Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP)
Area 3 Committee
Meeting Minutes
April 14, 2008

Members in Attendance
Dale Cooper
Jaspconia Florence
Luis Fuentes
Louis Kapugi
Patrice Marker
Hank Mosler
Mark Paris
Al Rodriguez
Max Scott 
Homer Sewell III 
Tommy Thompson

Members Absent
Chuck Tice

DFO present
Rose Browne, DFO

Staff in Attendance
Nancy Ferree, TAP Program Manager
Sallie Chavez, TAP Program Analyst
Anita Fields, Secretary

Welcome
Dale Cooper welcomed everyone and asked Anita to take roll.

Roll Call
Quorum was met.

Introductions of Guests
Herbert Hayes

Review of March 18, 2008 Meeting Minutes
The minutes were approved by consensus.

Review of Joint Committee
There was a discussion on the Town Hall meetings that was held in Birmingham, Ala. and Durham, NC.  There was also a reminder of the upcoming Town Hall to be held in Springfield, Ill.  Dale Cooper will give a briefing on lessons learned from the Town Hall meetings that have already occurred during the Joint Committee F2F, in St. Louis in June.  Nancy asked for an update on the TAP Annual Report.  They have not given a target release date, but they are working on it and it is getting close to completion.

Subcommittee Reports
Issue 4404—Copy of Return— Internal Revenue Service (IRS) presently charges for a copy of a lost return.  The fee is waived for taxpayers in federally declared disaster areas who need a return “to apply for benefits or to file amended returns claiming casualty losses.” Charges should be waived in a federally declared disaster area.

Max reported that the subcommittee has completed its part of reviewing the issue.  Will submit the issue to the committee and speak with Janice Washington she is the subject matter expert.  Rose and Max will talk later today and then Rose will contact Janice and present the issue to her.

Issue 4550—Free Tax Prep Problem— Taxpayer uses “free tax prep” from the IRS web site. In this case, she navigates to Turbo Tax. The system works for her, but she is unhappy that the additional charges to use the “free” system are not indicated until after she completes her return. If there are optional fees, why are they not advertised at the beginning.

Max reported that he has sent out information on what he encountered and is waiting on responses from the subcommittee.  Once they put the comments together, the subcommittee will write up a recommendation and submit to the rest of the committee for approval to send to the Joint Committee. The team is going to recommend the IRS place parameters and additional costs up front.   

Issue 4589—Unable to Contact IRS with Number on Notice— The issue has been written-up. Just need a couple minor corrections and we will elevate to the Joint Committee.  There were discussions on changing the title and Al Rodriguez said that he would change the title.  Al will modify the Joint Committee issue referral form to validate the issue number and the address.  He will also add an enhancement to the base sentence reference another issue on the 1800 number.  Mark Paris mentioned that the Communications Committee is working on a plethora of issues regarding the 800 numbers.  Mark stated that if any one has any comments or suggestions to send them to him.  Dale asked if we should send this to the Communications Committee before it gets elevated to the Joint Committee.  Mark advised them to write the issue up and send it to him; maybe it can be sent as a joint issue instead of an area and an issue working the same issue.

Issue 4635—Expanding Third Party Authorization Term- Dale has not been able to do anything on this issue.  Area 4 is also working on this issue; therefore, he is going to carry forward to May.

New Issue Review
Issue 4664--A practitioner would like a “technical” hotline for difficult questions. Lou Kapugi reported that there are currently two services available right now for practitioners.  The Practitioner Priority Service (PPS) and the Electronic Account Resolution (EAR), they both deal with monetary part of this.  The screening subcommittee feels that there is a good source of avenues out there that practitioners can get help.  Dale mentioned that the IRS used to have something called R-mail.  It used to be an old section of the IRS, where a technical email would come in and be forwarded to a specialist.  They are going to find out if R-mail can be revised.  Rose asked Dale is it an ethical issue for practitioners to charge taxpayers a fee for answers they get from the IRS free.   Dale stated that if the client pays for an answer and the practitioner can get it from the IRS then good, but there still has to be validation.  This issue is active by consensus.

Issue 4665-- A practitioner stated there is a Hispanic problem.  His clients have to file Form 1099 with no Social Security Number because the W-7 was not filed.  That causes a $50 penalty for each Form 1099 without a SSN.  This also causes the individual who receives the Form 1099 not to file a return.  If the IRS would require a 20%, withholding it would force these individuals to request an ITIN and file a tax return.  Sallie will check the back-up withholding for taxpayers without a SSN or ITIN.  Patrice said that the W7 is used for situations other than employers.  The committee has agreed by consensus to place in parking lot status.
 
Issue 4666-- A taxpayer was two (2) weeks late in her installment agreement.  It was defaulted.  The taxpayer would like at least a month “lag time” before the installment agreement is defaulted.  The screening subcommittee recommends dropping this issue.  It is stated up front when you enter into an installment agreement that if you are late the agreement will be defaulted.  Rose stated that the IRS allows one late payment a year.  The committee decided to drop the issue by consensus 

Issue 4667-- Practitioner discussed an issue about having a partnership elect to be a W-2 wage earner.  The screening subcommittee decided that they need more information.  Dale contacted the person for more information.  The committee decided to place in parking lot by consensus until something is heard back from the taxpayer.

Issue 4668-- A practitioner discussed the services at the Taxpayer Assistance Center.  He said when he goes to the TAC with his client; he had to wait, sometimes a long time before they are served.  He said there is a Practitioner Hotline for the phone, why could not there be a practitioner service at the walk-in office.  The subcommittee recommends dropping this issue, because they feel that this practitioner wanted special treatment, just because he was a practitioner.  The committee decided to drop the issue by consensus.

Issue 4669-- A VITA volunteer submitted an issue concerning the fact that the General Sales Tax table is not included in the Pub 17.  The screening subcommittee recommends dropping this issue because Pub 17 is not a table source; it is a source for information.  This is a pub to help prepare the taxes.  The table is in the 1040 instructions in the schedule A.  The committee decided to drop the issue by consensus.

Outreach
Dale said that he sent the report out today and apologize for being late.  Dale will send out a modified copy due to some changes. There were 225 contacts reported.  Continue to get out there and do outreach and report it.  Lou reported that he contacted approx. 125 tax preparers and asked questions on the stimulus payments.  He did not get much of a response from them.  Nancy invited the members to go out and spread the word about recruitment to friends and family members.

Citizen Input
No citizen input.

Meeting Close
Dale just ended the by thanking the guest for attending and reminding the members if they haven’t updated

Rose asked about the accountant forum in August.  Dale reported that they would do a reduced cost for TAS, but they cannot give it to the group free because of the abundant amount of vendors that will be there.  Dale suggested that TAS put this in their budget for 2009, because it is a very good resource due to the amount of practitioners in attendance.

Next Meeting scheduled for Monday May 19, 2008 12:30pm EST.

Certification: the Area 3 Committee approved these minutes by consensus on May 19, 2008.