Issue Committee (W & I EITC) Meeting Minutes

February 14, 2006
Teleconference

Program Owner

• Philcox, Crystal, Director, EITC Systems/Stakeholder Engagement
• Watkins, Lisa, EITC Office Detailee

Designated Federal Official

• Ramirez, Sandra, Brooklyn, NY, Manager

Committee Members Present (These attendees count for quorum)

• Broniarczyk, Robert, Romeoville, IL
• Davis, Blanche, Rehoboth Beach, DE
• Lawler, Mary Ann, Dearborn, MI
• Margulies, Howard, North Easton, MA
• McKenzie, Clifford, Del City, OK, Vice Chair
• Mitchell, Patrick, Provo, UT
• Natter, Joyce, Miami, FL
• Richardson, Lovella, Knoxville, TN
• Smith, Mavis, Chula Vista, CA
• Uhrig, Edward, Lusk, WY
• Woo, Lillian, Durham, NC, Chair

Committee Members Absent

• Wendt, Charles, Iola, TX

TAP Staff

• Jenkins, Audrey, Brooklyn, NY, Analyst
• Odom, Meredith, Brooklyn, NY, Secretary

Other Attendees

• Knight, David, Washington, DC, Policy Analyst
• O’Brien, Mary, Washington, DC, EITC

Welcome
Woo welcomed the members, staff and Program Owners to the meeting and opened the meeting at 12:00 noon.

Roll Call (quorum has been met)

Review Agenda
There were no agenda changes.

Agenda Items

Call Etiquette
Woo discussed call etiquette. If you are not talking, please keep call on mute or find a quiet place to make the call. If you can’t do either of the two, it’s fine to drop off of the call. When speaking please introduce yourself.

Highlights from JC
Woo updated the committee on a few things that the joint committee is taking on. The joint committee has formed a quality assurance subcommittee; they will be a small group of people that really enjoy looking at documents and making sure that all recommendations being sent to the Joint Committee are in the correct format and that they are clearly written. This will minimize the amount of recommendations being sent back and forth for editing. Members should make sure they read all pre-read materials that are sent out prior to each meeting. This will help keep conference calls to 1 hour.

Vice-Chair Nomination
The Vice-Chair nomination drew a blank via email. Patrick Mitchell (Neil) has volunteered and has been elected by consensus the new Vice Chair for the EITC Committee replacing Clifford McKenzie.

EITC Subcommittee Report Out

Return Preparers
This subcommittee will meet on February 22, 2006 @ 11:00 EST. Mitchell mentioned that, like all of TAP, the subcommittee does not take on legislative issues. The EITC committee submits suggestions to the IRS on how to reach people who are entitled to the EIC but who don’t receive it. During the next meeting the subcommittee will brain storm on how to reach those taxpayers and improve that participation of the EITC program via tax preparers. Philcox briefed the committee on what the EITC is doing to combat fraud and to increase participation. The current estimate of participation is around 75% with 25% of the people not claiming the credit (many of these don’t file taxes). This is the highest amount of participation in terms of social service types of credit offered through the government, but it is also expensive in terms of error to have a high participation rate. Estimates of errors are between $11 and 14 billion each year. Knight discussed that Return Preparers complete between 2/3 and _ of all EITC returns. They should be aware of the credit, identify eligible people accurately, and help taxpayers understand the requirements of the credit.

This subcommittee will focus on how to provide tools and information to Return Preparers from the perspective of outreach and compliance. Richardson stated the welcome package that Knight gave out with publication 3524 (eligibility check list) and 2005 earned income certification test overview is very helpful.

Demographics
Davis contacted the Delaware Local Taxpayer Advocate who put her in touch with the tax specialist for EITC in Delaware, and also put her in touch with a website called E-File Demographics. This webpage has data from TY 2003; TY2004 won’t be available until after June 2006. Statistics for tax year 2002 were also given. The committee discussed the kind of statistics are going to be focused on. The committee decided to compare figures on more returns to see if more people are using the EITC feature over time. A comparison of 3 years will be done. The committee will compare trends and formulate questions and submit them to Knight to see if he can come up with any information to assist the committee. The next meeting will be March 14, 2006 @ 10:00 am ET. Richardson suggested using a census because it breaks down by gender, age, race, disability and amount, education, marital status, employment status, occupation, household income which will be very helpful with EITC, household and how the language is concentrated in different areas. Jenkins has started working on getting the census summary sheet. Richardson suggests the committee look at the handout Knight handed out titled EITC topic of focus 2006. This will help the committee with some ideas.

Immigration/Language Barriers & Technology
On March 10, 2006 both committees met with the David Knight, Lisa Watkins, Mary O’Brien and Crystal Philcox for clarification. The goal is for the committee, working in subcommittees, to help further the IRS’s (EITC program office) understanding of the EITC taxpayers’ use of technology so that the IRS utilizes the most effective approaches in delivering the EITC mission (i.e., increase EITC participation rates, decrease errors, improve products/services, allocate resources; and focus on the best ways to communicate with EITC taxpayers). The subcommittees will accomplish this by trying to answer/address unknown factors about the EITC population. For example, the Technology subcommittee’s focus is ascertaining how computer/technology savvy the EITC population is, whether they use the internet, whether third parties use web tools on their behalf, and so on.

Public Participation
None

Action Items:
Members

• Subcommittees set up meetings and select subcommittee Chair
• Forward any questions or to request information

Jenkins/Odom

• Complete and distribute Annual Meeting notes

Next Meeting
March 14, 2006 @ 12:00 Noon EST
Meeting adjourned 12:50 PM