Wage & Investment Reduce Taxpayer Burden (Notices) Meeting Minutes

December 17, 2003
Noon-ET

Participants (Panel Members):

• Anthony DiMartino
• C. Morgan Edwards
• Charles (Skip) Eshelman
• Curtis Feese
• Robin Gausebeck
• John Hollingsworth
• William Murphy
• David Robinson
• Thomas Seuntjens
• Eileen Shuman
• George Sullivan
• Virginia Symonds
• Jeana Warren
• Nancy Ferree - DFO

Not Present:

• Mary Balmer
• Phil Bryant
• Ivan Cotman

Staff Members:

• Sallie Chavez (Recorder)

Guests/Program Owner:

• James (Jim) A. Cesarano, Program Analyst, Wage & Investment, Single Point of Contact

Welcome and Announcements/Roll Call
Committee chair Skip Eshelman welcomed everyone to the conference call and wished everyone a Merry Christmas. He's stated he was sorry he forgot to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving at the last meeting so he wanted to do it up front so he won't forget.

Designated Federal Official (DFO) Nancy Ferree also welcomed everyone.

Program Analyst/Recorder Sallie Chavez took the roll call and quorum was met.

Review/Approve Minutes of November 19, 2003
The minutes were approved by consensus.

Old Business

CP71 Testing
Committee Member Tony DiMartino attended the CP71 Testing in Wilmington , Delaware on December 9, 2003. He stated that he was very impressed by the way the testing was run. It was very sophisticated. The public generally liked the new CP71. There were a few minor problems but the major problem was with the penalty and interest section. This section is required by law and needs improvement.

Committee Member George Sullivan asked if the IRS was reviewing the penalty and interest section to make is clearer? Committee Member DiMartino stated that they were. Committee Member Jeana Warren stated that while she was in the notice meeting in New Carrollton last month she found that the notice group was working on simplification of penalty and interest.

Committee Member Eileen Shuman asked about the process of the testing – why is the IRS using a consulting firm and is this something new? Committee Member DiMartino stated that it has been going on for a while but he's not sure why. Program Owner Jim Cesarano added that the IRS has been looking at the penalty and interest section of notices for a while. The IRS is going to give this to a consulting firm and see if they can improve it. This could be done as early as next year. Committee Member DiMartino stated that the CP171 has the penalty and interest broken down much better.

Notice Strategy Meeting
Committee Member Jeana Warren stated that she, along with TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez, attended the Notice Strategy Meeting in New Carrollton, MD on November 19, 2003. At the meeting they were shown a copy of the new, improved, revised CP2000. This notice will begin being used in November 2004. It has a bold statement on the top stating what to do with this notice. There is a change in the flow of the notice.

They talked about the notice elimination. This group is working on verbiage on the notices. The notice support group is also starting to work on standardization.

The last thing that was discussed during the meeting was about a contingency plan on how to prioritize notices during a disaster. Notices that are time sensitive and those with legislative requirements were on the top of the list.

She stated it was a very good meeting. The committee discussed the welcomed feeling and sincere interest in the committee's input from the Program Owners (especially Ann Gelineau).

Other
Committee Member Tony DiMartino asked about the checkbox on the Form 1040 only being good for one year. Committee Member Eileen Shuman stated that it was being explored as to why it's only good for one year. Committee Member Tom Seuntjens stated that this issue was referred to general counsel and a response has just been received. Committee Member Shuman stated that the response was posted on TAPSpeak.

Comments from Program Owners
Program Owner Jim Cesarano wanted to comment on contractors who worked on the CP71 testing. The IRS has been using this contractor for about the last three (3) years for usability testing. This contractor created the Reader Focus Writing that is being used now on the revised notices.

Program Owner Cesarano stated that he would like to have a training session during the face-to-face meeting in February on the Document Assessment Tool (DAT). This training will allow committee members to determine which notices are really bad and need to be revised.

He stated that his Notice Process Improvement Initiative Team (NPIIT) that is working on notice elimination would be sending out a report to stakeholders the second week in January. There will also be a meeting of the group to discuss the results of the report. Committee Member Eileen Shuman asked if TAP would be invited to this meeting. Program Owner Cesarano stated that it probably won't be a face-to-face meeting because of the budget but it might be a conference call. This might be better since both groups have the same budget constraints.

Committee Member Eileen Shuman stated that TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez sent her some documents that explain the Dynamic Project Team and how they work. She asked TAP Program Analyst Chavez to forward these documents to all committee members.

Program Owner Cesarano asked if someone would like to volunteer to attend the NPIIT meeting next month. Committee Chair Skip Eshelman stated he would like to volunteer since he was part of the previous meeting.

New Business

Referrals
Committee Vice Chair Eileen Shuman stated that TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez has forwarded to the committee several referrals that taxpayers have sent to the committee. She would like to have a sub-committee set up to review these referrals and bring them back to the full committee for review.

Committee Members John Hollingsworth, Virginia Symonds, Tony DiMartino, Eileen Shuman and Dave Robinson volunteered to be on the sub-committee. TAP Program Analyst Chavez will re-send the referrals for the sub-committee to review.

Face-to-Face Meeting
TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez advised the committee that she has found meeting space for the February meeting at the Marriott Century Center in Atlanta . The meeting will be held on February 26, 27 & 28. Committee Vice-Chair Eileen Shuman stated that she and Program Analyst Chavez were working on the agenda for that meeting.

Other
Committee Member Tony DiMartino stated that his area committee had an issue that he thinks might be an issue for this committee. He stated that a practitioner wrote in that he received a CP2000 before the information he sent in response to a 2501 was considered. He wanted to know if there was anything the issue committee could do about this issue. Program Owner Jim Cesarano wanted to know if the 2501 was a CP notice or a correspondex. Committee Member DiMartino did not know. He will work with TAP Analyst Sallie Chavez on this issue.

Designated Federal Official (DFO) Nancy Ferree stated that if feedback is received from taxpayers concerning notices, the information could be communicated forward. Program Owner Jim Cesarano stated that this is valuable information.

Several members of the committee were part of the Installment Agreement Testing. This was discussed. DFO Ferree stated that this type of activity would be more prevalent in the future.

Committee Vice-Chair Eileen Shuman stated that if anyone has any agenda items for the Face-to-Face meeting to please contact either her, Chairperson Skip Eshelman or TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez as soon as possible.

Committee Member Dick Murphy stated that he received a call from an IRS employee asking for feedback on a CP53. DFO Ferree stated that the committee list was shared with the DPT & NPIIT so they could get feedback on their projects.

Meeting Close
Committee Chair Skip Eshelman asked for any other comments. There were none. Again he wished everyone a Merry Christmas.

Meeting was adjourned.