Joint Committee Minutes

March 1, 2006

Members Present

• Brubaker, Paul, TAP Vice-Chair
• Combs, Larry, TAP Chair
• Duquette, Paul, VITA Chair
• Fireman, Jerry, TAC Chair
• Havey, Dorothy, Area 1 Chair
• Kaplan, Allena, Area 7 Chair
• Kasturi, Srinivasan, Burden Reduction Chair
• Marker, Patrice, Ad Hoc Chair
• McElroy, Paul, Area 2 Chair
• McKenzie, Clifford, Area 5 Chair
• Meyers, Robert, Communication Chair
• Motza, Maryann, Area 6 Chair
• Schneider, Ferd, Area 4 Chair
• Scioli, Allen, Notices Chair
• Woo, Beadsie, EITC Chair
• Wright, J.T., Area 3 Chair

Members Absent

• None

Staff Present

• Bernie Coston, DFO
• Sandy McQuin, TAP Manager
• Barbara Toy, Program Analyst
• Steve Berkey, Program Analyst
• Nancy Ferree, TAP Manager
• Judi Nicholas, TAP Manager
• Sandra Ramirez, TAP Manager
• Inez DeJesus, Program Analyst
• Susan Gilbert, Senior Program Analyst
• Marisa Knispel, Program Analyst

Welcome / Announcements / Review Agenda
Vice chairs are welcome to listen in on the Joint Committee calls to be kept informed of what is happening in TAP, but should not participate in the call if the chair is in attendance. Because of the change in the meeting dates, the due date for the monthly committee report has changed; the report is now due by the tenth of each month. The primary means of communication for the Joint Committee will be TAPSpeak or email.

National Office Report
Sonny Kasturi was quoted in an article on E-file goals. There is a Town Hall meeting in Davenport, Iowa, on Wednesday, March 8, 2006. Coston thanked all members for their efforts toward these town hall meetings. A Town Hall meeting is scheduled for Jackson, Mississippi on March 23; Fargo, North Dakota on April 26; and Cranston, Rhode Island, on May 10, 2006. TAP has also received a request to hold one in Cincinnati, Ohio, some time in June.

Martha Curry, Senior Program Analyst in Washington, D.C. retired on February 28, 2006. The Federal Register notice for recruitment has posted. Recruitment is scheduled to run from
March 21 to April 28, 2006 and everything is on target. Staff is working to get the on-line application operational, and will be utilizing TAP members to help test it in the next few weeks. Letters were sent out to all non-returning members thanking them for their hard work, and the Presidential award certificates were also sent to them. Based on a poll of all members, an overwhelming number wanted the annual meeting to be held in November. TAP is soliciting hotels in Washington, D.C., and is looking at the week of November 13, 2006. The TAP Charter is at the Treasury and staff should get the response back at any time with the approval. TAP is still looking at potential dates for meeting with the Commissioner.

ACTION: Larry Combs should email Evelyn Petschek the dates of availability for the meeting with the commissioner.

Report on Oversight Board Meeting
A link to their website which has the detailed information was sent out. Raymond T. Wagner, Jr., Chairman of the Oversight Board, thanked all for participating in the forum and felt the meeting went well. The Oversight board anticipates involving TAP in future meetings.

The Oversight Board had two different panel sessions; one dealt with customer service issues. Some of the issues that arose are:

• Taxpayers want to deal with one person to resolve their issues; this was echoed by all.
• Current procedures are obsolete for today’s taxpayers needs.
• Different categories of taxpayers: seniors (baby boomers); and those starting families and their eligibility for child credits have differing needs.
• User fees have increased and tax professionals are upset.
• The IRS needs to simplify the E-file process.
• AARP and VITA reported that it takes a longer time for volunteers to prepare returns because of the tax law complexity. Due to the loss of volunteers, they are not able to prepare as many returns.
• Provide more services including simple return preparation on web.
• Identify number and type of taxpayer errors in preparing returns.

The goal of 80% e-filing was mandated by Congress and the IRS is working towards it. The Panel asked what the purpose of the mandate is to increase compliance, reduce tax gap, increase record retention efficiency, or for cost reduction. The IRS should be able to look at different perspectives of electronic efficiencies, such as electronic forms of communication, as well as just the filing of returns. Coston asked if there was any discussion as far as E-file for small businesses and the new thresholds. Brubaker said yes small business have a lot of resistance to the percentage levels mandated E-filing for small businesses.

ACTION: Toy will put oversight board links and the information from the meeting on TAPSpeak and forward link to all Joint Committee members.

ACTION: After Toy places the Oversight Board information and links on TAPSpeak, the Area Chairs should send the links to their committee members.

Sonny Kasturi said the E-file rate of 80% is too optimistic and not achievable by the IRS. They should considering extending it four years. It is already up to 50 or 60%. The 80% goal is not attainable. Jerry Fireman noted that fewer people are able to use free file and this reduces the ability to reach the 80% rate.

Brubaker reported that FreeFile is now a four year agreement and the income limit is 50,000; this limit is set for the next four years. Ferd Schneider noted that Free File is not free for all aspects of filing because there is fee charged for the state tax return. Area 4 is working on free-file. Brubaker thanked the Joint Committee for the opportunity to represent them and for sending ideas to him.

ACTION: Brubaker will send out a copy of the letter he received from the Oversight Board thanking him for his participation and will draft a response to the letter.

Chairs Update: First Meeting Comments
Combs asked that everyone discuss their perspective on the chair training, their committee’s first meeting, and the annual meeting. Sonny Kasturi felt the training was well done; Ferd Schneider asked if they could get a compiled evaluation.

ACTION: Sandy McQuin will compile chair training evaluations and send them out to all Joint Committee members.

Sonny Kasturi said kudos on the annual meeting in January. Combs felt it was 100% better than the year before.

Paul Duquette thought the issue pipeline training conducted in February was excellent, well done. It should be a best practice to include the notes on the PowerPoint both to follow along with during the lesson and then use later for review. Pipeline training should be made available to all. Kasturi and Schneider all agreed. Kasturi suggested holding the training during the annual meeting. Bob Meyers felt it was invaluable to new members. As a novice on the Joint Committee, he would have liked more support on writing the monthly report. Coston said staff could allocate more hours for the chair training or have some basic training and then still have some additional training by conference call. This and the chairs’ comments will be taken into consideration when planning future training.

Dorothy Havey said there was some concern that the quality review process may slow down the elevation of recommendations. Combs pointed out that there was already a month’s delay built in for this year so committee now has that time to review rather than it the review being done by Toy and the Chair. Combs said this is a work in process and that if it doesn’t work it will be adjusted. His goal is improvement over last year and hopefully each year continue to improve. Fireman noted this will be a short year and with this delay, recommendations need to be done by July or August. Combs replied that the delay was due to postponement of the annual meeting, but we can be productive and the subcommittee should be able to have a short turn-around time.

Judi Nicholas said another reason for the one-month delay in time was to give the members of the Joint Committee time to review the referral to be able to participate in the discussion more fully. The upside is that we will be able to process issues at meetings more efficiently and fewer issues will be going back to the originating committee. Combs noted that last year after the Joint Committee approved the recommendation, there was a good amount of time before it was sent forward for the type of changes that will be done prior to coming to full Joint Committee. . After the recommendation is approved, there should only be minimum changes, if any. It will be put on the Joint Committee agenda as soon as the quality review process is complete to provide sufficient time for the chairs to review.

Combs asked if there were any pending recommendations. Area 2 has some issues ready for the Joint Committee and Area 1 will have by May.

Prior Year Joint Committee Self Assessment
The Joint Committee Self-Assessment was distributed to all Joint Committee members. Committee members should review the self-assessment to develop their own best practices. Improvements have already been made based on the report such as, the chiar checklist and the quality review committee.

Dates/Locations of Face-to-Face and Annual Meeting
The first face-to-face is scheduled for June 29, 30 and July 1. Travel in for most on the morning of the 29th and travel home the afternoon of the 1st. The second face-to-face meeting is in October, the 11th-14th. This meeting will be longer to include a run-through of the chair oral reports for the annual meeting.
Choices for the location of the meetings are: Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, and St. Louis. Joint Committee members will vote by email on their preferred location. The top two choices will be used. Paul Brubaker thought it might be helpful to know what flights are available to make the choice. Steve Berkey said there is a federal travel website that members can use to check the information and sent the link to the site to Toy.

ACTION: Toy will send out email with cost comparisons for the four chosen locations for the face-to-face meetings and ask each chair or their proxy for the first and second choice on locations. The link to the General Services Administration (GSA) site for travel will be included.

Closing
Brubaker asked if there was any progress on setting the meeting with the Commissioner. Coston said yes and that Combs needed to respond back with choice of dates.

Sonny Kasturi will be sending out an email to all on the Subchapter S option for comment.

Paul Duquette requested information on the definitions for each field on the monthly committee report.

ACTION: Toy will send definitions for each field on the Monthly Committee Report to Joint Committee members.

Bob Meyers asked all please respond to the surveys sent out by the Communication Committee.

ACTION: Toy will place Meeting Satisfaction Survey on TAPSpeak with email notification to all meeting attendees.

Next Meeting is Wednesday, April 5, 2006 at 1 pm ET