Area 4 Committee Meeting Minutes

February 18, 2004 

Present:

• David Cain
• Daniel Drumel
• Richard Greenberg
• Leslie Malcolmson
• Sandy McQuin, DFO
• Joseph Meissner
• Robert Meldman
• Dick Murphy
• Teresa Smedley, Chair

Staff Present:

• Mary Ann Delzer, Program Analyst

Welcome / Review Agenda

Announcements / Approve Minutes
Minutes were approved without any changes.

Smedley shared that at the Joint Committee (JC) meeting, Coston announced that the budget would allow for a second face to face meeting. Area 4 needs to decide when and where. Currently are scheduled for Louisville end of July 26-28, 2004. JC looking for each Area to forward two issues by the May JC meeting.

Malcolmson and Meissner stated they would prefer one meeting earlier and one later, i.e., June/September. Malcolmson stated that face to face meetings are much more productive.

Smedley reminded the group of the dates for the Annual meeting, November 4-6.

After discussion, the members agreed to a Chicago meeting, with travel April 18 and the meeting April 19-20, 2004. The conference call April 21, 2004 will be canceled. The second face to face meeting will be in Louisville as originally scheduled.

Public Input
None

Discussion of Issues

Lien Desk Recording – Delzer
Currently the lien process is being redesigned and will be centralized with calls going to Cincinnati and Philadelphia and printing in Detroit and Ogden. Implementation team has been contacted and they have indicated that they are working this and will get back to us. Hope is to have some input on the customer service that will be provided and give our suggestions.

ACTION: Delzer will follow-up with lien process owners for more information.

Inclusion of Interest Calculation on Billing Notices – Delzer
Issue was that notices do not have complete penalty and interest calculations. All notices are generated by either SB/SE or WI Service Centers, no separate LMSB centers. Have a team with members from the different operating divisions and they look at what should be included in the notices. Only 1 notice can be printed and the decision made was to include a summary of the penalty and interest and not a complete calculation. LMSB agreed to the current notice and is working with the Revenue agents and their mangers to provide the complete record for the customers when needed.

Close issue.

Interest Offset and Netting – Meldman
To summarize the issue, a corporation may have a tax refund coming and a balance due on another period and looking for an offset. This is new with a law change and now netting is allowed. Basically this is a mathematical problem. The bottom line is that everyone knows that it is a problem. Unfortunately, with the current move to centralize the work at the Ogden Campus, little TAP can do at this point.

Parking lot/suspend until February 2005

FICA/Medicare Claims – Malcolmson
Nothing to report this month

Innocent Spouse– Meldman
Murphy shared that he was fortunate to attend a Practitioner Phone Forum on January 21, 2004, regarding Innocent Spouse Centralized Site Case Processing Overview and Relief from Joint and Several Liability. The discussion was led by Tim Lynn, Innocent Spouse Operations Manager and Connie Hemingway and Diana Huebner, Innocent Spouse Program Managers.

This was a technical discussion and a great way to improve education to practitioners. Publication 971, Innocent Spouse Relief, now has flow charts to help assist people determine if they qualify for Innocent Spouse. But screening upfront still a problem with 40% of applications sent that do not qualify. The information does indicate that the non-qualified claims are down some for the first quarter of FY2004. Since Area 4 has met with Connie and Diana when visited Cincinnati, they would probably be open to talk to us further.

Meldman stated that part of the solution could be for IRS to increase outreach efforts with Family Law practitioners as opposed to tax preparers.

ACTION: Delzer to contact Lynn to determine Innocent Operations interest in working with TAP.

ACTION: Delzer to contact Forms and Pubs to check on status of possible future revisions of Pub 971/Form 8857.

ACTION: Delzer to check data to determine errors on practitioner prepared/self prepared applications.

Married Filing Separate
Smedley asked for volunteers to work the issue. Meissner will chair, with help from Drumel, Greenberg and Malcolmson.

ACTION: Delzer to contact TAS and see if this is indeed a problem in Ohio.

Other issues
Smedley looking to the parking lot and the W-4 issue. Area 2 is recommending the reworking the form to add a line for the withholding as a percentage. Meldman stated he and Meyer believe this is not a legislative issue, but is a regulatory issue and IRS can change the form W-4 and publication. Smedley stated that she sees people owing year after year. Cain agreed that this is a complicated issue, especially if more than one job and tips involved. Smedley said the two earner couple, with multiple jobs needs to be addressed. McQuin said many employers as well do not understand the W-4 and kids file exempt and end up owing tax and penalties.

Cain agreed to chair committee, with help from Drumel, Greenberg, Murphy and Smedley.

ACTION: Smedley to contact Area 2 chair David Meyer to see how they will proceed on the issue.

ACTION: Delzer to contact Forms and Pubs to see if a revision in currently in the works of W-4/Pub 919.

Outreach Strategy

ACTION: Delzer to work on Outreach Strategy this during the next month. Will let members know what she may still need from them to move forward.

Outreach Report

• Meissner—Has been working with organizations which assist low income families at tax time. Many of the issues discussed effect these taxpayers.
• Greenberg —Has been working in the high schools teaching about the tax system. Is this outreach?
• McQuin—Please mention/talk up TAP when out in the community doing any kind of speaking. These are good opportunities to educate the public about TAP.
• Delzer—Materials are available to use when do outreach. Please email requests to me in regard to how many will be in attendance and when you will need it.

Office Report

• McQuin--Recruitment will begin March.
• Delzer—Please send names to the office of individuals who may be interested in becoming TAP members. We can send out the application to them when it is available.

Action Assignments

DELZER

• ACTION: Delzer will follow-up with process owners for more information.
• ACTION: Delzer to contact Lynn to determine Innocent Operations interest in working with TAP.
• ACTION: Delzer to contact Forms and Pubs to check on status of possible future revisions of Pub 971/Form 8857.
• ACTION: Delzer to check data to determine errors on practitioner prepared/self prepared applications.
• ACTION: Delzer to contact TAS and see if this is indeed a problem in Ohio.
• ACTION: Delzer to contact Forms and Pubs to see if a revision in currently in the works of W-4/Pub 919.
• ACTION: Delzer to work on Outreach Strategy this during the next month. Will let members know what she may still need from them to move forward.

SMEDLEY

• ACTION: Smedley to contact Area 2 chair David Meyer to see how they will proceed on the issue.