Area 6 Committee Meeting Minutes

February 23, 2004
2:00 pm PST

Members in Attendance:

• Clayton Agena / HI
• Mario Burgos / NM
• Skip Eshelman / WY
• Chris Forzano / WA
• Gregory Maciulla / AZ
• Sharon Stetz / UT
• Virginia Symonds / OR
• Bruce Twomley / AK
• Sherry Whah / AK
• Tom Sherwood / Designated Federal Official

Members Absent:

• Jim Banks / MT
• Larry Barnard / ID
• Darlene Bramon / ID
• Joe Reder / WA

TAP Staff:

• Judi Nicholas
• Anne Gruber

Guests:

• Susan Leatherman
• Rebecca Johnson

Opening
Sherry Whah opened the meeting at 2:00 o'clock . Sherry welcomed everyone and Mario reviewed the agenda. Mario then asked if there were any other items to be included. Tom mentioned that he had asked three of his staff members who had knowledge in some of today's topics to attend with him to answer questions if needed.

Roll Call
Judi Nicholas took the roll call and there were enough members for a quorum.

Susan Leatherman and Rebecca Johnson
Susan was invited to discuss the non-filer notice program. She explained that the non-filer process for the individual with small businesses and small businesses began with a notice that is sent out after the last extension date in October of each year. There is an inventory of taxpayers who are typically non filers. The IRS matches W-2 from the employer with returns that are filed by the employee. There is a large compliance file created that is used to send notices to potential non-filers. The number of notices sent is dependent upon a number of factors including enough staff must to answer the resulting incoming telephone calls. The compliance file in made up of taxpayers who were delinquent last year, anyone with at least $200 due, and the self- employed who haven't filed. One year is worked at a time, with 2002 now being worked. The most egregious are identified each year, with the definition of “egregious” changing each year. The high dollar cases are identified and once all the notices are sent and if the year in question remains unresolved, the taxpayer delinquency cases go to the field. Even if a taxpayer doesn't get a notice for a prior year, the taxpayer is responsible for all unfiled tax returns. For example there were 1.5 million notices sent this year. Greg asked what percent were egregious. Susan didn't know. For the low dollar tax returns the approach is to educate and do outreach rather than pursue through other enforcement means. When IRS resolves the current year nonfiler problem, they also resolve all other outstanding nonfiler issues. The IRS can't leave any years unresolved. All prior years should show up in the notice, but might not pop-up. There is any number of reasons why a non-filer notice might not include all unfiled years. Becky Johnson said the non-filer program is working with TEC and the TAP Schedule C Non-Filer Committee looking at the non-filer notice. Chris Forzano is on the Sch C Non-filer committee and agreed to serve as the committee's link between the two groups.

Referrals

Alaska, Request for tax returns by IRS, #2496

Sherry is working with Bruce on this and will include Chris.

Montana, Ex's proof in audit #2567

Montana, Employee Benefits, #2527

Jim was not on the call, so the Montana issues were put on hold.

Oregon, Native American Names, #2581

Virginia asked if this issue could wait till next month.

Oregon, VITA Fax, #2619

Judi wondered why TAP is involved with this. The VITA site volunteer who raised the issue believes the IRS could save money by converting to fax machines. After some discussion, the group agreed that the issue should be closed with no further action. It appears to be a local issue.

Washington, Community Profit, #2614

This referral will be reassigned to Chris Forzano for discussion at the next call.

Around the Area
Sherry gave the members the opportunity to share their outreach activities since the last meeting.

Clayton Agena, Hawaii. Clayton introduced TAP at 4 meetings in January, one in February, and will go with his Local Taxpayer Advocate (LTA) to staff a booth in May.

Mario Burgos, New Mexico. Mario and the LTA are attempting to get on a local radio talk show on Apri1 15th during the morning commute. Mario announced that he is running for the office of state representative. Election Day is June 1st. At each campaign stop he talks about TAP and gives the website link to improveirs.org

Skip Eshelman, Wyoming. Will be going to the Lions Club this month. Skip mentioned the talking point prepared by Judi and the committee members expressed interest in having a set.

Action: Judi will e-mail the talking points to all committee members.

Sharon asked the group what promotional items seemed to be in demand. Virginia felt anything with a phone number was useful. The post-it notes also seem to be popular. Tom Pub 4255 which contain a list of the most commonly used IRS phone numbers including TAP.

Chris Forzano, Washington. One on one outreach and a visit with the Sons of Italy.

Gregory Maciulla, Arizona. Working on newspaper story regarding financial literacy.

Sharon Stetz, Utah. Talked to a local VITA volunteer about a non-filer. The VITA site couldn't prepare the return free of charge since it was a prior year. Told it was only free for taxpayers with SSN. Audrey Dean, a Case Advocate on the Denver-TAS staff, works with VITA and said that the VITA program has software with 2 years prior, and her VITA site routinely prepares prior year's returns. Sharon also provided TAP materials at a tax preparation site and clients quickly took the materials.

Virginia Symonds, Oregon. Met with LTA and participated in a congressional liaison meeting on February 11.

Bruce Twomley, Alaska. Jerry Liboff, from Dillingham, had some concerns about what seemed to be a reduction in outreach in the rural Alaskan villages. Sherry mentioned that she is aware of a group applying for an LITC grant for 2005 to do outreach in the rural villages.

Sherry Whah, Alaska. Sherry has done a lot of classes since the last meeting and mentions TAP at each.

Closing
Tom adjourned the meeting.

NEXT TELECONFERENCE: March 15, 2004 2:00 pm PST.