Wage & Investment Reduce Taxpayer Burden (Notices) Meeting Minutes

February 16, 2006

Participants (Panel Members)

• Michael Guthman. Westport, CT
• Allena Kaplan, Anaheim, CA
• J T Wright, Carrollton, GA
• Martin Romeril, Bethlehem, PA
• Marilynn Clapp, Boise, ID
• Lee Congdon, Washington DC
• David Jones, Sacramento, CA
• Max Scott, Baton Rouge, LA, Vice Chairperson
• Allen Scioli, Saginaw, MI, Chairperson
• Mary Suther, Dallas TX
• Lee Stieger, Leavenworth, KS
• David Meister, Franklin, WI

Not Present

• Warren Wong, Rochester, MN
• Joe Hurr, Dayton, OH
• Sanford Searleman, Glenn Falls, NY

Staff Members

• Sallie Chavez, Analyst
• Nancy Ferree (DFO)

Program Owner

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

Welcome
Committee Chair welcomed everyone.

Roll Call
Program Analyst Sallie Chavez took the roll call and quorum was met.

Review/Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes
The prior meeting minutes were approved by consensus.

Chairman Al Scioli gave a brief recap of the activities covered in the Notice Meeting during the Annual Meeting in Washington DC. Quorum was set at 50% plus 1.

Al covered teleconference etiquette, which includes completing assignments prior to the call. Some members are not able to get into TAPSpeak. Allena will send information to Mary Suther. Security timeouts are normal. Marilyn is also having problems with access to TAPSpeak. Allena will put Marilyn on the list also to receive TAPSpeak information.

Please sign on early so conference calls can begin on time. Identify yourself and say your name prior to speaking so everyone knows who is speaking. Active participation is important. Limit questions and responses so everyone has time to speak. Keep your phone on mute to keep out background noise. Dial *70 to disable call waiting. If you must leave early, do so without disturbing the other callers. Stay on track and stay on the agenda. Please try to find a quiet location if possible.

Data Assessment Tool (DAT) training
Everyone is now trained on the DAT. Jim will let us know which notices need to be scored. Teams have been formed, and Max is the DAT Team Lead. Sallie will send out the list. If anyone has a problem with the list, call Sallie.

Face-to-Face Meeting
The Hilton Garden Inn, Detroit MI, has been secured for sleeping and meeting rooms. The print center tour is planned for the new members. The hotel is one block from the people mover. The print site tour is the morning of the 18th, and the meeting will begin at 1pm of the 18th. All day meeting on the 19th and _ day on 20th. Return travel will occur on the afternoon of the 20th. Further details will follow.

SPOC Representative, Jim Cesarano:
There is a notice DPT today on the notice stub. On the notice elimination NPIIT, there is no travel money, so actions will be completed by phone. DAT training coming up this year, (starts in October), we have different notices scored, and the subject matter expert would like to have a focus group discussion of the scoring once they are completed. Scoring of priority notices need to be completed. Sallie will look for priority list. There is also a taxpayer burden subcommittee, which worked on business letters and a priority list. Jim will request the list from Sidney Gardner and get a copy to Sallie.

Sidney and Jim will talk to Ann Gelineau about other work for the committee for this year. The other big project is the goals and objectives subcommittee of the Notices. A big issue this year is the rising postage costs. Ann Gelineau requests the committee look at “stuffers” that go into notices. The enclosure of these “stuffers” has increased the size of the letter going out which in turn has increased printing and postage costs. This is a real budget issue. Jim asked the committee to let him know when the CP79 notice is completed and he will attempt to set up a phone conference.

Sub-Committees
Al, Max, JT, Sallie and Nancy met with Jim and Sidney to discuss the 2007 CP79 notice, an earned income credit eligibility notice. The team needs to be developed, so input can be provided to the IRS. There were five versions given for scoring and revamping. It would be forwarded to TIGTA. Members need to look at the notice as if they were taxpayers receiving the notice. Jim explained that TIGTA saw one version and found it unclear or not understandable. Members need to review the writing quality and report to the IRS. The second part from the taxpayers’ point of view is to have a focus group to determine which version would be the best one for taxpayers. There is a separate EITC sub-committee, which deals with the CP79 notices. The members who are working the CP79 are Martin Romeril, Joe Hurr, David Jones, Lee Congden, and Allen Scioli. The information will be provided to the analyst, Sallie.

Sallie talked to the SME and he suggested 5 to 7 people to work on the notice. Once all the versions are scored, Sallie will send them to Geoff Gerbore. He will review them and get back to us by conference call. One month should be adequate for the notices to be completed. Every agreed by consensus. Martin will email the sub-committee members to solicit the scores and will look over which ones will prompt the most discussion.

Goals and Objectives Team
Al read the statement and asked for input from panel members. A team should be formed so that improvement can be measured on a yearly basis. Allena asked about subsequent notices. Jim stated there are several types of second notices. JT mentioned common language being an issue. Second notice refers to any notice sent out initially and is not responded to. A second notice on the same issue would be sent. Jim attempted to clarify the second notice issue. There are many different situations that may generate a second notice. Concurrent notices may come from a different processing unit. Reducing a second notice by 10% would be a huge task. Reducing notices may be a business decision. JT mentioned that this process might be need to be refined. JT proposed the sub-committee work on this further. Jim will send out a phase one report. Al recapped the thoughts of the sub-committee. Jim stated if the committee can prove that eliminating the second notice would reduce taxpayer burden, then the committee would have credibility. JT has more information to share but has to leave the meeting. Al will contact JT later this week.

Allena states it is important to have a separate call to assess what is important. Page 17 of the final report (Notice Elimination) Standardized CP Notice Classification, Stakeholder Response, will be sent out to everyone from Sallie.

Public Comments
None

TAPSPEAK: Allena will assist Mary and Marilynn.

The meeting was closed.