Wage & Investment Reduce Taxpayer Burden (Notices)
Meeting Minutes
January 6, 2005
Noon ET
Participants (Panel Members):
- Anthony DiMartino
- Richard Greenberg
- Michael Guthman
- Srinivasan Kasturi
- Allena Lu
- Robert Meyers
- Donald Miller
- Maryann Motza
- Joyce Natter
- David Robinson
- Martin Romeril
- Ferd Scheider
- Sanford Searleman
- Eileen Shuman
- Virginia Symonds
- Elizabeth Warnecki
- R. Jeana Warren
- Douglas Wilhelm
- James Wright
- Gilbert Yanuck
Not Present:
Staff Members:
- Sallie Chavez (Recorder)
- Nancy Ferree (DFO)
Guests
- James (Jim) A. Cesarano, Program Analyst, Wage & Investment,
Single Point of Contact (SPOC)
Welcome
Committee Chair Mike Guthman welcomed everyone and wished
everyone a Happy New Year. He said he would provide time at
the end of the meeting for anyone who had questions.
Roll Call
Program Analyst/Recorder Sallie Chavez took the roll call
and quorum was met.
Review of Prior Meeting Notes
These notes do not have to be approved.
There was a question about the quorum. Quorum was discussed
and it was decided (by consensus) that quorum would be 50%.
Email and Teleconference Etiquette
Committee Chair Mike Guthman reviewed the document “Telephone
Conference Call Etiquette” and discussed email
etiquette.
Joint Committee Report
Committee Chair Mike Guthman reported on the December Joint
Committee Meeting Call, which was an administrative meeting.
There was a discussion about the budget and committee chairs
were informed that the committees would only be allowed to
hold one face-to-face meeting. There was also a discussion
about the SBSE issue committee. There was a proposal to split
the SBSE issue committee into two (2) groups. At this point,
it will stay as it is.
DAT Training
TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez stated that the original
training was held at a face-to-face meeting and lasted 8 hours.
It is estimated that it can be done (via conference call)
in approximately 1_ hours. The original training contained
additional requirements (such as preparing criteria to use
to score the notices) that are not necessary for this training.
TAP Program Analyst Chavez will prepare a schedule and send
it out to all new members. She would like to have at least
one established member on the call to answer any questions
the new members may have. She is hoping to have this done
by the end of January. If anyone is not available for a session,
there will be a “make-up” session later.
Face-to-Face Meeting
Committee Chair Mike Guthman again stated the committee would
only be allowed to hold one face-to-face meeting. He feels
that since there are practitioners and members who deal with
taxes, the face-to-face should be held after April. He suggests
May, June or July. There was much discussion about dates.
He asked TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez to send out a calendar
for May, June and July with all the taken dates blacked out
and ask who is available for the other dates.
Committee Member Eileen Shuman brought up the July meeting.
She said July is a bad month for meeting since there are many
members on vacation. It is difficult to get quorum. She would
like to cancel it especially since it is during July 4th week.
Committee Chair Mike Guthman said this would be discussed
later.
Comments from SPOC Representative
SPOC Representative Jim Cesarano reviewed what has been happening.
He said he was sorry he could not attend the November Annual
Meeting.
Committee Chair Mike Guthman said he had a discussion with
SBSE Chair Paul Nagel and it was decided that all notices
(whether SBSE or W&I) would be worked by the Notice Committee.
The two groups will partner with each other.
SPOC Representative Jim Cesarano discussed the business
and individual notices. He talked about the relationship with
the SBSE SPOC.
SPOC Representative Jim Cesarano said he was the lead on
the Notice Elimination Notice Program Improvement Initiative
Team (NPIIT) that was supposed to begin during last summer.
He is hoping to have a Stakeholder meeting the end of February
via conference call. He would like to have a representative
from the committee on this conference call.
SPOC Representative Jim Cesarano also stated he is going
to lead a small group to revise paragraph on Appeals Rights
in math notices. There is some disagreement on the Plain Language,
which is used to rewrite notices. He will forward this information
to TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez. There is no deadline
for this project. They only want comments. It is a long-range
issue.
Discussion about Sub-committees
Committee Member Eileen Shuman discussed the orientation package
she mailed out to all new members. Committee Vice-Chair Mary
Ann Motza will coordinate. Committee Member Shuman and Vice-Chair
Motza will discuss this off-line.
Open Action Item
This will be moved to next month.
Other Questions
Committee Member Sonny Kasturi wanted to know if the NPIIT
sub-committee deals with publications. DFO Nancy Ferree stated
that publication were not part of this committee. Committee
Member Eileen Shuman said that a NPIIT is provided by IRS.
SPOC Representative Jim Cesarano said the SPOC does not have
control of forms and publications.
Committee Member Sonny Kasturi also wanted a list of notices
and their volumes. Committee Member Eileen Shuman stated that
this was not available to committee members.
Meeting Close
Next meeting is scheduled for February 3, 2005 at noon ET.
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