Joint Committee Minutes

June 15, 2004

Members Present

• James Grimaldi, Area 1
• Gwen Handelman, EITC
• Robert Meldman, Ad Hoc
• Paul Nagel, Schedule C Non-filers
• Tom Seuntjens, TAP Chair
• Teresa Smedley, Area 4
• George Sullivan, Area 3
• Bruce Twomley, Multilingual
• Sherry Whah, Area 6
• Lillian Woo, Area 5

Members Absent

• Mario Burgos, Efiling
• Skip Eshelman, Notices
• Cheyanna Jaffke, Area 7
• David Meyer, Area 2
• Leonard Steinberg, Payroll Taxes

Staff Present

• Bernie Coston, DFO
• Sandy McQuin, TAP Manager
• Patti Robb, Note taker
• Barbara Toy, Program Analyst
• Tersheia Carter, Program Analyst
• Sallie Chavez, Program Analyst
• Mary Ann Delzer, Program Analyst
• Nancy Ferree, TAP Manager
• Audrey Jenkins, Program Analyst
• Marisa Knispel, Program Analyst
• Judi Nicholas, TAP Manager

Guests Present

• Nina E. Olson, National Taxpayer Advocate
• Theresa Douglass, H&R Block

Welcome / Announcements / Review Agenda
Tom Seuntjens welcomed everyone to call and asked Bernie Coston to discuss two items during the National Office report: possible name change for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Committee and budget for outreach. No other changes were made to agenda.

Roll Call
10 members present; quorum met.

National Office Report
Coston said as far as recruitment, all applications are ranked. Well over 900 applications were received. TAP brought in a recruitment team from around the nation that ranked the applications and came up with the 240 best qualified from all states. National Office is going through the process of establishing interview dates and times during July. Initially, it was proposed interviews start the week of June 21. However, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a new process for using the centralized travel account for non-employees or employees who do not have a government credit card. Due to this change, any requests for travel using the centralized billing account needs to be in process almost 30 days in advance of the travel. This process can not be done by June 21, so the interview dates were pushed back to the weeks of July 12, July 19, and July 26. Coston is aware that changing the interview dates conflicts with some face-to-face meetings and tax forums so national office will work with member’s schedules. National Office is now contacting all the applicants to set up dates, times, and locations TAP will attempt to conduct most interviews in IRS personnel locations to begin the fingerprinting and background check process. That way volunteers should be cleared for duty well before the annual meeting.

Another concern TAP faced, is the travel budget. Due to the number of people traveling, TAP members and staff, as well as, interviewees, brought the travel estimates over budget. Nina Olson has agreed to increase the budget as we need to get people on board in a timely manner. Based on locations, the majority of the people are choosing to drive. Probably four of ten people will need to fly.

Judi Nicholas has oversight of planning the annual meeting. If you have any suggestions for topics of discussion, please forward the information to Nicholas. TAP will work to fit it suggestions into the agenda.

ACTION: Joint Committee members should forward suggestions for topics of discussion during the November Annual Meeting to Judi.L.Nicholas@irs.gov.

Gwen Handelman reported that the Earned Income Tax Credit Committee wants to change its name to Earned Income Credit Committee. The term "Earned Income Credit" or "EIC" is less confusing to taxpayers because it does not imply that tax must be owed to qualify for the credit. Although the IRS uses the terms interchangeably, public participants at the Committee's Las Vegas meeting reported that using different terms confuses taxpayers. The Committee plans to recommend to the EITC Program that "EIC" be used consistently, and the Committee wants to follow its own advice.

Handelman asked if the 240 to be interviewed included alternates for those states that already have participating members. Coston confirmed it did. Seuntjens asked how deep TAP will go into alternates. Coston replied at least one per state at a minimum but possibly two or three. Some states only have four or five applicants and only two or three are bonafide; some larger states will have a larger pool.

Seuntjens doesn’t think the area committees’ needs to know the budget to make outreach plans. Areas should make the plan; cost it out; and then determine what is doable. Coston said the dilemma for the most part, with the exception of the tax forums, is outreach is ad hoc and it falls upon the committee members to identify outreaches and request the money for them. If TAP knows about an outreach that will be a major expense in advance, Coston can add the item to his budget request. Coston asked chairs to keep in mind, while planning for meeting the communication strategy, that the panel is founded on taxpayers not tax practitioners, and the goal is to gather grass roots issues. Nicholas suggested chairs use the marketing strategy to develop a plan; the staff will then cost out; and, If necessary, the committee may have to prioritize the plan. Handelman suggested all area committees commit to organize an outreach subcommittee or use existing subcommittee to develop the plan for the next fiscal year. Seuntjens reminded staff that the outreach plan and marketing strategy should be part of the panel operations document. Locally, members can do many outreaches at a minimal cost and it fulfills the TAP mission of listening to taxpayers and being advocates for taxpayers not practitioners. Sandy McQuin added that in addition to the plan, there will always be ad hoc outreaches that arise and panel members often hear of these opportunities through their own networking. Panel members are responsible for informing staff of these opportunities. Seuntjens said that if chairs know of a major expenditure for fiscal year 2005, they need to let their managers know as soon as possible. Handelman said that the Ad Hoc approach and local outreaches do not cost a lot individually but with the more proactive approach to outreach, the cost could become a major expenditure. Coston suggested part of the process is for chairs to take a look at the historical information as to what outreaches happened last year. The program managers can report on outreach done during the first year for chairs to use in developing the plan.

ACTION: Program managers will provide historical outreach information to committee chairs.

Review of Assignments
The Communications Director for Taxpayer Advocate Service had an opportunity to review the TAP Communication Strategy. Coston wanted the Joint Committee to review the strategy one more time since the changes were made after the Joint Committee approved the plan. Nicholas pointed out the changes made in the plan. Seuntjens asked about the next steps—inclusion in the operational guide and action items with timeframes. Nicholas has developed an internal action plan with timeframes and the next step is to discuss with the managers and Coston. Then, the communications strategy will be distributed to all members and put on area committee agendas.

Steve Berkey was not present on call and no one was aware of current status of his action items and they will remain as assignments. The due date for Coston’s exit interview was changed to the July meeting.

ACTION: Coston will present the exit interview questions to the Joint Committee for review at the July Meeting.

Coston and Seuntjens discussed the feedback mechanism or reporting mechanism to issue committees from the program owners. Sue Sottile agrees that written recommendations should receive written responses. The analysts assigned to the Issue Committee need to let the managers know when an answer has not been received and the manager will follow up with the program owner.

ACTION: Program managers will work with the analysts assigned to the Issue Committee to identify delinquent written responses and perform the follow-up with the program owner.

Ferree’s understanding of the DAT training assignment differs from the wording of the assignment. Ferree will discuss with Sandra Ramirez and Handelman. Assignment item will be removed.

Area 1 is reworking the proposal on including TAP information on IRS forms and publications and will not recommend adding TAP information to forms just to the most common publications. Proposal should be ready by July meeting.

Handelman noted that the action item regarding TAP participation in the EITC task force is moot because the task force has been disbanded, but Handelman still wishes to pursue the separate issue of promoting communication between TAP and IRSAC. Nina Olson asked for clarification. Handelman explained that IRSAC (Internal Revenue Service Advisory Committee) has subcommittees looking at the same types of issues as TAP committees. Handelman’s concern is reinventing the wheel and duplicating efforts. Olson said IRSAC and TAP may overlap on issues but each from a different perspective. The groups are designed for the different points of view. By design, IRS wants the lay citizen’s point of view. Olson agrees with trying to save IRS resources discussed this issue with IRSAC. IRSAC did not show interest in partnering. Seuntjens added that since TAP has asked and IRSAC has not shown interest, the only alternative TAP has is to refer to their minutes for information and asked if someone from National Office could review their minutes for crossover? Coston agreed to that action item and will also talk to the IRSAC coordinator about sharing information. Olson said individual members of IRSAC may want to partner but it may not be the desire of the group. Handelman asked if the chairs should communicate with IRSAC. Coston replied that national office will look at notes generated and determine if there is a redundancy. If there is, national office will approach the IRSAC coordinator. Olson asked IRSAC if they were interested in a briefing on the TAP annual report but has had no response.

ACTION: National Office staff will review other IRS advisory group minutes for redundancy with TAP issues. National Office will serve as liaison with the advisory groups.

Seuntjens asked for an update on reaching the one-third turnover rate for panel members. Coston replied TAP will not reach the one third turnover this year since TAP needs to fill either 48 or 49 slots. Seuntjens recapped the transition of getting the one-third turnover in the next few years. Coston has been in conversation with Christopher Lee (an attorney on Olson’s staff) and feels confident TAP will reach the one-third turnover. But, for that to happen, TAP has to begin to pull from the alternate pool on a regular basis.

Olson liked the idea of advanced media training but suggested retaining the original. Handelman suggested scheduling the two so a person could attend both sessions. Nicholas will see if its doable for the November meeting.

ACTION: Toy will add “Other Employee Benefits” under Tax Law on the Inventory of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities inventory.

In November, members will be asked to complete the form at the November Annual Meeting. Staff will gather and input the information into a database.

Other changes are reflected in the assignment section.

Review / Approve Minutes
Handelman said her recollection is discussion about written recommendations requiring a written response and oral recommendations an oral response and this should be reflected in minutes. After discussion the minutes were amended to reflect the change. A clarifying sentence was also added to the “Expanding the Check Box Authorization” section. The minutes were approved with the changes.

Agenda Items

Monthly Committee Reports Action Items

• Chair Washington Meeting Notes
  Discussed earlier; no additional comments.
• Issue matrix/Status Report
  Reports with the recommended changes were distributed prior to meeting. The analysts have not completed all the necessary changes to the database for the report. Chairs need to work with their analysts when items are missing or need clarification. Chairs should continue putting active, parking lot and subcommittee issues on the monthly report.
• Review form for collecting KSAs
  Approved with minor changes mentioned in the “Review Assignments” section.
• What’s on TAP
  Smedley would welcome any volunteers to write articles for this project. If TAP promises to have an article for each issue, TAP needs to keep the commitment. Area 4 wanted to have a few months articles prepared before the project commenced. Area 4 members now have a starting supply of articles and other members have committed to writing an article for one month’s issue. The articles will be printed in various practitioner publications, nonprofit newsletters. Area 4 has found an organizations in every state (every state in Area 4) that has agreed to publish them. There was discussion of expanding the project nation-wide and internally to TAS and/or IRS employees; however, chairs thought additional information was needed before decisions could be made. Joint Committee will review articles in July and possibly and decide to make nation-wide project in July. Area 4 panel member, Larry Lexow, shared all articles and a list of publications with Bob Meldman in hopes that Ad Hoc will take nationwide.
  ACTION: Smedley will distribute copies of the articles and the list of publications that have agreed to publish the articles to the Joint Committee prior to the July Joint Committee meeting.
• Discussion of IRS Responses
  • TAP 04-012 EFTPS Clarification of Tax Year
    Carried over to July Meeting.
  • TAP 03-016 W-4 Clarification
    Sherry Whah stated that the W-4 form helps determine the proper amount of withholding from a paycheck. The form carries a bias towards a small balance due or minimum refund. The proposal is to add wording to the form and instructions to advice people to check their withholding several times during the year if they owed the previous year, have a second job, or other sources of income. The IRS response is indicative of what is going on with this form, it’s a fine balancing act with room on the form and having a multiple page form, making the form more complex but more accurate, etc. IRS developed a multi-page form but it was not used because it was perceived as too complex. IRS will continue to consider suggestions for future revisions as space permits.
    ACTION: Toy will close the TAP 03-016 W-4 Clarification issue as Closed, proposal considered.
• Review web based E-File Made Easy
  The link to the E-File Made Easy website is included in the agenda for this meeting. This is a reminder for everyone to review the site and submit any comments to Mary Ann Delzer. The site is going live in the next couple of weeks so please reply as soon as possible.
• Abatement of Low Dollar Balance Dues
  George Sullivan stated that Rossotti revised the limit of abating low dollar balance due accounts to $5.00 under the Secretary of Treasury’s delegated authority to abate the unpaid portion of the assessment of any tax. Area 3 is proposing the abatement amount be increased to $25.00. Based on the annual study by Dartnell’s Institute of Business Research, the average total cost of producing and mailing one business letter is $19.92. The Joint Committee approved the elevation by consensus.
  ACTION: Toy will format the “Abatement of Low Dollar Balance Due” issue, forward to IRS, and place on the Recommendation database for tracking.
• Recommendations for OIC Form 656
  Area 5 was asked by Forms and Publications to review Form 656, Offer In Compromise, and they requested a quick response. The recommendations were already submitted to Forms and Publications but Area 5 brought forward to incorporate into the official TAP record. Seuntjens added that the recommendation was a considerable amount of work and it should be documented. A similar letter was sent for the Area 5’s recommendations on the Alternative Minimum Tax form. Consensus reached for sending a cover letter acknowledging the work and thanking the program owner.
  ACTION: Toy will forward cover letter for the OIC Form 656 Recommendations acknowledging the panel’s hard work and thank you the program owner for listening TAP’s suggestions and place on the Recommendation database for tracking.
• Guidance on Reformat of Annual Assessment
  Handelman reminded the committee that at the last Joint Committee meeting, Nicholas suggested three questions as alternatives to the grading system used in last year’s assessment. The are: 1) what would you like staff to stop doing that is no value; 2) what would you like staff to start doing they aren’t doing; and 3) what would you like the staff to continue doing that is of value. A member of the EITC suggested alternative wording. Handelman asked if the form was going to be revised and suggested the revisions be made prior to each committee’s final face-to-face meeting. It is easier for committee members to feel their comments will remain anonymous and be more honest if the comments are slipped into a box and not submitted by email or over the telephone. Seuntjens will review the current form used and propose changes for the July Joint Committee meeting.
  ACTION: Toy will solicit comments from staff on how the form can be improved, modify the form with suggestions, and forward the original and the modified form to Seuntjens.
  ACTION: Seuntjens will present the modified form to the Joint Committee at the July meeting for approval.
• Annual Report
  The annual report mailed to Joint Committee is complete except for the sections on Issue Committees.
  ACTION: Toy will distribute the updated sections of the Annual Report to the Joint Committee Members.
  ACTION: Patti Robb will prepare and send report to Publishing for printing and binding.

  A discussion of to whom and how the annual report is distributed followed. Possible distribution including all Local Taxpayer Advocates, current panel members, incoming panel members, the National Taxpayer Advocate, the Secretary of Treasury, and both national and regional news releases.
  ACTION: Toy will inform Coston of discussion and confirm distribution of annual report and news releases.

Public Input
Teresa Douglass, H&R Block, was asked if the What’s On TAP articles are directed towards practitioners or would they be suitable for printing in farm journals and other similar special interest publications. Meldman replied that originally the idea was for practitioner groups news letters but was expanded to any group that showed interest. Douglass also expressed confusion on the number of total members and the allotment of members to each state.
ACTION: Toy will forward the “What’s On TAP” articles and the state member allotment information to Douglass.

Assignments:
Joint Committee Members:

1. Forward suggestions for topics of discussion during the November Annual Meeting to Judi.L.Nicholas@irs.gov.

Area Chairs:

1. Work with Program Managers to include discussion of the PowerPoint during the area committee communication strategy discussion including instructions on how to personalize the PowerPoint (05-07-2004 to 05-08-2004).

Berkey:

1. Work with publishing to produce pocket-sized versions of the Media Guide and the Talking Points (05-07-2004 to 05-08-2004).
2. Develop fact sheet of success stories for panel members to use as part of their outreach and to insert into press releases and will update to keep stories fresh (05-07-2004 to 05-08-2004).

Tersheia Carter and Ramirez:

1. Provide section of staff operating procedures pertaining to TAP members, the Guidance documents and issue flow information to Operating Guidance Document team by the end of July.

Tersheia Carter, Jaffke, Woo, Seuntjens, and Ramirez:

1. Produce an operating guidance document for committee chairs by the September Joint Committee (this action item combined with earlier action item to extract portions of staff Standard Operating Procedures). (05-07-2004 to 05-08-2004).

Coston:

1. Share the exit interview form by July Joint Committee meeting.

National Office Staff:

1. Review other IRS advisory group minutes for redundancy with TAP issues. National Office will serve as liaison with the advisory groups.

Program Managers:

1. Provide historical outreach information to committee chairs.
2. Work with the analysts assigned to the Issue Committee to identify delinquent written responses and perform the follow-up with the program owner.
3. Work with chairs to present the Communication Strategy at upcoming area meetings and include discussion of the PowerPoint during the area committee communication strategy discussion including instructions on how to personalize the PowerPoint (05/07 and 05/08/2004)
4. Inform analysts to work with the chairs to review the issue matrix titles and, whenever possible, place the key word first (i.e., if an issue is concerning EITC, EITC should be the first word in the title. If it concerns a form, the form number should be the first word.) (05-07-2004 to 05-08-2004).
5. Inform analysts and work with the analyst assigned to an Issue Committee to start tracking their committee’s recommendations and perform any necessary follow-up with the program owners (05-07-2004 to 05-08-2004).
6. Inform analysts to ensure a copy of or summary of any written or oral responses to issues elevated through the Joint Committee be sent to Toy (05-07-2004 to 05-08-2004).
7. Send out list of members who have volunteered to stay a third year to their committee chairs (05-07-2004 to 05-08-2004).
8. Inform analysts to update and send out list of meeting attendance by May 10 to their assigned committees’ chair and thereafter will send out attendance information quarterly (05-07-2004 to 05-08-2004).

Smedley:

1. Forward copies of the “What’s on TAP?” articles and the list of publications that have agreed to publish the articles to the Toy who will distribute to Joint Committee prior to the July Joint Committee meeting.

Robb:

1. Prepare and send Annual Report to Publishing for printing and binding.

Seuntjens:

1. Seuntjens will present the modified annual self-assessment form to the Joint Committee at the July meeting for approval.

Staff:

1. Update the PowerPoint presentation and redistribute (05-07-2004 to 05-08-2004).

Sullivan:

1. Bring the “Expanding Check the Box Authorization” referral back to Area 3 for reconsideration of the issues discussed at the Joint Committee meeting.
2. Work with the authors of the Schedule K-1 proposal and George Sullivan to rewrite it, and present again to the Joint Committee (03/16/2004).

Toy:

1. Add “Other Employee Benefits” under Tax Law on the Inventory of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities inventory
2. Forward cover letter for the OIC Form 656 Recommendations acknowledging the panel’s hard work and thank you the program owner for listening TAP’s suggestions and place on the Recommendation database for tracking.
3. Format the “Abatement of Low Dollar Balance Due” issue, forward to IRS, and place on the Recommendation database for tracking.
4. Distribute the updated sections of the Annual Report to the Joint Committee Members.
5. Inform Coston of discussion and confirm distribution of annual report and news releases.
6. Forward the “What’s On TAP” articles and the state member allotment information to Douglass.
7. Distribute SAMS issue report with instructions on use to Joint Committee members (05-07-2004 to 05-08-2004).
8. Add agenda item to next face-to-face on chair’s role for the transition: should the chairs continue for the one year term, should they be mentors? (05 07 2004 05 08 2004).
9. Prepare the Message on Refund Check Envelope for elevation (01/20/2004).

Whah:

1. Discuss the On Hold for Toll Free and the Provider Identification Number response and report back to Barbara Toy on its status. Consolidate the response for Meyer and Sullivan on the On Hold for Toll Free issue

TAP Chair Meeting Notes for May 10 & 11, 2004
Washington D.C.

May 11 – Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC) Public Meeting - Observations

• Nancy French, ETAAC Chair, has agreed to stay in touch with the TAP Chair to coordinate and share information on common issues. Currently the common areas are E-file for SB/SE and Free File with Area 5.
• ETAAC is comprised of 14 individuals with professional ties to tax preparation, independent software providers and accounting services firms. In listening to the reports by each of the members during this public meeting, the individual taxpayer was most often forgotten and did not appear to have representation from this committee. This reinforced the need for TAP as a taxpayer advocate.
• ETAAC is in the process of writing its annual report due on June 30th.
• Terry Lutes, Associate CIO Information Technology Services, and Bert DuMars, Director ETA, provided the committee and the public with their latest update on the IRS systems improvement projects.

May 10 – Nina Olson & Bernie Coston:

• Nina is satisfied with the overall progress and status of the current TAP. She feels that great progress has been made with the maturity, structure and productivity of the panel.
• Nina continues to use TAP’s work and image to help identify and promote the TAS agenda, especially with congress. She also recognizes TAP wherever possible but cannot guarantee that the news media will note the acknowledgement of TAP. The written quotes often depend on what the writer chooses to include in the articles.
• With regard to future assignments of TAP issue committees and the Ad Hoc Committee, Nina, staff and the IRS, with the Joint Committee’s input, will review the IRS strategic plan to ensure that the issue committees have the appropriate focus for 2005 and forward. Action: The TAP Director will request a scaled down version of the IRS Strategic Plan and provide a copy to the Joint Committee for review and discussion at a future JC teleconference meeting and the committee will provide input to help IRS set priorities for the 2005 issue committee. Action: The review of Issue Committee assignments and decisions by the IRS must be completed before the September Joint Committee meeting in Denver to allow time for staff to prepare for the November annual TAP meeting.
• Nina acknowledged the previous 2003 recommendation and the review of a transition to a 3 years term for TAP members. With this understanding and TAP’s interest to move to a 3 year transition model, TAP is requesting TAP management to offer new 2005 members an option of either a 2 or 3 year term (2 year with a 1 year extension to comply with the current charter) with the objective to transition the total panel to a 3 year term in 2006. The new charter for 2006 and thereafter should request a 3 year term for TAP members. Following is a new recommended transition model:

2005 Recruitment
33% - Existing members with a one-year term (1)
12% - Existing members with a two-year (1 + 1 yr. ext) term (2)
22% - New members offered a two-year term
33% - New members offered a three-year (2 + 1 yr. ext.) term

2006 Recruitment & Thereafter
All new members (33%) offered a three-year term

Note: All replacement members from the alternate list will be placed on the panel to balance the panel with 1/3,1/3,1/3 terminating each year, and all terms will end as of October 31 of each year.

• There is still reluctance with some TAP panel members to perform a reasonable level of outreach activity with the taxpayers to help identify grassroots issues for their area committees. Action: To continue our past practices, we should again plan to have training seminars at our November annual meeting. I have requested Nina to ask the area managers of the local LTA’s to help identify outreach opportunities within our panel member cities and invite the local panel members to attend more open meetings to listen and become familiar with available organizations and scheduled meetings. This partnership will continue to depend on budget, LTA available time and the area manager’s commitment. Action: I’m reminding each area committee chairperson to request and encourage each panel member to participate and verbally report their outreach activity each month during the committee meetings. These outreach activities should be reported in the monthly minutes and in turn highlighted in the committee’s annual report to the TAP chair.
• Nina endorses more frequent meetings with the TAP chair as well as with other IRS advisory committees. Action: The TAP Director will arrange meetings with the Director of TAS as schedules permit and whenever possible with the advisory committees to ensure that TAP is recognized by the IRS, it has the opportunity to coordinate activities with other advisory groups and it is as effective as possible as an advocate for the taxpayer.
• TAP will proceed to issue our long overdue 2003 Annual Report to Treasury.

• Sue has agreed to work closely with the IRS program owners assigned to area committee recommendations to ensure timely responses and a new emphasis with the issue committee program owners to provide timely written responses to the written recommendation made by the issue committees. Action: Barbara Toy will place Sue on the distribution list for the monthly TAP report on recommendation to allow her to track the status of both area and issue committee recommendations.
• Sue would like to have TAP area committees review & make recommendations to “Forms and Publications” on pending changes as they are scheduled for review simultaneously with focus groups testing. To involve TAP after the focus groups testing, which has been requested in the past, places TAP too late in the review process to make a difference in the outcome of the form or publication redesign. Action: Bernie Coston will establish a process with Sue to involve TAP area committees when forms and publications testing first become available within a members city to allow the member to also participate.
• Sue would like to meet more frequently with the TAP chair.
  

• Maggie will be responsible for tracking all TAP recommendations made to SB/SE. Action: Barbara Toy will place Maggie on the distribution list for the monthly TAP report on recommendation to allow her to track the status of both area and issue committee recommendations.
• Maggie will review the program owner status for the TAP issue committee “E-file for SB/SE” to determine if the appropriate program owner is currently established.
• Maggie invited the TAP chair to meet with her as appropriate to ensure that SB/SE is responsive to TAP inquires and recommendations.