Area 4 Committee Meeting Minutes

Conference Call
July 26, 2005

Designated Federal Official

• Mary Ann Delzer, Program Analyst

Committee Members Present

• Larry Behnkendorf, Michigan
• Adrienne Bell-Stampley, Illinois
• Paul Duquette, Wisconsin
• Richard Greenberg, Illinois
• Steve Hoffman, Ohio, Area 4 Vice-chair
• May Ann Lawler, Michigan
• Leslie Malcolmson, Michigan
• Joe Meissner, Ohio
• Donald Miller, Tennessee
• Lovella Richardson, Tennessee
• Ferd Schneider, Ohio
• Teresa Smedley, Indiana, Area 4 Chair

Committee Members Absent

• James Abraham, Ohio
• Maureen Amos, Illinois
• Robert Broniarczyk, Illinois
• Donna Hafer, Kentucky
• Delford Jones, Indiana
• F. Patrick Matthews, Wisconsin

TAP Staff

• Patti Robb, Secretary

Visitors

• John Vang, Cleveland Legal Aid Intern

Welcome
Smedley welcomed everyone to the call and thanked the members for taking the time to participate.

Roll Call
Quorum was met with 12 members present.

Area 4 Chair Report -- Smedley

• Joint Committee Report — TAP Director Bernie Coston sent out a National Office update report. He announced that the Annual meeting scheduled for November 2-4, 2005, will be held in the Hyatt at Capitol Hill. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson and Commissioner Everson will attend. The Commissioner will be meeting with the members of the Joint Committee the morning of November 2. That speaks highly of what he thinks of TAP.

  Area 4 will have two more meetings; August and September. We will not be meeting in October so we need to elevate our issues within the next month we want to get credit for them this year. Joint Committee will meet in October. Non continuing members will be receiving exit surveys. Please complete them and return them to National Office. It is valuable feedback.

  Our Forms and Publications issue was presented to the Joint Committee. They discussed it, suggested some minor grammatical changes, and approved elevating it. Area 4 has a very good record with elevated issues. Analyst Delzer sent out the handout written by Judi Nicholas on Elevating Recommendations for Changes to Forms, Instructions, and Publications. Smedley said it is very helpful.

  The Communication Committee recommended using TAPSpeak as a primary form of communication. Not exclusive but primary. Delzer ensures everyone is notified when she puts any information or articles on TAPSpeak. She sent out the agenda, minutes, and other information for this meeting via email, as well as putting it on TAPSpeak. Smedley said when you get the information via email; you tend to delete the message with the link from TAPSpeak. Some of the committee members said they haven’t received the email message from TAPSpeak.

  ACTION: Delzer will check email addresses used by TAPSpeak.

  Smedley pointed out that National Office spends a lot of money on TAPSpeak so we need to use it or we will lose it. It was pointed out that the IRS is spending a lot of money and effort to maintain and enhance TAPSpeak. The majority of those who participated in the teleconference felt these limited IRS resources could be better used for other, higher priority TAP activities (e.g. more face-to-face meetings). Duquette said it takes much longer to open a document in TAPSpeak than it does when it comes via email. Delzer pointed out that if you don’t want to use TAPSpeak, you need to let the Communication Committee know. Smedley said you can find everything on TAPSpeak. If you cannot locate the agenda/minutes for a current meeting, you can pull it up on TAPSpeak. Information is also on improveirs.org. A poll was taken and only one person would like to use TAPSpeak, everyone else preferred email. Smedley will forward Area 4’s preference to the Communication Committee.

• What’s On TAP — This was the brainchild of prior TAP members Larry Lexow and Bob Meldman. The Joint Committee decided this program should go national so they told us to put it on hold so they could develop it. It was assigned to the Ad Hoc Committee to manage, but they had other priorities so nothing happened. We did send a couple articles out but we aren’t sure how many were actually published. The articles have to go through a National Office analyst for approval before being distributed. The Joint Committee eventually reassigned this program to the Communications Committee. They put it in the parking lot. Do we want to take this program back into Area 4 or should we leave it in the parking lot. We could set things up now so it would be ready for the upcoming filing season. Greenberg said this should be a priority item for Area 4 at the annual meeting in November. Smedley said it’s a good opportunity for retiring members to write and give to continuing members – sum up the past few years. Delzer will resurrect all articles already written. They can be updated as needed. If you want to write an article, there is a canned opening and closing paragraph to be used. You would only have to write a couple paragraphs for the middle.

  ACTION: What’s on TAP Subcommittee: Duquette and Richardson.

  ACTION: Greenberg to write an article for What’s on TAP.

  ACTION: Delzer to send out copies of old articles to Area 4 and the canned opening and closing paragraphs.

Public Input
None

Discussion of Elevated Issues--Smedley

• Innocent/Injured Spouse — Delzer said IRS is looking at redoing the Form 8857, Request for Innocent Spouse Relief. She has the name of the program owner and will send all Area 4 recommendations to her.

• W-4 EZ Response — The Payroll Issue committee was tasked with looking at the Form W-4 process from the employee/employer point of view. We also gave input. A response was received from SB/SE. They are aware that the form needs revision but it is not a current priority. They will contact TAP again before going forward with this project.

Discussion of Current Issues

• Refund Anticipation Loans—Meissner emailed a recap of what has been going on:
  1. We continue to do research and talk to people about RAL's.
     
  2. At the MLI meeting in Washington, D.C., we talked to people with TAP from around the country about RAL's and the problems these can cause for low-income families.
     
  3. We do have a deadline in order to get an approval of our recommendations. We must as a subcommittee finish our work before August 23 which is the crucial meeting for Area 4 TAP to consider our recommendations.
     
  4. Our subcommittee needs to have a telephone conference call sometime next week August 1, or no later than the week of August 8th.
     
  5. I am completing a final draft of our work which will be sent to everyone before August 1st. I have been greatly aided in this work by John Vang who is a Law Student and Legal Intern with us for this summer.
     
  6. The Final Draft will contain an analysis of RAL's, the problems they cause, and ways of dealing with these problems. It will also contain some twenty possible recommendations for dealing with RAL's and helping the taxpayers who may need these.
     
  7. We had been told that attorneys from the national TA office would talk to us by conference telephone. We have received no word about this.
     
  8. We were also told that H&R Block people wanted to talk to our subcommittee. Again we have not heard anymore about this.
     
  9. I did send the TA, Nina Olson, a full set of all the materials that we have gathered, researched, and analyzed in our work. I also left a message with her office on the progress we have been making.

  The subcommittee will meet and submit a final report at the August meeting.

• Form 990 — Duquette said the subcommittee met and discussed the letters that go out to new non-profit organizations. It is a very hard read so this issue should be worked. IRS is mandating e-filing for larger non-profits organizations. Duquette has read the report from Advisory Committee to TEGE (ACT) and they already have made some recommendations.

  ACTION: Delzer to send Form 990 Committee Members ACT recommendations report.

• VITA — Miller had conversations with McQuin who spoke to Coston and Sue Sottile on how to organize. There is an extremely good chance that VITA will become an issue committee next year. Sottile has received about ten issues to date and will prioritize. McQuin will set up a conference call around the middle of August and will share the vision for this new committee with the Area 4 subcommittee.
  Delzer mentioned that SPEC will be reviewing the test and retest of the training materials around September 12 and we will be asked for input again. Some of you may be asked to go to Atlanta or to review the materials at home. The fact that that they are asking for our input again makes this a huge success! Delzer will keep you updated as thing progress. Schneider said he has been out of the loop and hasn’t received the information.

  ACTION: Delzer will follow up on continuing work with SPEC and inform VITA Committee members.

New Issues-- Smedley

• Contact ID 3349 – drop

• Contact ID 3527 – drop

• Contact ID 3533 – drop

• Contact ID 3528 – drop (refer caller to Circular 230)

• Contact ID 3580 – Caller expressed frustration with using the IRS Help Line (800-829-1040) menu. Caller suggests that there should be an option for callers to choose and get directed to an IRS operator, who will assist them in getting to the right area to answer their question. Smedley will call the toll free number to see if getting an operator is an option.

  ACTION: Smedley will research current phone options and report results at August meeting.

• Contact 3538 – Schedule D / Capital Loss Carryover – this issue will be put in the parking lot as a priority issue for next year.

Outreach-- Smedley
Please be sure to write up a report and send to Delzer after an Outreach is completed.

Office Report-- Delzer
There will not be any committee meetings held in October. The Joint Committee will have a meeting to wrap things up in October.

All interviews have been completed for the new panel members. We are waiting for them to return their fingerprints and tax check waivers. Coston is hoping to send his selection recommendations to Treasury by August 8.

Action Items--Delzer
All completed.

Closing/Assessment/Meeting Adjourned
The annual meeting is scheduled for November 2-4, 2005. As things solidify, you will be contacted for your travel preferences.
It was a good meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 12:08 p.m., ET

Next meeting August 23, 2005, 11 a.m. ET.