Issue Committee (W & I EITC) Meeting Minutes

July 21, 2005
Teleconference

Panel Members in Attendance

• Jim Banks, Bozeman, MT
• Robert Broniarczyk, Romeoville, IL
• Philip Cimino, Staten Island, NY
• Gwen Handelman, Fort Lauderdale, FL
• Thomas Karwin, Santa Cruz, CA
• Leslie Malcolmson, Detroit, MI - Chair
• Jack Morrell, Mandan, ND
• Joe Reder, Richland, WA
• Charles Wendt, Iola, TX
• Nan Wilson, Overland Park, KS
• Beadsie Woo, Durham, NC – Vice Chair

Panel Members Absent

• Elizabeth Ghoniem, Winchester, MA
• Morgan Edwards, Charlotte, NC
• Cheyanna Jaffke, Placentia, CA
• Robert Maziarz, Hainesport, NJ
• Al Vivona, Sarasota, FL

Program Owner

• Alisa Blum, Project Manager, EITC Stakeholder Engagement, Washington, DC

Designated Federal Official

• Sandra Ramirez, TAP Program Manager, Brooklyn, NY

TAP Staff

• Audrey Y. Jenkins, TAP Program Analyst, Brooklyn, NY
• Meredith Odom-Russell, TAP Management Assistant, Brooklyn, NY

Welcome/Opening of Meeting
Malcolmson opened the meeting at 2:02pm ET, welcomed all members, staff and guests.

Roll Call
Quorum met

Review Agenda
Malcolmson proposed to amend agenda to add the review of final comments on the EITC Assistant.

Approval of Meeting Minutes
The June 16, 2005 minutes were approved by consensus.

Review Assignments
Action Items

Blum

• Email Jenkins the preliminary (May) 2004 Certification Test data for distribution-completed

• Email Jenkins the 2nd interim 2003 EITC Report to Congress-completed

• Email the Booze Allen discussion notes-completed

Jenkins

• Send hard copies to the committee of the 2003 EITC Report to Congress-completed

• Send 2004 Certification Test data to Kim Glassman-completed

• Send 2nd interim 2003-completed

Public Input
No public attendees.

Agenda Items

EITC Assistant – Final Comments
Maziarz sent out a final version of comments to the EITC Assistant on July 19, 2005. Handelman will make a few revisions and add a conclusion. There are two recommendations that should be included: 1) under 2C, in the introductory material, users should be advised that the EITC Assistant applies the “15 rules” found in Publications 17 and 596 to the users individual situation. Without this note, users who have encountered the “15 rules” may wonder if the EITC Assistant is entirely different. (The 15 rules apply to taxpayers with and without children). 2) under “clarify”, the very last item refers to retirement income. Examples of earned income, such as interest, dividends, annuity, social security, and railroad retirement, should be given. Earnings after retirement are earned income. Earned income includes wages and other compensation earned after retirement even though there is also “unearned” retirement income (like pensions or other annuities). Handelman will include this in the revision.

EITC Orientation Package
Woo—wanted to discuss a concern mentioned by a few members at the May meeting regarding ways that new members can speedily come to understand the EITC and issues surrounding it. A number of members commented that it took some time for them to get up to speed. Discussion followed about a packet for new committee members that describes the basics of the EITC and the work of this particular committee over the history of TAP. Morrell notes that the EITC assistant is a good place to start (members can learn by using it). Woo mentioned that IRS publication 596 is also a good source. Wilson noted a mentoring program where new members would be assigned to more seasoned members. Handelman noted that an overview by the program owners would be beneficial. Wendt stated that if the program owners tell the committee what the problems are and what they want from the members it would be helpful. Woo added that she would like the program owners to have a task ready in November for the members to work. Broniarczyk felt that publication 596 and a synopsis from the committee’s annual assessment would be good tools to orient new members. Woo will send an e-mail to members to join a subcommittee to look at these issues.

It is expected that the TAP annual meeting will be extended to allow for longer area and issue committee meetings. It was suggested that the EITC program owners give a presentation on EITC basics as well as describe how the committee fits into their work, placing the committee within the context of the larger IRS structure. It was suggested that the program owner come to the Annual meeting with an assignment or two for the committee to work. The assignments will help develop subcommittees. Program owners were reminded that there will be a high number of new committee members who will just be familiarizing themselves with the intricacies of the EITC and learning the ropes of TAP.

Program Owner Report
Blum informed the committee that June data for the preliminary test has been released which she would like shared with the committee rather than sharing the May data. New assignment: Blum would like to have the committee, review and make recommendations on the EITC website: www.irs.gov/eitc. She asked for, recommendations on reorganizing the information in an appropriate way and assessing its “user-friendly”-ness. If there is extraneous or obsolete material, flag it.

After discussion about what to examine about the site, it was decided that Karwin will lead the sub-committee that will look at the architecture of the site and the different connections between the pages. Blum stressed to the committee that for this assignment the focus would be best placed on the site’s architecture and not on content unless it’s really bad or incorrect and such. She noted that the EITC office does not own all of the content of the site (for example some of it is owned by Compliance) and thus she can’t change those parts. Blum recommended that substantive comments on a few parts of the website would serve her better than general, sweeping comments about the whole site. The committee should concentrate on the architecture. New links or titles are fine.

Malcolmson appointed Vivona the chair (in absentia) of the sub-committee looking at the content of the website. Based on input from Blum, the committee understands that obvious outdated, irrelevant, or inaccurate content should be noted, but a more thorough review would begin in November.

Blum would like to increase the EITC information and resources for tax professionals next year (after October 2005) and will look to the committee to offer suggestions on how this can be done. Blum reminded the committee that we are making recommendations that are forwarded to those that make decisions (i.e. not everything coming out of the committee will be implemented).

Decision
Committee approved comments on the EITC Assistant including corrections from today’s meeting. Handelman will finalize these changes.

Action Items
Handelman

• Make revisions and add conclusion to the EITC Assistant.

Malcolmson

• Send the final recommendation on the EITC Assistant to David Williams.

Woo

• Send out an email to committee members to describe an introductory EITC Package for the new members.

• Work with sub-committee to develop the introductory package.

Jenkins

• Email the (latest) June preliminary 2004 Certification Test data to committee.

Karwin

• Solicit input from members on EITC website structure and work on drafting proposal.

Vivona

• Solicit input from members on EITC site content and work on drafting proposal.

Full Committee

• Reply to Karwin, Vivona and Woo on respective issues.