Area 3 Committee Meeting Minutes
April 17, 2007

Members in Attendance
J T Wright
Bill Matheny
Henry Mosler
Mark Paris
Dale Cooper
Max Scott
Al Rodriguez
Chuck Tice

Members Absent
Mary Armstrong
Daryll Cordeiro
Byron Edwards
Patrice Marker
Donna Tremblay

DFO present
Carolyn Lewis

Welcome
Committee Chair Henry Mosler opened the meeting by welcoming everyone.  He asked Anita to take Roll.

Roll Call
Quorum of eight (8) was met. 

Introductions of Guests
There were no guests present.

Review of Previous Meeting Minutes
We will approve minutes at the next meeting.

Review of Joint Committee Call
Committee Chair Hank Mosler did not have any comment on the Joint Committee call. J.T. Wright felt that the call did not go well.  J.T. also thinks once originating subcommittee puts the issue together and the area committee approves it, they will post that issue on TAPSpace.  This will be prior to a quality review by the quality committee in the area.  It will be a posting with other areas in the country to review and respond back to the originating subcommittee with their ideas and though processes for then originating subcommittee will look at the value of that input and make necessary revisions to the issue, run it by their quality committee before elevating it to joint committee.  He also feels that would be a great improvement for elevating issues. 

Max Scott expressed his agreement with the plan, but wanted to ensure that the Joint Committee also view the issue while briefly posted on TAPSpace.

Chair Hank Mosler wants everyone to know that there was a report on TAPSpace that has all of the elevated issues on there.  He would like for the panel member to look at it.

Subcommittee Report
Patrice Marker was not on call and could not give her report.

Bill Matheny discussed TAC issues that Area 3 was working on with Areas 2 and 5.  They summarized all issues and forwarded them to Estelle Tunley, head of field assistance and are still waiting on a response before we go forward.

The IRS is starting a pilot program for automated service in some of the TAC offices.

J.T. wants to include the TAC issues in the face to face discussion with Commissioner Everson.

Bill also stated that they are working on issue 3921 (check box authority). They are still trying to work out a time to get with the IRS analyst that rejected the issue.

Sallie will make contact to let the IRS analyst know that we want to talk to them by the end of the month.

Carolyn Lewis wanted to inform panel members that the TAC offices have a new procedure in place where the taxpayer comes into the office to leave a return, especially a delinquent return. The taxpayer has to take a number and be seated. Once called up to the desk, the IRS employee will do a compliance check on the taxpayer.  This is what they are calling the one-stop service.  This is in New Orleans, unsure about the other areas.

Al Rodriguez has not review the SSN mis-match. Hank wanted Al Rodriguez and Mark Paris to contact Patrice Marker to review her write-up.  She did send out an email with a draft proposal.

Outreach
Last communications conference call talked about making changes on how outreach was measured.  Instead of listing how many people you reach, just list the event itself.  Has not been cleared as of yet, but we are working on it.

Contact with Local Taxpayer Advocate

• Chuck Tice heard from his LTA and a conference call is scheduled.
  
• J.T. stays in contact with his LTA semi regularly
  
• Dale Cooper needs to call his LTA because he has a client issue outside of outreach.
  
• Mark Paris has not been able to get in touch with his LTA and has not pursued within the last month or so, but will try this week.
  
• Al Rodriguez has not been able to get in touch with his LTA and has not pursued within the last month or so, but will try this week.

Citizen Input
No citizens present.

Meeting Close
Hank wants panel members to send an email to Sallie Chavez or himself to let us know if they are not going to attend. 

Sallie wants the committee to think about changing meeting dates in July and September due to Tax Forums that are scheduled during meeting dates.

Action Items
Bill Matheny will check with Judy Nicholas on the status of issues that were forwarded to Estelle Tunley.

Sallie Chavez will try to contact IRS author that rejected the issue.

Carolyn Lewis will find out if the TAC offices are only checking delinquent taxes or are they also checking current year.