EITC Issue Committee Meeting Minutes
October 10, 2006
12:00 Noon ET
Teleconference

Program Owner

• Knight, David, Acting, Supervisory Program Analyst, EITC Office
• O’Brien, Mary, Program Analyst, EITC Office

Designated Federal Official

• Ramirez, Sandra

Committee Members Present

• Davis, Blanche - Rehoboth Beach, DE
• Lawler, Mary Ann - Dearborn, MI
• Margulies, Howard - North Easton, MA
• Natter, Joyce - Miami, FL
• Richardson, Lovella - Knoxville, TN
• Uhrig, Edward - Lusk, WY
• Woo, Lillian - Durham, NC - Chair

Committee Members Absent

• Broniarczyk, Robert - Romeoville, IL
• Mitchell, Neil - Provo, UT - Vice Chair

TAP Staff

• Jenkins, Audrey - Brooklyn, NY
• Odom, Meredith - Brooklyn, NY

Public Participants
Mark Heffman, H & R Block, Washington, DC
Robert Weinberger, H & R Block, Washington, DC
Rachel Rosner, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, DC

Welcome
Woo welcomed all members, IRS staff and public participants.

Roll Call (quorum has been met)

Year End Meeting
Woo stated although the committee normally has meetings on alternate months she suggests having a November full committee meeting prior to the Annual Meeting to final any projects and complete the committee’s self assessment. The meeting will be scheduled for the second Tuesday of the month, November 14, 2006 Noon ET.

Subcommittees Report-Out

Return Preparers/Technology
Natter – The subcommittee is working on a survey that will be sent to tax preparers. The committee would like to know if the IRS has the capability to break down the tax preparers by categories. This will allow the committee to gear the survey according to different groups. The subcommittee will schedule a call that will include O’Brien to decide whether or not the survey should take place and when it can be administered.

Demographics/Immigration
Richardson – The committee has received information from Homeland Security and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The proposal has been revised and approved by the committee, but it has not been forwarded to the EITC Office. The five highest legal permanent resident countries are Mexico, India, Philippines, Vietnam, and China. They were divided among the four subcommittee members. The original goal was to help the EITC office to budget the EITC funds for tax payers, but the data were not available. The committee has found information on immigrants which includes illegal aliens who do not pay taxes, but information on legal permanent residents (who pay taxes and are eligible for EITC) is incomplete. This is an unsettled problem on which the committee is asking for help from O’Brien and Knight. The information that was found for 2001 -2003 was used to make projections for 2004 which were then compared to actual statistics for 2004 without much success. The committee could not find any consistent trend with accuracy. Woo would like to know where the five largest language groups are settling in terms of metropolitan areas. O’Brien would like to see the draft.

Other Comments
Philcox has been promoted and will no longer be overseeing the work of the EITC Committee. Knight will be temporarily replacing Philcox. O’Brien is still the person whom the committee can count on to assist them. Woo reminds the committee that the year is ending so it is important to get their work up to date to be handed off to the next group of TAP EITC Committee volunteers.  This is Woo’s last year as a member of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel; she will be resigning at the end of this year. Woo asked the members to think about serving in a leading capacity.

Public Participation
Heffman asked for an update on what the committee is working on overall. Woo informed him that the Immigration/Language Subcommittee were in the process of identifying the five largest language groups migrating to the US and the Tax Preparer/Technology Committee was working on a survey.