Area 7 Committee Meeting Minutes

Area 7 Committee
January 19, 2005

Attendees:

• Margaret Balcom
• Larry Combs
• Robert Forst
• James Griffin
• Cheyanna Jaffke
• Thomas Karwin, Chair
• Laurie Keleman, Designated Federal Official
• Allena Lu, Vice Chair
• Howard Perkins
• David Robinson
• Iris Sosa
• David Terrazas
• Douglas Wilhelm

Staff

• Judi Nicholas, Program Manager
• Mary Peterson O’Brien, TAP Analyst
• Marla Ofilas, Note Taker

Welcome/Announcements/Roll Call
Tom opened the meeting and welcomed the Area 7 members. Tom announced that Allena will serve as facilitator during the Area 7 meetings.

Allena reviewed the agenda. A roll call confirmed that a quorum was met.

Existing Issues:

• TAP Speaker Outreach Kit
  Laurie Keleman gave a history of actions Area 7 has taken on this issue for the benefit of the new panel members. The outreach kit check sheet was created and provided as a handout for the panel members. Since there are different comfort levels for each panel member regarding research, the kit provides a convenient way to organize a panel member for the many different types of outreach. The vision of the committee who worked on this was to have a folder with items from the check sheet included so that it was readily available when a panel member attended an outreach.

  The committee discussed the idea of elevating this issue to the joint committee for other areas to use as a template. At this time, each area is autonomous in how outreaches are prepared for and carried out. It was decided that each member would use the Outreach kit during the next few months and then revisit the issue. At that time, the committee will discuss if this is a useful tool as well if the kit needs to be modified.

  Decision: The committee decided to gain experience with the outreach kit before making a recommendation to the Joint Committee. The committee will discuss their experiences during their next face-to-face meeting.

Face-to-Face Meeting Options
Due to budget constraints all committees within TAP will only be allowed to schedule one face-to-face meeting. During the annual meeting in D.C. the committees were asked to schedule 2 face-to-face meeting with the hope that funding will be available.

The committee discussed possible dates and locations. Mary suggested that the committee consider having their face-to-face meeting in conjunction with an outreach activity and that there was an IRS Tax Forum scheduled in San Francisco at the end of June.

Decision: The committee agreed to have their first face-to-face meeting in conjunction with the San Francisco Tax Forum on June 30th and July 1st. Travel days are set for June 29th.

Outreach
Judi gave a presentation about Outreach and what the role of the staff in support of the Outreach effort. Teleconferences are being arranged between the Local Taxpayer Advocates and the committee members in their area. The goal is to introduce the members to someone that is actively involved in Taxpayer Advocacy Service outreach activities and how that person could be a resource for the members.

The purpose of outreach is to represent the TAP and listen to taxpayers suggestions for IRS change. If committee members are asked about a personal taxpayer issue or IRS policies, they should refer the taxpayer to the IRS to answer their personal questions.

Prior to attending an outreach event that would incur a cost or would expect to be reimbursed for parking or tolls, each member will need to get pre-approval two weeks in advance. The purpose of pre-approval is for budget tracking as well as to keep track of committee outreach activities.

The power point presentation sent in the pre-read material is a tool to provide talking points to assist members with presentations. The TAP office is limited on outreach marketing supplies. Therefore, Mary will only be able to send what is in stock.

The question was asked if a press release has been issued regarding the selection of new panel members. There has not been a press release approved at this time.

Action: Judi will follow up and get specifics on the delay of the press release.

It was asked what the status of panel members’ business cards is. Judi explained that we are awaiting the approval of the budget and the printing request.

Issue Process for Area 7
Tom gave a brief description of how a TAP issue flows. This material can be referenced in the TAP Member handbook. Tom asked for volunteers to form a subcommittee that would develop a process to work Area 7 issues as well as to prioritize the issues for committee meetings. The subcommittee would include Mary O’Brien, TAP analyst and Laurie Keleman, Area 7 DFO.

Decision: Robert Forst and Margaret Balcom agreed to participate in the subcommittee.

Action Item: Mary will email a reminder that the subcommittee will meet the first week of February to review incoming issues. Mary committed to mail out new issues to the subcommittee by January 28th. Subcommittee members agreed to review the issues and be prepared to discuss issues and process on the February call.

New Issues
The committee agreed on a process to discuss and decide on the disposition of issues. Mary will provide a brief description of the issue and allow the committee to discuss the issue and ask questions. Once the review is completed, the committee will then decide actions for each issue.

• IRS Refund Website
  The IRS Refund Website issue is that it was not as easy to use and navigate as other non IRS websites concerning possible IRS refunds. The National Taxpayers Union website was specified to use as a best practice.

  The committee discussed the pros and cons with each website. One difference is that the IRS website requires you to input the exact refund amount that you’re expecting. The National Taxpayers Union website confirms that you’ll be receiving a refund but refers you back to the IRS website.

  The question was asked about how outside websites gets information on potential taxpayer refunds. The IRS provides a list of unclaimed refunds. The list contains the name of the taxpayer, city, zip code and dollar amount. The list does not contain personal information.

  Decision: The committee decided to discuss this issue at the next committee meeting.

  Action Item: Each committee member will access each website and be prepared to discuss options to improve the IRS refund website at the next committee meeting.

• Outreach Coordination
  The issue is how to coordinate TAP members Outreach so as to not duplicate efforts and reach a wider variety of people and groups.

  Action/Decision: The committee agreed to organize 5 or 3 regional subcommittee to discuss among themselves, individual and subgroup outreach plan and report back to the committee during the next Area 7 meeting.

• EITC Pre-Certification
  The issue is that the IRS should consider a measured rollout of the EITC pre-certification program to ensure those taxpayers not affected are not unnecessarily burdened. The EITC has done a pilot of the EITC Pre-Certification program in one small town.

  Action/Decision: The committee decided to refer this issue to the EITC issue committee.

Committee Business
Due to a conflict of time with the Joint Committee meetings, the Area 7 committee discussed alternative dates and times to meet.

Decision/Action: The committee decided to meeting on the 4th Thursday of each month. Area 7 next meeting will be on February 24th @ 12:30 pm.

End of Meeting Assessment
Each member provided an assessment of the meeting. Majority of the members felt that the meeting went well, was informative and liked the idea of having a facilitator. Some members felt that more time should be allotted for discussing issues so members are not cut off in the middle of a good discussion.

In addition, a suggestion was made to have a brief description along with options, prior to the meeting, of what decisions will need to be made during the meeting. This would help speed the agenda along. For example, having the face-to-face meeting options in advance so the committee would only need to approve and not discuss.

Closing
Laurie closed the meeting. The next Area 7 teleconference will be Thursday February 24th @ 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm.

Assignments:

TAP Analyst:

• Action Item: Mary will email a reminder that the subcommittee will meet the first week of February to review incoming issues. Mary committed to mail out new issues to the subcommittee by January 28th.
• Action Item: Mary will refer the EITC pre-certification Issue to the EITC Issue Committee.

TAP Manager

• Action: Judi will follow up and get specifics on the delay of the TAP press release.

Area 7 Committee Members

• Action Item: Issue Process Subcommittee members agreed to review the issues and be prepared to discuss issues and process on the February call.
• Action Item: Each committee member will access each website and be prepared to discuss options to improve the IRS refund website at the next committee meeting.
• Action/Decision: The committee agreed to organize 5 or 3 regional subcommittee to discuss among themselves, individual and subgroup outreach plan and report back to the committee during the next Area 7 meeting.