Area 3 Committee Meeting Minutes

April 18, 2006

Members in Attendance

• J T Wright
• Bill Matheny
• Hank Mosler
• Joyce Natter
• Max Scott
• Chris Dreska
• Patrice Marker

Members Absent

• Daryll Cordeiro

DFO present

• Carolyn Lewis

Staff in Attendance

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

Roll Call
Quorum of five (5) was met.

Review of Joint Committee Call
Committee Chair J T Wright stated he sent out an email this morning with the notes on what the members of the Joint Committee will discuss with the Commissioner when they meet with him on April 20th. He wanted the members to have a copy of this “agenda”. Committee Member Joyce Natter stated there were several recommendations still pending from several years ago. She wanted to know how these were being handled. TAP Program Manager Nancy Ferree stated that TAP Director Bernie Coston along with Joint Committee Analyst Barbara Toy handled this. Committee Chair Wright will discuss this with TAP Program Manager Ferree and TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez later this week.

Review of the Town Hall Meeting
Committee Member Bill Matheny thanked everyone for his or her involvement in the Town Hall. He stated there were approximately 30 attendees at the meeting, which included TAP employees, TAS employees, IRS employees, practitioners, LITCs, VITA workers, Congressional representatives and a few citizens. TAP Committee Members address the group first telling why they were volunteers. Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson was the main speaker and directed the forum. Notes on what happened during the Town Hall were email to members this morning and are also posted on TAPSpeak.

Some of the issues discussed where lack of response from the IRS, lack of response from toll-free (automated system) and walk-in sites closing. There was a suggestion that if walk-in sites closed, the IRS should work with the libraries in the area.

There was also a focus group after the presentation. During this time participants spoke about employees not giving name and ID, talking to more than one person about a problem, driving long distances to a walk-in site, the regulation of practitioners and sending information multiple times.

Committee Member Matheny stated the committee got the word out about TAP but was a little disappointed that there was not a larger turnout. He spoke with preparers and was told that it was “crunch time” for them and they did not have the time to attend.

He asked the other TAP member attendees for their input. Committee Member Max Scott said he would have like to have seen more people. The whole idea of TAP is to help people. Committee Member Chris Deska said he thought it was a success and agreed he would have like more people. He said National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson handled the program well. He thinks if there is another Town Hall, it should not be so close to filing season. Committee Chair J T Wright also said it was good. He would like to have suggestions on ways to improve attendance. In addition, he would like to suggest time for the committee members to have face time with National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson such as a dinner meeting. TAP Program Manger Nancy Ferree stated she appreciated the Congressional attendance.

Subcommittee Report

• Issue 218 – Check-box Authority
  Committee Member Bill Matheny stated this was in the parking lot for now. Plans are to have a survey given to practitioner at the NationWide Tax Forum if TAP attends. TAP Program Manger Nancy Ferree stated she still did not know if the TAP would attend this year. DFO Carolyn Lewis stated she was going to be at the Atlanta Forum and she could make sure the surveys were given out there. There is also a Forum in Orlando and we could have someone from TAS make sure they are distributed there as well.

• Issue 3537 – Refund to Create Savings Account
  Committee Member Bill Matheny reported he had spoken to Brad Moore who was the previous subcommittee chair on this issue. He received quite a bit of information about the issue. Beatsie Woo from Area 2 is also interested in this issue and would like to work with Area 3 on it. She sent Committee Member Matheny a letter from a former commissioner who is working on the split refund issue. IRS is already working on this and the committee is really more interested now in how a taxpayer can cash checks or get refunds by another means. It was suggested that the area committee work with the VITA issue committee who might also be working a similar issue.

  TAP Program Manager Nancy Ferree said she has some information that TAS is developing a financial literacy strategy. She is reviewing this information and will distribute any information she can.

  Committee Member Bill Matheny asked if TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez had sent out the article about the way this refund issue was handled in San Francisco. She stated she had only sent it to members of the subcommittee. He asked that she send it to the whole committee. It is not available in electronic format so she will send out via mail.

• Issue 3734 - Downloadable Form 1099-MISC
  Committee Member Joyce Natter sent out a recommendation on this issue on April 10. The committee only made the recommendation on the Form 1099-MISC. The website states that if the form on the website is used there is a $50 per form penalty. Using a downloable Form 1099-MISC is not easy to use for small businesses. They can use the form on the website. By consensus this recommendation was approved.

  The recommendation has to go through an edit committee before it is submitted to the Joint Committee. Committee Members Patrice Marker and J T Wright agreed to be this edit committee. They will review the recommendation, make any correction, and send out a corrected recommendation before the face-to-face meeting.

• Issue 3137 – E-Filing – Current Process Discourages
  Committee Member Joyce Natter stated the issue was that it was difficult and costing money to file a paper Form 941. This is not true. It is a simple form that can be done on the website. You can file and pay at the same time. You can’t efile on line. IRS has offered this in the past but they have no plans to offer it again in the future. The subcommittee recommends dropping this issue. By consensus this recommendation was dropped.

There was no report on Issue 3604 (Change Correspondence from English to Spanish) or 3671 (Social Security Numbers not marching hyphenated last name). DFO Carolyn Lewis had agreed to get some information to the subcommittee but was unable to obtain the information. She will have this information for the face-to-face meeting.

Face-to-Face Meeting Agenda
Committee Chair J T Wright presented the DRAFT Agenda for the face-to-face meeting. He and Committee Member Bill Matheny will get together and finalize it before the meeting.

Other Issue
Committee Member Bill Matheny would like to know if anyone has done anything of interest as far as outreach is concerned. Committee Chair J T Wright said the focus for the last month was on the Town Hall. TAP Program Manger Nancy Ferree said for each member to stay in contact with his or her Local Taxpayer Advocate for outreach activities. DFO Carolyn Lewis stated that Louisiana and Mississippi had extended tax seasons. She will provide TAP Program Manger Ferree with anything of interest for the committee.

TAP recruiting ends on April 28. There are several stated that do not have any applicants or very few. Any help in getting applicants would be appreciated.

Meeting Close
Next meeting is the face-to-face meeting in Atlanta on May 11 – 13, 2006.

Approved by consensus of committee on 5/11/2006