Wage & Investment Reduce Taxpayer Burden (Notices) Meeting Minutes

December 8, 2005

Participants (Panel Members):

• Sonny Kasturi
• Allena Lu Kaplan
• James Wright

Not Present:

• Michael Guthman
• Martin Romeril
• Sanford Searleman
• Mary Suther
• Warren Wong

Staff Members:

• Sallie Chavez (Recorder)
• Inez De Jesus (Acting DFO)

Guests

• James (Jim) A. Cesarano, Tax Analyst, Wage & Investment, Notice Improvement Office, Program Owner Representative
• Geoff Gerbore, Tax Analyst in Exam Compliance EITC
• Ferd Scheider, TAP Member (Former Notice Committee Member)

Welcome
Committee Chair Sonny Kasturi welcomed everyone. This will be a short informational meeting. It will be the last teleconference until the Annual Meeting next month.

Roll Call
Analyst/Recorder Sallie Chavez took the roll call and quorum of four (4) was NOT met.

Chair Update
Committee Chair Sonny Kasturi reported on the previous Joint Committee Meeting. Several issues were discussed and there was discussions about the Annual Meeting. New members are being advised of their new issue committee assignments. Committee Member J. T. Wright will head the issue committee meeting in D. C. next month since Committee Chair Kasturi will be moving to another committee.

Pending DAT scoring results
TAP Program Analyst Sallie reported that all DAT scoring for the CP500 demand series has been completed and the results have been forwarded to Program Owner Ann Gelineau. Committee Member and DAT Subcommittee Chair Don Miller is moving to another issue committee so a new Subcommittee chair will need to be appointed for the next year.

Sub-Committee Reports

• Strategy Meeting Update
  Committee Member J. T. Wright reported on his trip to D. C. to participate in this program owner meeting.

• Goals and Objectives
  Committee Member J. T. Wright stated that the committee accepted the Goals and Objectives developed by the subcommittee. He feels this should be brought up with the new committee members so they can buy into the document. Suggestions it be discussed at the Annual Meeting.

• NPITT Notice Elimination Update
  Committee Chair Sonny Kasturi reported on his participation on the NPITT Notice Elimination meeting.

Work Expectations
Program Owner Representative Jim Cesarano reported on the following:

• His office has been reorganized again. It is now called Notice Improvement Office. It merged the W & I and SB/SE SPOC along with Notice Support. The new organizational chart will be distributed at the Annual Meeting.
• He would like to meet with the committee after the Annual Meeting to discuss and coordinate the Goals and Objectives.
• A thank-you memo is being prepared to the committee for the focus group they participated with at the Face-to-Face meeting in Atlanta.
• DAT scoring on the Demand Series Notices is being distributed. Thank you memo is being prepared.
• There were plans to hold a DPT on the CP23, 24 & 25 however that may not happen. The DAT scores have been distributed.
• The Penalty and Interest DPT is finishing up. There will be more information about this at the Annual Meeting.
• Sidney Gardner will be the new Program Owner for the Committee.
• Funding has been cut. Do not know exactly how that will affect the processes.

Program Owner Jim Cesarano introduced Geoff Gerbore. Geoff is a Tax Analyst in Exam Compliance EITC. He is working on the CP79, which is an EITC recertification notice. It is sent to taxpayers when EITC has been disallowed. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has done two (2) reports and found this notice to be problematic. Right now, there are five (5) versions of the CP79. He would like all to be scored. But more than that, he would like to work with the group that scores the notices and conduct a focus group. Committee Chair Sonny Kasturi suggested this notice be used as a live example at the Annual Meeting. Geoff would like this subcommittee to have from four (4) to eight (8) members participate in this project.

Open Forum
Committee Member J. T. Wright asked who will lead the strategy meetings with the changes to the leadership. Program Owner Representative Jim Cesarano said Ann Gelineau will probably still lead the meetings. Sidney Gardner will be the Program Owner and he will be the Program Owner Representative.

Meeting Close
Next Meeting will be the Annual Meeting in Washington, DC starting on January 10, 2006.

These minutes were approved by the DFO on 12/21/2005.