Designated Federal Official
Bernie Coston, TAP Director

Members Present
Shaun Barry, Chair, Area 1
Ben Chapman, Chair, Area 2
Dale Cooper, Chair, Area 3
MJ Lee, TAP Vice Chair
Hank Mosler, TAP Chair
Mark Paris, Chair, Communication
Al Rodriguez, Chair, Forms and Pubs
Rick Rousseau, Chair, VITA
Joe Shields, Chair, Area 6
Lee Stieger, Chair, Notices
John Verwiel, Chair, EITC
Wayne Whitehead, Chair, TAC
Bruce Zgoda, Chair, Burden Reduction

Members Absent
Charles Davidson, Chair, Area 7
Stan Wernz, Chair, Area 4, Excused
Kenneth Wright, Chair, Area 5, Excused

Staff Present
Patti Robb, Note Taker
Susan Gilbert, Acting TAP Manager
Nancy Ferree, TAP Manager
Mary Ann Delzer, Program Analyst
Lisa Gabriel, Secretary
Sallie Chavez, Program Analyst
Steve Berkey, Senior Program Analyst

Visitors:
Sabby Jonathan, VC, Area 7
Robert Yandow, VC, Area 1
Bob Patterson, VC, EITC

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda
Hank Mosler welcomed everyone.  

Roll Call
Quorum met.

National Office Report
Bernie Coston announced he did not submit written report for this meeting since the committee will be together in two weeks.  He will make a complete report at that meeting. 

The annual meeting is scheduled for December 1-5, 2008, and will be held at the Sheraton National Hotel, in Arlington, VA.

TAP Chair Report
See Attachment 1 for the full report.  Hank Mosler said all TAP face-to-face meetings should be completed by the end of June. 

We are still able to add items to the agenda for the face-to-face meeting in June.  If you need any copies of handouts made for that meeting, please send them to Patti Robb.  They must be to her at least one week before the meeting.  Otherwise you will need to make the copies yourself and bring them to the meeting.

Mosler thanked Louis Morizio for issuing the updated reports.  Please make sure your analyst updates your issues correctly.  If you don’t see your issue on the report, you may want to ensure the information was added correctly.

Ben Chapman will be representing TAP on a panel discussion at a meeting with the IRS Executive development class.  Lyn Sinnamon represented TAP last year.  It was so successful that they asked us to come again this year. 

Chapman asked if anyone has comments about the tax gap, please forward them and he will incorporate them into his discussion. 

Review and Approve May 7 Teleconference Minutes
The May minutes were approved by consensus with minor changes.

Feedback from May 7 Chair Meeting
There were comments about the meeting pace and participation by all members.  If you think we are going too slow or too fast, we will adjust accordingly.

Recruiting Status
Coston said the staff met this morning to discuss the process and interview questions.  All the applications have been ranked and he spoke will all managers to decide who would be interviewed.  We will be starting interviews on June 9.  If you haven’t been contacted to help yet, you may still be called.  There will be more information to share when we meet in St. Louis on June 19.

Berkey said one thing members really wanted was an appointment letter from the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) or from someone in the Department of Treasury.  Coston replied he already spoke to Treasury and if we can get the recruitment done timely, they indicated they would be happy to issue a letter. 

Chapman said we need to stress the time commitment as well as Outreach.  Coston said this information was discussed this morning and is in the talking points for interviews.  We will make sure these are emphasized during interviews. 

• St. Louis – the latest agenda is posted on TAPSpace in the pre-read.  It is in draft and can still be tweaked.

Area/Issue Committee Success Stories (e.g., Outreach, Special Events, Others)
Chapman and panel member Ed Johnson attended the annual Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Society Meeting.  There were about 1,200 CPAs in attendance. 

Shaun Barry said he thinks identification theft is a big issue the IRS is going to face.  The Area 1 Committee talked about it at their face-to-face meeting.  If anyone has considered or is pursuing this issue, please bring the information to St Louis.  He added that we should think about having a committee work on this issue.  Rob Yandow noted that Area 1 has a subcommittee meeting on this topic tomorrow.  Wayne Whitehead said the TAC committee talked about this.  He said Beth Tucker and Mark Pursley are working on this topic too.  It would be good to give them our input.

Bruce Zgoda said the Burden Reduction had their face-to-face meeting and it was very successful.  They identified some good issues to be worked.

John Verwiel said the EITC will be issuing a report soon.

Dale Cooper and panel member Lou Kapugi went to a Congressional Liaison meeting in May and it went very well.  Subsequent to that, he got a call from the Georgia Society CPA and they asked if TAP would like to have a booth at their next meeting.  There should be 1,600 to 1,800 people in attendance.  It will be at the Galleria this year.  Cooper said he will follow up on this and will let Ferree and Berkey know so they can provide handouts.

Lee Stieger said he attended a Tax Liaison meeting with his Local Taxpayer Advocate (LTA).  There is a general practitioners meeting in September and he will be attending that one too.

Steve Berkey said the Communication Committee added a new subcommittee.

E-Communications.  Information will be going out with a solicitation for three additional panel  members who have good web communication skills.  The Communication Committee name was changed to the Communications Committee. 

He announced that TAP will be doing three tax; forums; Orlando, FL; Las Vegas, NV; and New York, NY.  The managers will be contacting local members to see who would like to attend. 

Wayne Whitehead said Beth Tucker was so pleased with last years’ TAC survey, that she wants to send members out to do another one this year.  She said there were about three more Taxpayer Assistance Centers she would like visited and she said they would pick up the travel expenses.  It appears that they really value TAP’s input.

Coston said he gave a presentation to the Notice folks; these are the people who actually write the notices.  They were very pleased with all the input and feedback TAP provides.  They did a wonderful job of training TAP members in the DAT scoring process.  

A couple area and issue committees have calls planned calls for June 18.  This could be a problem for some of the chairs as they may be in travel status on their way to St. Louis.  Coston suggested they ask the vice-chair to conduct the meeting. 

Public Input
Rob Yandow said he had a series of discussions with potential members last year and discussed the time commitment with them.  Coston said that will be addressed during the interviews this year as it was last year.

Closing
MJ said today was supposed to be a lightweight meeting due to the face-to-face in two weeks.  If you have anything you want discussed at that meeting, please forward to MJ.  She added that no one volunteered to help with the chair training yet. 

Mosler thanked everyone and reminded them to please complete and return the survey form.

Next Meeting is in St. Louis, June 19-21, 2008

ACTIONS:
All:

• Please submit your meeting surveys to Ken Wright by Friday.
  All Chairs:
• Chairs submit a written summary of what you committee has done through May.  This will take the place of the May monthly report.  Due to Marisa June 12, 2008.
• Chairs take a look at the last active issues report dated March 24 to ensure that it is correctly represent what is active.
• Chairs identify Spanish speaking TAP members that want to participate in reviewing the Spanish free file website and put them in touch with Alberto Rodriguez.
• Hank needs to talk to Bernie regarding Joint Committee second face-to-face meetinglocation.

Quality Review team:

• Complete the Quality Review checklist for each recommendation and post for pre-read for the Joint Committee meeting.