachtrees. It was agreed by consensus to hold the meeting in Atlanta.

ACTION ITEM — TAP Program Analyst will make arrangements to hold the face-to-face meeting at the Best Western Inn at the Peachtrees.

Meeting Close
Committee Member Ed Hanna stated the meeting survey would be emailed to each committee member. He asked that they complete them and email them back as soon as possible.

DFO Carolyn Lewis stated she would like to see a standard format for the subcommittees to report each month. She likes the way Committee Member Buck Paolone reported because it gave the opinion of each of the subcommittee members.

Next meeting is scheduled for April 5, 2005 at 11:00 am ET.