Area 7 Committee Meeting
Teleconference Minutes
February 21, 2007
Designated Federal Official
John Tam
Attendance
Charles Davidson
Margaret Ferguson
Greg Gursey
Tom Karwin
Iris Sosa
Howard Stahl
Wayne Whitehead, Chair
Doug Wilhelm
Gil Yanuck
Absent
Dave Jones
Merijane Lee
Gary Lundberg
Wayne Tanna
Staff
Judi Nicholas, Program Manager
Janice Spinks, Program Analyst
Marla Ofilas, Note Taker
Opening/Welcome
John opened the meeting and Wayne welcomed the members. Marla took role. A quorum was met.
Issue Sub-Committee Report
In Dave’s absence, Judi reviewed each of the issues, in accordance with the Issue Sub-Committee meeting notes. Following is the committee’s decision for each issue recommendation.
Decision: #3364 (Income Rounding) - The committee agreed with the sub-committee’s recommendation to drop this issue.
Reason for dropping the issue = The IRS no longer rounds up or down and the rounding instructions are noted in Publication 17. A letter will be sent to the taxpayer informing him or her of the decision.
Decision: #3564 (Pub 8160E) – The committee agreed with the sub-committee’s recommendation to drop this issue.
- Reason for dropping the issue - The problem no longer exists as it appears changes have been made to the form. A letter will be sent to the taxpayer informing him or her of the decision.
Decision: #3633 (TAC Services) – The committee agreed that additional information is needed. Janice will contact Field Assistance to find out what their practice and policies are regarding issuing tax account transcripts and tax return transcripts. This is to ensure that the information found on the website is accurate. The information will be shared with the Issue Sub-committee to decide the next steps.
Decision: #3554 (Power of Attorneys) – The committee agreed with the sub-committee’s recommendation to drop this issue.
Reason for dropping the issue = The Sub-Committee felt this was an isolated incident and the employee was adhering to disclosure rules.
Action: Gil found that the Power of Attorney form is complex and should cover additional examples. Gil and Margaret agreed to prepare and submit a new issue regarding the Form 2848 process.
Issue Report
Greg reported that the sub-committee’s goal is to be prepared to discuss the recommendation at the Area 7 Face-to-Face meeting in April. Greg feels that there is still a lot of work and research to be done at the sub-committee level. Greg stated the sub-committee intends to pursue elevating the issue despite the 2003 Report to Congress.
Judi asked the sub-committee to ensure Janice is included in all sub-committee meetings and emails. It is important that the analyst knows what is being discussed so that she will have a clear understanding when information and or research is requested.
Action: Greg will include Janice during the next sub-committee teleconference.
Tom indicated the full committee should have access to all documents related to this issue. Tom agreed to email all reports to Janice.
Action: Janice will summarize all important points of the documents that were distributed between the sub-committee members and share the summary with the full committee.
January Outreach Statistics
Wayne reviewed the outreach statistics chart for January and thanked everyone for their efforts.
Wayne asked if TAP will soon have a uniform method (for all Areas) of reporting and displaying outreach. Judi indicated the Communication Committee Internal Sub-Committee is working on a recommendation to the Joint Committee and is using the bar chart as an example. She stated the Measures Sub-Committee is looking at what information they can offer as well.
Gil indicated the External Communication Sub-Committee will be making a recommendation also.
Action: Janice will continue to produce the monthly bar chart. In addition to the bar chart, Janice will work on a uniform method of how the outreach is reported by all Area 7 members. The members were asked to provide feedback to Janice about the effectiveness of the document.
Joint Committee Report
Wayne provided a written summary of the last Joint Committee meeting. Wayne reported that the TAP annual meeting has been confirmed for December 10 – 13, 2007 at the Georgetown Fairmont Hotel, Washington, DC.
Wayne asked Tom to provide a report on the TAP Strategy Document. Tom explained that the document comprises a work plan for the Communications Committee, the Joint Committee, and the Area Committees. Tom wrote a brief description of the purpose and status of the document, which was distributed to the Joint Committee members.
Action: Wayne will email a copy of the document Tom prepared to the full committee.
Face-to-Face Meeting Location
Marla reported that a meeting location has been secured at the Handlery Hotel and Resort, San Diego, CA. Marla will begin working on flight arrangements and will email information within the next two weeks.
March Meeting
In November, it was suggested by the Joint Committee that Area Committees meet every other month rather than monthly. The full committee believes monthly meetings are necessary and agreed to continue meeting monthly.
Action: Janice will remove this topic from future agendas.
Member Comments/Other Business
Gil indicated it is not necessary for members to click “Reply to All” when answering an email. Gil suggested that if members are working in a sub-committee, email replies should be kept within the sub-committee. Any reports can be given during a full committee meeting. In addition, outreach reports do not need to be shared with the full committee and should only be sent to Janice.
Decision: The full committee agreed and will be mindful of this in the future.
Janice explained emails sent through TAPSpace are sent to all members. Consequently, if a member replies,(even if “reply to all” is not clicked), the reply is sent to all members. Janice suggested members send her a separate email if a reply is necessary. This will help minimize the number of erroneous emails sent.
No other comments were made.
Closing
John thanked the members for their participation and closed the meeting. |
Text Version
