EITC Committee Meeting Minutes
January 8, 2007, 10:30 AM EDT
Teleconference                 

Program Owner

• Mary O’Brien, Program Analyst, EITC Office

Designated Federal Official

• Ramirez, Sandra, TAP Program Manager

Committee Members Present

Committee Members Absent

TAP Staff

• Jenkins, Audrey, TAP Program Analyst
• Knispel, Marisa, TAP Program Analyst
• Odom, Meredith, TAP Management Assistant

Other Attendees

• McDavid, Elijah, Policy Analyst, EITC Office
• Johns, Vivienne, Program Analyst, EITC Office

Welcome/Review of Agenda
Wernz welcomed all members and IRS staff. Wernz suggested the committee meet monthly instead of bi-monthly because of the Annual Assessment prepared by the 2006 EITC Committee. By consensus members decided to continue with the bi-monthly teleconferences as decided on at the Annual meeting in Washington.

Roll Call
Quorum met

Review of Assignment/Progress
Wernz asked if any members were able to access the websites O’Brien suggested for everyone to visit familiarize themselves with the EITC. Johns informed the committee of the objectives for the year which are to “improve communication with tax practitioners”. There is an opportunity to conduct research activities in the upcoming focus groups that are done with practitioners in the summer at the tax forums. Johns suggested that the committee split into two subcommittees; one for the administrative portion and the other will handle the technical portion of the project. Wernz mentioned that he has concerns that the 2006 EITC committee felt they lost momentum when the committee was split. Johns informed the committee that this project will differ from last year’s assignment and if the team decides they don’t want to split they don’t have too. She believes it would be more time effective to work in subcommittees. Jenkins informed the committee that subcommittees successfully worked in the past. Johns will serve as a subject matter expert to guide the committee, answer questions and to help the project move along. The Research department of the Wage & Investment division of the Internal Revenue and an outside contractor will be working with this as well. Data must be gathered before action can be taken. Communication with practitioners must be figured out. Tax Forums are a good ways to communicate with practitioners because they are all together at the same time. This is a good way to get the word out about EITC. Johns explained focus groups to the committee stating this is a facilitated discussion with a group of preparers which concentrate on 1 or 2 topics and is used to get a rage of opinions in the shortest amount of time. It is an open discussion by individuals who service various taxpayers. The committee will prepare the moderators guide which is the discussion guide. There will be different opinions based on demographics. It is extensive and does require a trained facilitator; everything is audio, and sometimes video taped. A lot of times focus groups are used before a survey is distributed. If the customer is not sure of what the issues are, then focus groups are used to bring the issues out. The second form of qualitative study is Structured Survey. These are in written form, telephonic and in interview format. The responses are limited to specific answers to the questions. Statistical analysis can be done with the data. It requires time to develop more so than the focus groups because the focus groups are general questions. You’re only going to get answers to what you asked. The third is Exit Interviews. They are similar to a survey. An individual just pulls someone aside to answer some questions. This can be time consuming, but it does give a more personal feel to the survey. Johns recommends using focus groups at the tax forums. If you need additional information you can develop a survey to do at next years Forum based on information from the previous Forum. Johns would like the committee to have the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) package (approval process) ready by the end of March or beginning of April, this will time for any corrections if needed. Johns is expecting a final report by late September or October showing all results. Johns discussed the OMB Package is a document which explains the project will be carried out. OMB then approves the project and explains how to select the individuals, the moderators guide or the survey questions. This document must be done and approved by OMB prior to conducting the focus groups. A moderator guide and a discussion guide must also be developed. The moderator’s guide is a guide for the person doing the moderating. The discussion guide, consist of open ended questions that stimulate questions.

The technical subcommittee will write the moderators guide and the discussion guide. This will include the questions that will be asked, what information is being seeked. The administrative subcommittee will figure out how to select the individuals, contact the individuals and how many individuals will be in each group.

Johns will forward Jenkins a guide on focus groups and other reading material for the committee to review prior to choosing a subcommittee. These items will explain how brainstorming session and planning sessions should go. One subcommittee will handle the logistics and the other group will handle the questions and technical documents that need to be written. The EITC office will provide the committee all resources needed to complete this task. A trained moderator will also be involved in this project.

Public Participation
N/A

Recap of New Action Items
Jenkins

• Provide committee with correct web address from O’Brien
• Send committee an email with a due date for subcommittee selection
• Send all pre-read materials from Johns

Johns

• Send Jenkins all pre-read materials for subcommittee selection

Members