Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP)
Joint Committee Teleconference Minutes
Wednesday, November 1, 2006 - 1 p.m. ET

Members Present:
Paul Brubaker, TAP Vice Chair
Larry Combs, TAP Chair
Paul Duquette, Chair, VITA Committee
Jerald Fireman, Chair, TAC Committee
Dorothy Havey, Chair, Area 1
Allena Kaplan, Chair, Area 7
Sonny Kasturi, Chair, Burden Reduction
Patrice Marker, Chair, Ad Hoc Committee
Paul McElroy, Chair, Area 2
Robert Meyers, Chair, Communication
Maryann Motza, Chair, Area 6
Ferd Schneider, Chair, Area 4
Max Scott, Chair, Notices Committee
J.T. Wright, Chair, Area 3

Members Absent:
Ralph Rivera, Chair, Area 5
Lillian (Beadsie) Woo, Chair, EITC

Staff Present:
Bernie Coston, DFO
Sandy McQuin, TAP Manager
Barbara Toy, Program Analyst
Nancy Ferree, TAP Manager
Sandra Ramirez, TAP Manager
Steve Berkey, Program Analyst
Inez DeJesus, Program Analyst
Audrey Jenkins, Program Analyst

Guests:
Tom Karwin, Vice Chair, Area 7
John Drann, Joint Operations Center
Ron Oberbillig, Treasury Public Debt

Quorum met.

Bernie Coston said the names went to Treasury last week.  Treasury feels confident they will have approval of the new members in the next couple weeks.  Area committees should start making hotel reservations for the annual meeting, following normal procedures for your area.  There were more volunteers to be presenters for the annual meeting than needed; TAP members have been chosen and will be notified soon.

Coston met with National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson on October 17 and covered the 2007 strategies and the annual meeting agenda.  Olson has agreed to be the keynote speaker at the annual meeting.  She also will conduct four town hall meetings in 2007.  Staff will confer with the Joint Committee in looking for the best dates and locations. 

Bob Meyers reported that a new vendor has been selected for TAPSpeak and work is being done to TAPSpeak now.  Coston commended Maryann Motza and the rest of the Communication Committee for working hand-in-hand with staff on this issue.  They did an excellent job in voicing concerns and looking at improving the calendar and rest of site.  There will be some excellent changes to the site.  Coston had a conference call with the vendor who is working on TAPSpeak.  The vendor will provide an overview of the new program at the annual meeting and have also tentatively agreed to do part of the training.  Motza mentioned the website is changing already; the list of names of people who have last logged onto the site is gone from the home page. 

Changes were made to the Communication Strategy as suggested by the Joint Committee at the October meeting.  Sonny Kasturi suggested the strategy be presented to all members as part of the annual meeting.  Coston will take the suggestion into consideration.
DECISION:  Communication Strategy approved as presented.

Coston received many responses from members interested in teaching workshop topics.  There are only going to be three or four workshops; Advanced Outreach; an Emerging Issues presentation which includes report on: TAB Phase II, split refunds, and the telephone Excise tax refund.  There will also be a general outreach class for new members which includes how to deal with the media.  Returning members will attend an advanced outreach workshop.  There will be a session on TAPSpeak, and one on how to write an issue referral.  A combination of staff and TAP members will teach what it takes and how to write a good referral.  Motza said it would be helpful to new members to hear about the Commissioner’s reaction to TAP’s position paper.  Coston noted TAP has not received formal feedback yet, but he will check to see if/when a response will be sent.  Coston thought the Commissioner may address the issues during the plenary. 

Steve Berkey said staff will be notifying members of their instructor assignments shortly.

Motza noted that one thing talked about with vendor regarding TAPSpeak was a name change.  She didn’t mention earlier that the Communication Committee suggested a name change for TAPSpeak.  The new name will be TAPSpace─if that name has not already been claimed by someone else.  Coston reminded that there have been discussions about the importance of branding and TAP should be careful about changing names too often.

Coston said the Wage and Investment Operating Division (W&I) has agreed to continue supporting the present issue committees and Small Business/Self Employed (SB/SE) will continue with the Burden Reduction Committee.  TAP members have responded as to whether they want to stay on their current issue committee or if they want to change issue committees.  The managers met yesterday and placed members in an issue committee.  There are two committees who want to stay with a set number of members and the maximum number of members per committee is about 15 so not every returning member was able to have their first choice.  McQuin said a list will be sent out on the committee assignments on Thursday, November 2, 2006.  Most were given their first choice, except for a few that chose committees with special criteria such as Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TAC), which is in the middle of a project, and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA), which has a requirement that members have VITA experience.
ACTION:  McQuin will send out committee assignment list to all members on Thursday, November 2, 2006.

Allena Kaplan reported that Iris Sosa represented TAP at a huge AARP convention of approximately 25,000 people.  Paul Duquette, David Meister, and Sandy McQuin attended a National Association of Tax Practitioners (NATP) convention in Wisconsin.  There were 50 to 100 practitioners in attendance and many of them completed a survey for Duquette.  It went very well. 

Coston was asked to represent Treasury on a Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) database re-design team.  The FACA database holds all the information for all the federal government advisory committees and all information is public.  This will be a two-year process.  One of the issues the team is looking at is how to post federal register notices directly to the database rather than using the current paper-driven system.

The Joint Committee self assessments are due November 30, 2006.  Each Joint Committee member should complete and submit to LaVerne Walker.  The Issue and Area committee assessments are compiled for each committee; and should be submitted to Barbara Toy.  They are due at the end of the year, December 31, 2006.  The dates covered by the report are January 1, 2006, through December 31, 2006.
ACTION:  Joint Committee self assessments are due to LaVerne Walker by November 30, 2006.
ACTION:  Compiled Issue and Area self assessments are due to Toy by December 31, 2006.  

The internal use portion should be compiled and handed over to the program manager and new chair of the committee.  Larry Combs will gather information from each committee, and compile for the annual report.

Paul McElroy noted this was reformatted from a prior submission.  This system is complicated but it could use the same process for bank verification as used by those selecting the electronic funds withdrawal method of payment when filing their individual tax return electronically.
DECISION:  Consensus to elevate # 3736, EFTPS Registration Procedure.

Ferd Schneider said this was presented during the face-to-face meeting in Dallas and it was agreed that it should be combined with similar proposals from Area 1 and 3.  But Area 4 has since decided not to combine with the other areas.  Areas 1 and 3 are recommending a long term solution; the Area 4 solution is an interim or short term solution.  In addition, this recommendation would be elevated to a different owner than the long-term solutions proposed by Areas 1 and 3.  Coston thought the long term fix would take a minimum one year to approve and the interim could be implemented almost immediately.
DECISION: Consensus to elevate #3705 OCR Form Availability.

Kaplan said this issue arose from an outreach.  Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TAC) that do not have mail-screening capability will not accept documents or packages that taxpayers bring in person to the TAC when the Revenue Officer (RO) or Revenue Agent (RA) who requested the material is absent.  This practice complies with an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) directive that protects the safety of IRS employees, but inconveniences taxpayers and could even cause a taxpayer to miss a specific deadline for providing information and consequently become subject to levy and seizure activities.  Area 7 proposes that for security purposes, when this RO or RA is absent, the RO or RA should arrange for another person to receive the package in their absence.  Sonny Kasturi asked if TAP can really say this can be done at a minimal expense.  Karwin responded that was the best advice from staff; it’s appropriate to include the fix but TAP cannot confirm that it would be minimal; the IRS needs to make the final determination. 

Jerry Fireman said there may be an alternative proposed solution; asking the ROs and RAs to have a log of what they are expecting in a certain timeframe or by a due date.  Then, any employee in the TAC can view the log and accept the package.  Karwin replied that technique is similar to our suggestion.  Kaplan said it may depend on number of packages expected.  McQuin said ROs may tell a taxpayer that they need to file a return by a certain date.  ROs and RAs have large caseloads, so having a log may be difficult.  You are asking the RO and RA to look at their procedures, not the TACs.  ROs and RAs are not located in the TACs; they are in different areas of the building.  Generally when taxpayers come into the building, they go to the TAC.  What I read is that the TACs are not allowed to receive the packages for the ROs and RAs.  Having a log is not as easy to do as you might think.  Karwin said couldn’t the IRS tell us that if that is the case?  Kaplan said the suggestion as it is in the proposal is that the IRS develop some type of procedure. 
DECISION:  Consensus to elevate #3363 TAC Mail Procedures as written.

This issue is withdrawn as new software is available that will eliminate the problems this recommendation was addressing.

Motza asked for clarification on one of last month’s action items. Area 6 issue 1182 listed chair as making edits.  Her understanding is that Toy was going to make edits. 
ACTION:  Toy will make edits to issue # 1182.

Kasturi asked when chairs will be getting a list of new committee members so chairs can start making reservations for committee dinners in Washington, DC.  Coston responded that staff is waiting for approval of new members from Treasury, and hopefully will get in about two weeks.  McQuin said it is safe to make reservations for about 15 people but remember some will be bringing spouses, so make tentative for 20.  Brubaker added that last year several IRS employees joined the committee dinners.

Coston received a message that the Commissioner would not be able to meet with the Joint Committee on Thursday, December 14, the last day of the annual meeting.  Staff will schedule that meeting.

Remember the social get together prior to the meeting.  Area Chairs need to follow-up with their committee members.  We need to let them know how many plan to attend 72 hours before the social and will be charged according to that count.

Meeting Adjourned

Next Meeting is December 6, 2006, at 1 pm ET

DECISIONS:

1. Communication Strategy approved as presented.
2. Consensus to elevate # 3736, EFTPS Registration Procedure.
3. Consensus to elevate #3705 OCR Form Availability.
4. Consensus to elevate #3363 TAC Mail Procedures as written.

ACTION ITEMS:

Toy

1. Toy will make edits to issue # 1182.

All:

1. Compiled Issue and Area self assessments are due to Toy by December 31, 2006.  
2. Joint Committee self assessments are due to LaVerne Walker by November 30, 2006.

McQuin:

1. McQuin will send out committee assignment list to all members on Thursday, November 2, 2006.