Designated Federal Official

• Marian Adams - Wichita, KS - Designated Federal Official

Committee Members Present

• Capehart, Craig - Dallas, TX - Member
• Freeman, Christopher - Chaska, MN - Member
• Fretheim, Dan - Decorah, IA - Member
• Lynch, Reagan - Midland, TX - Member
• Rousseau, Richard - Harker Heights, TX - Member
• Villarreal, Josefina - Corpus Christi - Member
• Wright, Kenneth - Chesterfield, MO - Chair

Committee Members Absent

• Bell, Kay - Austin, TX - Vice Chair
• Bland, Sandra - Bemidji, MN - Member
• Colvin, A. Elizabeth - Austin, TX - Member
• Guthmann, Howard - St. Paul, MN - Member
• Shah, Rajiv - Scottsdale, AZ - Member
• Shoemaker, Paul - Lincoln, NE - Member
• Stieger, Lee - Leavenworth, KS - Member
• Woodard, Norma - Choctaw, OK - Member

TAP Staff

• Delzer, MaryAnn - Milwaukee, WI - Program Analyst
• Robb, Patti - Milwaukee, WI - Program Analyst
• Gabriel, Lisa - Milwaukee, WI - Secretary

Ken Wright welcomed everyone to the call.  Quorum not met. 

• Joint Committee (JC) Report-out

Ken reminded everyone of the annual meeting, December 1-5, 2008, at the Sheraton Hotel in Arlington, VA.  At the JC meeting decision was made to change the annual meeting to not fragment new members from the current members of the panel.  Would like to keep the areas together, new and current members have more time together.  Also mentioned was since chair training is held right after the annual meeting, need to have a different way of choosing the chairs.  Are forming a work group around the cancellation of debt of issue.  Dan Fretheim will be in this working group. 

• Name and SSN Mismatch – Ken is looking for volunteers to be chairs for this issue.

• Improve Tax Payment Options – issue still being worked

• Dependency and pre-1985 Rule - dropped

• Payment with Form 4868 issue still being worked

• LLC and Rental Income – issue still being worked

• LLC Disregarded Entity Information – issue still being worked

• Combo Letters in Examination -  issue still being worked

• Website Accessibility for the Blind – Lynch still working on this

Delzer to research the number of “rejected” forms 8109 - Delzer is still researching

Delzer will send to Villarreal information on what is available through e-services.—Delzer completed

Villarreal will write up E-filing Form 2553 and forward to Delzer to send to Forms and Pubs—Delzer reported that the Form 2553 for the S election can be e-filed with the Form 1120S.  Wright requested issue be changed to ability to have the S election in an on-line process.

Wright will write something up on the dependency and pre-1985 rule to forms and Pubs to drop.—Wright discussed with Bob Erickson.  Issue should be closed.

Issue Committee Highlights - All
Rousseau said the discussion about the Annual meeting was that a lot time needs to be spent with the area committees; half the day with area committees and half day with issue committees.  In the past this has worked well with Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA).  This may help in getting the committees off and running better. 

Ken added that he would like to see a working meeting for the annual meeting so people can feel more comfortable for expectations in January.
 
Wright reported the Forms and Pubs face to face meeting took place in Florida.  The IRS program owners attended.  Discussion took place about Joint Committee face to face.  One issue communicated was how some committees get loaded down with a lot of work and others are not loaded down as much.  Mentioned that we need to allow people to move around to other issue committees during the year instead of waiting until the annual meeting to make changes. 

For Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Jo said she missed the last meeting, but prior to that they were working on a final copy of different projects each member had to work on and proof reading is being done at this time.  Still hoping to get feed back on the Spanish re-file site.

• Recruitment

Susan, Roy, and Bernie are meeting on Wednesday about selecting new panel members, which will then be shared with Nina Olson and then onto the Secretary of Treasury. 

• Staffing

Analyst position in Milwaukee has been posted.
New budget analyst Otis Simpson, started in Washington DC. 
The week of July 28 – August 1st is the Taxpayer Advocacy Services Symposium.  All TAP staff will be attending and no one will be in their offices

Rick Rousseau added as chair of the VITA committee he requested permission from Coston to send out to TAP members questionnaires about possible additional VITA services.  Also, JC asked Lee Stieger  to work on a possible TAP Alumni group.  He will be asking for comments and input through email, on a way to use retired members from TAP.  Like to have them as a resource.

Public Input
None.

Next Conference Call is August 12, 2008, 9:30 am CT