Taxpayer Advocacy Panel
Area 7 Committee
Meeting Minutes
May 21, 2008

Designated Federal Official (DFO)
Judi Nicholas served as the DFO in John Tam’s absence.

Attendance
Richard Coonradt
MJ Lee
Julia Ling
Richard Waterman
Dave Jones
Sandy Finestone
Margaret Ferguson
Charles Davidson
Wayne Whitehead
Wayne Tanna

Absent:
Howard Stahl
Sabby Jonathan
Greg Gursey

Staff
Judi Nicholas, TAP Program Manager
Janice Spinks, TAP Analyst
Nina Pang, TAP Jr. Analyst

Opening/Welcome/Announcements
Judi opened the meeting and Charles welcomed the members. Janice took roll and a quorum was met.

Charles welcomed everyone. Nina Pang, the new Seattle Jr. Analyst was welcomed to her first Area 7 meeting.

Richard indicated he had a great time in Las Vegas and thanked the staff for a great meeting.  Wayne W. was thanked again for a good dinner/restaurant selection.

MJ indicated she was working up an issue regarding 1099’s/W2’s and had a question for those who are tax practitioners. The issue deals with the legibility and font size of these particular documents. Charles indicated as far as he knew there was a recommended format but no standardization.

Joint Committee (JC) Report – Charles Davidson
The JC is getting ready for their FTF meeting during the week of June 16th in St. Louis.  An Ad Hoc committee is being looked at for converting documents into various languages. If anyone is interested in serving on this committee let Charles know.

The Quality Review Committee (QRC) filled their vacant spot with Bob Haines.

There are a couple of issues from areas that will be reviewed during June’s FTF meeting.
 
Sub-Committee A – Dave Jones
#4727 – Different Rates of Social Security - The sub-committee recommended this issue be dropped as it is legislative.
DECISION: Consensus was reached to drop the issue.

#4787 – Unfairness of Tax System – The sub-committee recommended this issue be dropped.  It was evident that the taxpayer was “venting”.
DECISION: Consensus was reached to drop the issue.

#4370 – This issue will be elevated and the referral will be sent to QRC, after which, it will be forwarded to the Forms & Pubs committee.

Janice asked for clarification regarding research reports as pre-read.
DECISION: All agreed that pre-read will only consist of those reports where a recommendation needs consensus by the full committee.

Sub-Committee B – Sandy Finestone
#4505 – Free filing Software – This Issue will remain active.  The full committee was asked for approval to move forward with the referral.  There was no champion identified in the sub-committee and volunteers will be sought among the full committee.
DECISION: Consensus was reached to move forward with the referral. The target date for completion of the referral is June 30th.

#4553 F. 982 – Margaret will follow up on this issue; pending research by Janice.

#4192 1099-INT – Wayne W. prepared a letter which was sent to the taxpayer by Janice via e-mail.  No follow up reply has been received from the taxpayer.

ACTION: The issue will be closed.

#4367 IRS web-site – A referral has been completed and is ready to be reviewed by the QRC.  The full committee agreed to forward the referral to the JC.  Sandy will follow through with the issue.

Recruitment – Judi Nicholas
Judi reported there are 600 applicants nationwide to date. Area 7 has a little over 60 for all four states, most of which are from California.  The process consists of ranking the applications and putting them in score order. After which, Judi will meet with Bernie to discuss her selected interviewees and to obtain his approval.  Upon Bernie’s approval, interviews will be scheduled.  It is anticipated that the schedule of interview dates and times will be complete the 1st week of June.

Those participating on the interview panel will receive the questions and scoring sheet.  Interviews will be conducted in 3 hour blocks, morning and afternoon.  Panel members will be asked to dial in 30 minutes before the interview to discuss the process and to divide the questions. 

A team is being put together to look at changes to the applications/questions.

Outreach – Charles Davidson
Charles encouraged everyone to keep up their outreach efforts during the summer. Although the participation rate was a bit lower this month, when the details were read there were a good number of one-on-one events. The number of member participation is pretty good overall.

During the JC FTF Charles will lead a discussion with Ben Chapman regarding commitments; whether members should document/outline commitments each month.

Charles asked for feedback regarding this concept. Following are some of the comments made;

• “If people are committed they will write it down or not”
• “I would rather not have to be held to making commitments…we may lose volunteers if members feel as if they are being “demanded” to do something as a volunteer”
• “I would go for commitments as long as it is done anonymously and not published to the entire panel”

Best practices – Charles asked for feedback on success stories. The following was provided;

• Wayne indicated he is on an e-mail list which he uses as opportunities to go to events where he will go an pass out brochures
• Margaret indicated she attended a congressional education day held by the LTA where she was given 5 minutes to speak about TAP.  She also handed out 10 brochures to each of the Congressional Aides for distribution to their constituents.

ACTION: Charles will take the feedback to the JC.
 
Member Comments/Other Business
Due to the JC FTF meeting we will need to re-schedule June’s meeting. All agreed to June 25th 2:00 p.m.
ACTION: Janice will send a calendar appointment and send Patti an e-mail to change the Federal Register Notice.

Those unable to attend their respective sub-committee meeting on June 11th were asked to send Janice an e-mail. If enough members will be absent the meetings will be re-scheduled.

Closing
Judi thanked everyone for their participation and the meeting was adjourned.