Area 6 Committee Meeting
Teleconference Minutes
July 13, 2007

Designated Federal Official
Chet Blair

Attendance
George Bates
Milissa Bensen, Vice Chair
Marilynn Clapp
Laura Criel
Jerry Fireman
Steve Maisch
Neil Mitchell
Maryann Motza, Chair
Joe Shields
Ed Uhrig

Absent
Willy Nordwind
Harris Widmer

Staff
Judi Nicholas, TAP Program Manager
Dave Coffman, TAP Analyst
Marla Ofilas, TAP Secretary

Welcome/Announcements
Chet opened the meeting. Maryann welcomed the members and roll was taken. A quorum was met.

Outreach Review
Milissa reviewed the Area 6 outreach spreadsheet. Area 6 made 356 contacts during the month of June.

IRS Services Subcommittee Report

• 3455 IRS Assumptions on Social Security Base Amount

The Area 6 Quality Review committee reviewed the draft Joint Committee referral. The subcommittee is ready to elevate the recommendation to the Joint Committee.
DECISION: The full committee agreed to elevate the referral with no changes.
ACTION: Maryann will include the approved referral with the Area 6 monthly report.

Taxpayer Burden Subcommittee Report

• 4171 Offer in Compromise – Appealing IRS Decisions

The subcommittee determined that Form 656 provides adequate information about the appeals process after an offer in compromise is rejected.  Also, the IRS passes each potentially rejected offer through an independent review process before communicating the rejection to the taxpayer.  The subcommittee recommended that this issue be dropped.
DECISION: The full committee agreed to drop the issue.

• 4172 Offers in compromise – Centralization Reduces Services

While working on issue # 4171, the subcommittee explored issue # 4172.  The subcommittee referred to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) audit, dated March 26, 2007 (reference number:  2007-30-058), which concludes with the finding that centralized offer in compromise sites are effectively evaluating offers.  The subcommittee felt that this finding, along with the fact that IRS Revenue Officers are routinely asked to work more complex offers requiring an investigation, is evidence that the issue should be dropped.
DECISION: The full committee agreed to drop the issue.

• 4181 Offer in Compromise – Submitting Bank Statements

Subcommittee discussed and noted that page 4 of Form 656 states, "Annotate items that do not apply to you with "N/A".  If the taxpayer does not have a bank account, he/she should note "N/A" on any line asking for bank account information.  The subcommittee recommended that this issue be dropped. 
DECISION: the full committee agreed to drop the issue.

• 4228 Offer in Compromise – Centralized Processing Problems

The subcommittee discussed this issue and felt that the problems experienced by this practitioner are part of an isolated incident and not a widespread problem.  The problem has already been referred to the Taxpayer Advocate Service.  The subcommittee recommended that this issue be dropped.
DECISION: The full committee agreed to drop the issue.

Miscellaneous subcommittee Report

• 3541 Disclosure – IRS Won’t Disclose Names of EIN Applicants

The subcommittee will work on expanding the issue statement to more appropriately address the problem.  Dave has already started the research requested by the subcommittee. 

Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint Report (Phase 2)
Maryann informed the committee that Jerry will facilitate an open discussion of phase 2 of the Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint (TAB) report during the August 30th meeting.
ACTION: Dave has agreed to e-mail the report’s TAPSpace web link to the committee members. 

Joint Committee Business
Maryann reported that she is serving on a subcommittee which is preparing for a group of TAP members to meet with Acting Commissioner Brown.  The meeting will be held in August and the TAP members will raise general TAP issues and concerns to the Commissioner.

Communication Committee Activities
Maryann reminded the members to complete the new and returning member surveys that were sent by TAP Analyst, Janice Spinks. 
ACTION: Dave agreed to ask Janice to resend a copy of the survey to those members who had not yet responded.   

Maryann also reported that TAPSpace will be unveiled on August 13. There will be no access to TAPSpace from August 6 to August 12, in preparation for the roll out.

Closing
Dave recapped the action items. Maryann thanked everyone for their participation and Chet closed the meeting.