Taxpayer Advocacy Panel
Committee Annual Report
 (Due annually from Area and Issue Committee Chairs on January 15th to the Joint Committee; Report for January 1st through December 31st of the previous year)

Accomplishments:  Area 4 instituted a policy of having a roundtable discussion of the members’ Issue Committees for about a five minute period in each of the monthly meetings.  Thus gave members a broad understanding of all the Issue Committees and their accomplishments.

Issue 4037, Private Delivery Service was elevated to the Joint Committee, and Joint Committee sent to IRS.

Issue 4208, Form 1099-R Codes Conflict in Transcripts, was adopted by IRS during research phase, without having to elevate issue to the Joint Committee.

Area 4’s Face to Face Meeting was held in Milwaukee April 19th through 21st.  Attendance was 93%, with only one member absent.  A complete review of Area 4’s Contact History Report was accomplished with several issues closed and dropped.

The Area 4 Chair notes that of the four first year members, all have hit the ground running, and have made valuable contributions to the Committee’s success.

Outreach Activities:  Outreach is a priority for Area 4!   Members frequently report orally that they have spoken about TAP and the TAP Mission to acquaintances, but a written report is not proffered.  Submitted Outreach reports in Area 4 numbered one-hundred thirteen, reaching an estimated audience in excess of 151,000.   Over sixty reports indicated the contact group numbered less than ten.  The Outreach Activities venue included radio talk shows, newspapers, e-mail, fairs, tax forums, expos, phones and seminars.   Civic clubs and fraternal organizations were addressed, and members promoted TAP in chance meetings with shoppers and travelers.   The listening phase of Outreach Activities generated issues, which were reported primarily to respective Issue Committees. 

Opportunities for Improvement:
Area 4 began the year with 16 members, and has had one resignation.  Of the remaining fifteen members, seven are third year members left TAP at November 30, 2007.  Replacing these seven plus adding one to replace the resigned member meant Area 4’s membership will be half new members in 2008.

Area 4 had twelve new issues to be reviewed at the October 16 meeting, as well as five responses from IRS to be categorized.  There were currently five active issues and five more in the parking lot.  The Area 4 analyst has had to fill in for the Area 4 secretary who was recently named secretary for Bernie Coston and for the Joint Committee Analyst who is on another assignment.  Consequently, Area 4 was not as productive as the Chair would like.

Area 4 has had some disappointment with the IRS Manager.  There were three different IRS Managers assigned to support Area 4 in 2007.  The first was present for two months, the second for one month, the third for three months, and the first returned for the last six months, although there were two months in the final six where no manager was present at the monthly meetings.

Similarly, Area 4 productivity was hampered by a lack of support by IRS Analysts, not due to their willingness to research issues, but because of several analyst positions and secretarial positions remaining unfilled for several months.

Area 4 suffered from “short timer itis”.  Seven of out 15 members are third year members and did not step up to work issues.  This set a bad example for the first and second year members.  Third year members were reluctant to take on new issues when they would only be involved for a short period of time.  Unlike the corporate and nonprofit world, TAP members retire without knowing or training their replacements.  This becomes a challenge to the Area Chair and the author suggests the Joint Committee deal with this issue in 2008.