EITC Issue Committee Meeting Minutes
August 13, 2007 - 10:30 AM
Teleconference

Program Owner

• O’Brien, Mary - EITC Office

Designated Federal Official

• Goldberg, Gloria - Brooklyn, NY - Acting Mgr.

Committee Members Present

• Chen, Betty - New York, NY - Member
• Cooper III, Reuben - Atlanta, GA - Vice Chair
• Kennedy, Jeff - Louisville, KY - Member        
• Tanna, Wayne - Honolulu, HI - Member
• Wernz, Stanley - Cincinnati, OH - Chair
• Widmer, Harris - Fargo, ND - Member

Committee Members Absent

• Broniarczyk, Robert - Romeoville, IL - Member
• Sosa, Iris - Fontana, CA - Member

TAP Staff

• Jenkins, Audrey - Brooklyn, NY - Analyst
• Odom, Meredith - Brooklyn, NY - Note Taker

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda
Wernz welcomed the committee and thanked everyone for completing the Survey from the Face to Face Meeting.
 
Roll Call
Quorum Met

Joint Committee Report

• The TAPSpace revision is complete. TapSpace was revised to improve information retrieval for TAP members. Members are encouraged to do more communications through TAPSpace.
• The TAP Annual Report for 2006 is still in draft form and is expected to be completed this week before the meeting with the Acting Commissioner. 
• There was a discussion at the last JC meeting whether there will be a reception for the members the first night of the Annual Meeting. 
• There was discussion for this year’s election of TAP Chair and Vice Chair. Ideas will be canvassed throughout the committees on how to elect the TAP Chair.
• The JC has been reviewing the Social Security mismatch, the Schedule D carryover issue and the Referral Process to have items elevated through the JC.

Committee Assignment Update
O’Brien informed members that Focus Groups were suppose to start this week of August 13, 2007, but OMB hasn’t given clearance yet so the Baltimore Focus group will be postponed to a later date. All other Focus Groups will go on as scheduled.  WESTAT will provide the committee with a transcript of each Focus Group by the end of the week after the focus group is held. O’Brien hopes some members will be able to attend.
 
Cooper states the revised screener’s guide that was sent out to the members included the changes the committee issued. 

O’Brien suggested that the committee make recommendations on any EITC product they think needs to be developed and different ways of communicating with preparers. Results from the focus groups are qualitative instead of quantitative. Cooper suggest the committee as a group should look at the results from the focus groups to see if there is enough information to come up with a recommendation as to how the IRS can improve communication with third parties on the EITC.  What are the preparers looking for from the IRS? These comments will help the committee prepare the recommendation. Members will receive a transcript of the questions and responses from the Focus Group. This will show different responses from other parts of the country. A rough draft of the data and the initial analysis will be provided by Westat; once this report it is approved by the stakeholder, O’Brien will forward it to Jenkins electronically for distribution to the committee and posting to TAPSpace.

Focus Group Assignment
Due to limited funds, TAP will not be able to send someone to all of the scheduled focus groups. There will be a list of individuals who reside in near by or neighboring states who will be invited to attend selected focus groups. Anyone else interested in attending please submit your name for consideration.

Review/Wrap up
Members should review all focus group transcripts and be able to discuss and develop some recommendations.  If needed, more research will be done.
 
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