Area 4 Committee Meeting Minutes
Conference Call
November 28, 2006

Welcome / Roll Call / Review Agenda
Ferd Schneider welcomed the new panel members in attendance. 

National Office Report – Bernie Coston
Sandy McQuin stated approval was received from Treasury to select the new members.  Milwaukee has contacted all our new members and everyone will be at the annual meeting.  Bernie Coston is in DC this week moving the main TAP office. 
Coston thanked Donna Hafer and Don Miller for their time, efforts, and contributions, during their tenure with TAP.

Chair Report

• Approve Minutes of October 24, 2006

  Approved by consensus.

• Joint Committee Report

Schneider reported that the Joint Committee approved Issue 3705, Forms, Web Availability of OCR.  A response was already received from the IRS! 

• Area 4 Self Assessment

Mary Ann Delzer received six responses to date and has consolidated the information.  However, this is only a small part of the self assessment, as the complete report is due by December 31, 2006.  Schneider urged everyone to respond with their self assessment report.  There is a lot of work that needs to be done for the final report.  Delzer shared that last year the report writing was divided up among many panel members.  The report gets melded with the rest of the Area and Issue Committee reports to become the TAP Annual Report.
Action:  Delzer will forward the 2005 Area 4 self assessment to Schneider.   

Public Input
None.

Subcommittee Reports

• Issue Review – Ferd Schneider
• Issue # 3988 - Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return, (and Form 4506 T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return)

You can attain a copy of your tax return using this form.  When signing this form, it gives a third party access to your personal data.  We think the caution should be in bold type or made more noticeable.  This issue will be considered at the next Joint Committee meeting in December.

• Forms and Publications-Mary Ann Delzer
• Issue # 3694 – Employer Identification Number (EIN) in Publication 393, 2005 Federal Employment Tax Forms

Delzer said by looking at the emails, consensus  was this issue should be closed.  This will be a non-issue in 2007 as they redesigned the forms W-2 and W-3. 

• Customer Issue –  Mary Ann Delzer

Issue # 3706 – Form 8453, U.S. Individual Income Tax Declaration for an IRS e-file Return.   Delzer sent everyone a copy of Area 1’s recommendation approved by the Joint Committee.  One option is to monitor the issue and see how IRS responds to the Area 1 recommendation.  McQuin questioned why IRS is missing one million of these signature documents.  Staff does VITA returns in the office and we get requests for these forms every year even though we know we already sent them.  Betty Martin said a systemic issue was raised about this very issue.  Paul Duquette suggested the issue be kept in the parking lot and then monitor to make sure we don’t lose track of it.  Patricia Bryant noted that the IRS really has a problem as to how they handle these forms and where and how to store them.  Martin said some Declaration Control Numbers are entered manually and that may cause some of the errors.  The consensus was to put it in the parking lot but monitor.   Several members of this area are VITA and TCE volunteers so should know if the numbers of these notices decline this year.  Stan Wernz said we were encouraged to use practitioner pins and Form 8879, IRS e-file Signature Authorization and to only use Form 8453 when we have to.  The Forms 8879 have to be kept by the site coordinator or they get mailed to the IRS.   
ACTION:  Betty Martin will check into the status of the systemic issue regarding IRS non-receipt of Forms 8453. 

Issue #3705, Forms, Web Availability of Optical Character Recognition (OCR).  TAP sent the recommendation to Sue Sottile, Director, Strategic Planning, on November 21, 2006, and we already received a response.  OCR forms can not be submitted to IRS if printed from irs.gov.  Area 4 recommended that a notice and link be put on irs.gov that these forms can be ordered from the IRS website.  The basic response received was the IRS likes our recommended solution.  We can accept this response and close the issue; then monitor to make sure the changes are completed.  McQuin said if proposal is accepted and closed, it will show up in the TAP Annual Report as a success for the Area 4 Committee.  We should accept and then can unofficially check on it.  Status of issue to be recorded “Closed, Proposal Accepted. “  Joe Hurr volunteered to keep an eye on this issue.  McQuin said this recommendation was simple, concise, and clear and that is probably one reason why it was accepted and will be implemented.

Outreach
Schneider said one of our duties as a panel member is to make sure people know about TAP; that is outreach.  It is important and we all need to do it.  There is a format to use to help simplify reporting outreach completed, but you do not have to use it.  You just need to know it’s important to do it and report it.  This information gets integrated into the annual report too.
                       
ACTION Item Review
All action items have been completed. 

Office Report

• Annual Meeting

McQuin reported that a reception is scheduled for Monday night at the Capital City Brewery; more information will be forthcoming.  Area committees will be going to dinner on Tuesday evening.  These dinners are not mandatory and spouses are welcome.  Issue committees will be going out Wednesday evening.  You will each pay for your own dinner since you will be on per diem.  There will probably be a group of about 25 and the reservation is usually made for around 6 p.m.

McQuin will be sending out a package of pre-read information to the new members.  This will be discussed during the conference call scheduled for next week Thursday,
December 7.

We need to know if you need business cards.  Please let Delzer know as soon as possible.  The sooner we order them, the sooner we get them.  Also, please make sure you bring your emergency contact information sheet as well as your signed Volunteer Agreement to Washington, DC with you.    

Coston congratulated the new members on their selection and their willingness to be part of an organization that is evolving into a major player in IRS issues.  He reiterated that outreach is very important; the only way for people to know about TAP is for you to get the word out.  Please take the time to do outreach.  Coston also asked that everyone respond and consider volunteering to help with the Taxpayer Assistance Centers (Taxpayer Assistance Centers) survey developed by the TAC Committee.   

The next meeting December 12, during the TAP Annual Conference.