Area 3 Committee Meeting Minutes

May 3, 2005

Members in Attendance:

• 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
• Alexander Vivona, Sarasota, FL
• J. T. Wright, Carrollton, GA

Members Absent

• Charlotte Cassady, Talbotton, GA
• Nancy Allen, Roswell, GA

Staff:

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

Roll Call
Quorum of eight (8) was met.

Review of Prior Meeting Minutes
Meeting Minutes were accepted by consensus.

Review of Joint Committee Call
Committee Member Gwen Handelman reported that the Joint Committee submitted a letter to the IRS Commissioner concerning the closing of TAC offices throughout the country. The Joint Committee felt that TAP should have a say in what happens to TAC offices. The IRS Commissioner has agreed to meet with Committee Member Handelman and three (3) other TAP members. She asked the committee to submit any suggestions or comments they would like to ask the IRS Commissioner during the meeting. Please submit these comments or suggestions to her and Committee Chair Ed Hanna as soon as possible.

Recruitment for new panel members was going on for the month of April. TAP Director Bernie Coston has reported more than 300 citizens have applied for membership.

Some of the issues on the agenda for the Joint Committee Face-to-Face meeting this month are: how to capture outreach activities, how to document committee recommendations (including issue committees), Ethical Standards, IRS response (acknowledging TAP recommendations). Committee Member Handelman asked if the committee members had any additional items they would like to submit to the Joint Committee to please communicate them to Committee Chair Ed Hanna for him to take to the Joint Committee Meeting next week.

Monthly Chair Reports will now be sent to all committee members.

The committee has never received a response to the Outsourcing recommendation the committee elevated to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson; however, she did mention this issue in her Report to Congress and used portions of the proposal word-for-word.

TAP Director Bernie Coston will be circulating the Legislative Form to be used by individuals to elevate legislative issues to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson. This is not to be used by the committee. It will not be given special treatment.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna reminded committee members that they need to submit their outreach activities to TAP Analyst Sallie Chavez on the official forms so they can be recorded in the Annual Report.

Status of Issues
Contact #3145 – Request Change to EFTPS System
Committee Member Brad Moore has not been able to work on this issue. He does want to move forward on the issue and will prepare the proposal for the next meeting.

Contact #3351 – Current Year W-2 and 1099 Availability
Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated this information is not available until later in the year. It was agreed by the committee to drop this issue.

Contact #292 – Form 1040 for Clergy
Committee Chair Ed Hanna reviewed this issue. This was previously worked by the committee and closed. The practitioner who originally wrote to the committee with this problem approached TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez at the Tax Forum in Orlando last July stating he was still having the same problem. These returns are very specialized and complicated. Committee Chair Hanna would like to have a subject matter expert to learn if these are processed differently than regular returns. Committee Members J. T. Wright and Al Vivona formed a sub-committee to determine how clerical returns are processed and what the error rate is for these as compared to other returns.

Contact #3387 – Taxpayer Assistance Centers
Committee Chair Ed Hanna stated the center used the correct procedures. It was agreed by the committee to drop this issue. It was recommended to use TAP Program Manager’s information to close the issue with the citizen.

Contact #770 – Delay in Audit Response
Committee Member Charlotte Cassady was not on the call. Will hold over until next month.

Contact #2306 – Improvements for Extensions
Committee Chair Ed Hanna said he thought that the SB/SE issue committee was working on this issue. TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez provided research information to Committee Member Owen Oatley. He explained the issue to the entire committee. Extensions cannot be faxed to the IRS. The practitioners would like to be able to submit multiple extensions; however, Owen Oatley’s research found there might be a disclosure problem because extensions are filed with taxpayers’ returns. He will prepare a draft recommendation for the next meeting.

Contact #3346 – Independence of Appeals
Committee Member Owen Oatley said that IRS and Appeals are structured differently. Appeals gets involved solely at the request of the taxpayer. It was decided that this issue be dropped.

Contact #3333 – Prepare Reimbursed from Refund
Committee Chair Ed Hanna states he will get the information on this and report at the next meeting.

Dependent Issue
Committee Member Charlotte Cassady was not on the call so this issue will be held over to the next meeting.

Telephone Issues
Committee Chair Ed Hanna said he would like to have a speaker from the toll-free line at the Face-to-Face meeting in Atlanta in July. He asked the committee to provide questions they would like answered. Request the speaker for about 30 minutes.

Contact #3356 – Disaster Area Information
Committee Chair Ed Hanna said that this issue is too broad. It needs to be more definitive. What is deficient in what the IRS provides now? He said there are multiple publications with this disaster information available. Committee Member Owen Oatley stated after all the hurricanes in Florida last year he thought there was a need for this information. He will solicit additional information about this issue.

Contact #3357 – 21st Century Act
Committee Chair Ed Hanna said there are no formal procedures yet on this issue. He requested TAP Program Analyst to research and see when procedures will be completed.

Members Report of Presentations
Committee Member Helen Curol attended a meeting of 25 – 35 African American churchwomen. She spoke about TAP activities and left her business cards with them.

Committee Member José Irizarry recorded a _-hour TV program with the Local Taxpayer Advocate, which will be broadcast this month. This could be viewed by more than 25,000 people

Plans for Face-to-Face Meeting
TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez reported that everything was coming along for the face-to-face meeting in July. The meeting on Friday will be at the Summit Federal Building, which is about two blocks from the hotel. The meeting on Saturday will be in the hotel. Travel Request forms will be sent the first of June. Please complete them upon receipt and get them back to Jenny as soon as possible so all travel requests can be completed.

Meeting Close
Committee Member Gwen Handelman reported that a response was received concerning the elevated proposal on Health Care Benefits. The Joint Committee submitted the recommendation to the wrong operating division. Committee Chair Ed Hanna is requesting, in his April Monthly Report, to have it submitted to the correct operating division.

Committee Chair Ed Hanna said the Uniform Taxpayer Identification Requirements recommendation is being elevated with the April Monthly Report.

Next meeting is scheduled for June 7, 2005 at 11:00 am ET.