Area 5 Committee Meeting Minutes

September 12, 2006

Designated Federal Official:

• Sandy McQuin, TAP Manager

Committee Members Present

• Sandra Bland, Bemidji, MN
• Elizabeth Colvin, Austin, TX
• Howard Guthmann, St. Paul, MN
• Steve Landauer, Davenport, IA
• Bob Meyers, Omaha, NE
• Ralph Rivera, Garland, TX
• Richard Rousseau, Killeen, TX
• Warren Wong, Rochester, MN

Committee Members Absent

• Lee Stieger, Leavenworth, KS
• Mary Suther, Dallas, TX

TAP Staff

• Mary Ann Delzer, Program Analyst
• Patti Robb, Secretary

Welcome / Roll Call / Review Agenda
Quorum met.

Approval of Minutes: August 8, 2006
Minutes approved as submitted.

Joint Committee Report

• Election Process
  Area 5 forwarded their election process suggestions to the Joint Committee. They discussed the election process, however consensus was not achieved and so they are going to revisit this issue again during the face-to-face meeting in Dallas in October. All the information forwarded will still be considered then. Most members were disappointed that they could not come to consensus. The input from all the committees was so varied it actually was difficult to make a decision.

• Power of Attorney (POA) Elevated Issue
  This issue was not presented at the Joint Committee meeting because Area 5 was not represented on the call. This issue will be on the agenda for the October meeting. Being on the agenda at the face-to-face meeting could be a good thing because it can be discussed at length if needed. pated. There were good ideas exchanged on outreach.

Issue Discussion

• Training for Forms/Pubs Employees – Landauer
  This report was sent out to the committee members for comment. Guthmann questioned if the report was strong enough – will they do anything about this? Steve felt it is kind of a gentle report. Bob Meyers said to look at the website for forms and pubs. People who write them do not have to be in DC to be valid. Landauer said Sandy Kopta, Chief, Individual Forms and Publications Branch said she would welcome this report. Consensus to elevate to the Joint Committee. Meyers will explain this issue to the Joint Committee when they review it at their next meeting. Bob is on quality review sub committee for Joint Committee and thinks it will go through easily.

• Toll Free Issues - Guthmann
  Guthmann had a conference call with Intuit and they agreed to give him more technical information on there toll free operations. They called him back last week but he was on vacation and has since set up a conference call with them for this afternoon. He will write a report after the call.

• New Issues
  The list of new issues was sent out with the pre-read. Many area committees are looking at working on issues that will be ready to be presented and discussed at the annual meeting to help the new members learn the process. The Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TAC) issues shown as new on this list were actually sent back from the TAC Committee. The TAC issues listed are not in their scope this year. Guthmann asked if we decide to work these, can they be sent directly to the Joint Committee after they are finalized or do they have to go through the TAC Committee? The response is that they would go directly to Joint Committee. Delzer will check to see if any other committees are working these issues. Guthmann thinks this is a hot issue and Area 5 should look at them.

  Subcommittee makeup: Wong (chair), Guthmann, and Bland - Delzer will set up conference call to look at issues #3789, #3843, #3992, and #3996.

  ACTION: Delzer will send out an email to Suther and Stieger to see if they are interested in being on this Taxpayer Assistance Centers subcommittee.

  After discussion, decision was made to drop issues #3899 and #3962.

  McQuin congratulated TAP on the publicity around the letter/issues forwarded to the Commissioner. Toy has been posting all the articles on TAPSpeak. A reporter was on the Joint Committee call when TAP was finalizing the letter/issues and that is how it all started. It has been a very positive thing.

Outreach
Wong – met with one of the candidates for Senator for the State of Minnesota. He will write it up and send to Delzer.

Office Report – Sandy McQuin

• National Taxpayer Advocate Objectives Report 2007
  Members have been sent the TAP portion and table of contents of the report. McQuin pointed out that Nina Olson, National Taxpayer Advocate, does two reports a year. The panel is mentioned in this report. It’s interesting to go through the table of contents to see what Olson is looking at as the current top issues of concern. Her next report will come out in January 2007. This report discusses the structure of TAS and the areas of emphasis for next fiscal year.

• Elevated Issue: Availability of Reward, Form 211
  Quite a while ago Clif McKenzie, prior Area 5 Chair, submitted this issue to the Joint Committee. Unfortunately, the process was being changed at that time. Now the report elevated doesn’t fit into the new process, so the Joint Committee returned it to Area 5. It is a valid issue but the report needs to be reviewed in light of the process changes. The main issue is McKenzie wanted Form 211, Application for Reward for Original Information, to be readily available and easily found on irs.gov. In the past you could call a toll free number that took you directly to the fraud referral unit. Now you have to order the form and if you don’t know the form number, you will not get the Form 211. Unless you ask specifically for an award, it will not be offered.

  ACTION: Delzer to send referral to Rivera. He will discuss with McQuin and Delzer, rewrite, and have revision available for October meeting.

Public Input
None.

Closing / Assessment
Landauer expressed concerned that Area 5 did not have a committee member on the Joint Committee call. We should have had a representative.

McQuin noted that it was a last minute thing so we didn’t have time to get anyone to represent Area 5.

Guthmann said there needs to be some type of procedure for representation for issues that get sent to the Joint Committee. He worked hard on and finished the POA issue several months ago and was very disappointed that it was not addressed on the Joint Committee call.

McQuin suggested that if you elevate an issue, you as the author should sit in on the Joint Committee call as a member of the public. That way, if there are questions on the issue, you can discuss them. You will not represent the committee as the chair will be on as the representative.

ACTION: McQuin will check to see if a telephone available for a conference call when this POA issue is discussed at the Joint Committee face-to-face meeting.

Next Meeting: October 10, 2006, 9:30 a.m. C.T.