Area 6 Committee Meeting Minutes

September 19, 2003
Las Vegas, Nevada

TIME:

• 8:30 am PDT

TAP ATTENDEES:

• Clayton Agena
• Jim Banks
• Darlene Bramon
• Mario Burgos
• Justin Doucette
• Skip Eshelman
• Chris Forzano
• Gregory Maciulla
• Joe Reder
• Sharon Stetz
• Virginia Symonds
• Bruce Twomley
• Sherry Whah

ABSENT:

• Tom Sherwood, Designated Federal Official

TAP STAFF:

• Anne Gruber, acting Designated Federal Official

OPENING
The acting Designated Federal Official, Anne Gruber, opened the meeting at 8:20 o'clock and handed the meeting over to Justin Doucette to conduct business as Chairperson. Justin welcomed everyone to the Coyote Café and Anne Gruber noted that everyone was present. 

REFERRALS
The committee reviewed the public input from yesterday's meeting. The first speaker was concerned about secure transmissions on the IRS web site. The second speaker now had a restricted Enrolled Agent's license due to a new director and a new policy. Panel members thought it was important to know that a taxpayer can always ask to speak to a manager. To review, two suggestions were elevated yesterday. One, transcripts should not take 30 days when ordered from PPS and two, the policy of acquiring transcripts should not be changed, i.e., they should not have to be ordered but should be accessible immediately over the counter. ACTION ITEM: Anne will elevate these two issues.

Discussion was held about the leadership of this committee. Justin wants to step down from his position as Chair. Since Sherry Whah was elected as Vice-Chair, she was offered the position. Justin felt that it was a big enough job for two people and a division of labor might have one person in charge of running the monthly meetings and another person presenting the group at the Joint Committee. This seemed like a good idea to all and Mario Burgos volunteered to run the monthly meetings, as long as Sherry was Chair for official purposes. All agreed and consensus made Sherry Whah the new chairperson and Mario Burgos the new Vice-chair.

ALASKA: #241 – Taxpayer Rights
Bruce Twomley researched Delegation Order 287 and felt that with RRA98 taxpayers' rights were more limited; TAS could no longer order the release of certain levies in case of hardship. He wrote his proposal on this issue to give the power back and everyone felt strongly that it is important for area 6 to back the idea as written. Justin will put the suggestion in the acceptable format for submission to the Joint Committee. Greg said that he thinks Area 6 should back this proposal all the way and we should monitor it every month to keep it in mind. Justin suggested giving it it's own number to keep it separate from the original suggestion. ACTION ITEM: Anne will put it on the TAP database with a new number. Justin will put it in the new format. Bruce will review the final product.

WASHINGTON: #2008: PPS & Fax Machines
Joe Reder asked if our speaker addressed this issue yesterday and if it applies only to PPS? He also wondered how many taxpayers were affected. He suggested keeping the issue on the agenda and writing a letter to the taxpayer telling him what TAP has found and that progress is being made. ACTION ITEM: Anne will prepare a closing letter.

WASHINGTON: #2007: ACS Access for PPS and Excess paper for POA
Chris Forzano explained the problem and the actions that have already been taken. The ACS issue has already been solved but will take a year to implement. The excess paper issue is being addressed but more information is needed. A survey was taken of the 25 practitioners on the panel to see what they would like in their copies of their clients' correspondence. This information will be forwarded to the proper IRS person. ACTION ITEM: Anne will update the practitioner who made this suggestion and forward the results of the survey to IRS.

UTAH: #1579: Paying by Credit Card
Sharon Stetz reiterated the problem and said that the instructions seem clear to her, and she looked at them from several different ways. She suggests closing the case. ACTION ITEM: Anne will prepare a closing letter.

OREGON: #1732: Installment Agreements
Virginia Symonds feels that this is merely the individual's problem and suggests closing the case. The IRS' “skip” policy is better now than it would ever be if we suggested a limit. ACTION ITEM: Anne will prepare a closing letter.

NEW MEXICO: #1200: Fax Numbers on Letters
Mario feels he has delayed long enough on this issue. Judi Nicholas and Anne offered to write the proposal.

NEVADA: #2328: Location Disclosure
Justin felt that stating the location would ease tension on the call, but since the taxpayer can never reach the same employee again he realized it was unnecessary. He recommended just dropping this case. Anne commented that the first two digits of an employee's identification number indicated the employee's location.

IDAHO: #1469: Errors in CP-2000
Sherry talked to this practitioner and although he does have a point, it is a very limited issue and one that TAP does not wish to pursue. Darlene Bramon recommended closing the case. ACTION ITEM: Anne will prepare a closing letter.

IDAHO: #1595: Powers of Attorney
Council is currently looking at the form that was submitted by the law firm. Darlene recommended waiting till we hear from them.

IDAHO: #2005: Child support levy
Darlene feels that this is an isolated case and she recommends closing it. ACTION ITEM: Anne will prepare a closing letter.

CLOSING
The next meeting will be in Washington DC in conjunction with the annual meeting.

Anne adjourned the meeting at 10:40 AM PDT.