Wage & Investment Reduce Taxpayer Burden (Notices) Meeting Minutes

July 6, 2006

Participants (Panel Members)

• Marilynn Clapp
• Joe Hurr
• David Jones
• Allena Kaplan
• David Meister
• Martin Romeril, acting chair
• Sandy Searleman
• Lee Stieger
• Warren Wong
• J. T. Wright

Not Present

• Lee Congdon
• Mike Guthman
• Allen Scioli
• Max Scott
• Mary Suther

Staff Members

• Sallie Chavez, TAP Program Analyst -- acting DFO

Guests

• James (Jim) A. Cesarano, Tax Analyst, Wage & Investment, Notice Improvement Office, Program Owner Representative

Welcome
Since Committee Chair Allen Scioli is not on the call, Committee Member Martin Romeril volunteered to act as chair for this meeting.

Roll Call
Analyst/Recorder Sallie Chavez took the roll call and quorum of nine (9) was met.

Review of May 18-20, 2006 Meeting Minutes
Meeting Minutes were accepted as written by consensus.

Comments from Program Owner
Program Owner Representative Jim Cesarano made the following report:

• BMF (business master file) prioritization list is not complete yet. Committee is almost finished with scoring the IMF (individual master file) prioritization list.

• He and Program Owner Sidney Gardner want to discuss the Goals and Objectives when they are completed.

• There is a recommendation from Area 2 having to do with a stamped message on the envelope. This falls into notice production. He has a question as to whether this will be effective and wants this committee to look at it and give their views, lend their expertise and research the issue. There was much discussion about whether this should go back to the Joint Committee and be assigned to the Issue Committee but it was finally agreed that the Issue Committee will assign it to a sub-committee to look at the issue and make a proposal. Subcommittee will consist of Committee Members Martin Romeril, Warren Wong, Joe Hurr and Allena Kaplan.

• He discussed the “stuffer” project. This will have a big impact. Just eliminating one (1) page will save money. It was agreed that this will also go to a subcommittee. Subcommittee will consist of Committee Members J. T. Wright, Lee Stieger and Dave Meister. Since there are some members absent, Acting Committee Chair Martin Romeril will send an email out asking for any other volunteers from those who are not on the call.

Sub-Committee Reports

• CP23, 24 & 25 DATs
  Committee Member Allena Kaplan stated they are progressing and will have the notices scored and normed by the end of July as planned.

  Committee Member Allena Kaplan also stated she was involved with Committee Member Martin Romeril in a subcommittee to work on writing a training and lesson guide for new members to be given at the Annual Meeting. She should have something on this by the end of this week

• CP79
  Committee Member David Jones gave a review of the conference call he attended with SME Geoff Gerbore. There were five (5) versions of the CP79 scored. The two that faired the best were the C and D versions. Geoff stated he was grateful for the assistance of the TAP committee in scoring these notices. The CP79 is not the first notice a taxpayer receives on EITC denial. It was suggested that a note be put on the CP79 for the taxpayer to keep this notice for the future.

• CP75 and CP75A
  Committee Member David Meister reported that he, Committee Members J. T. Wright and Mary Suther participated in a conference call with SME Geoff Gerbore. After an hour of discussion, it was agreed that Committee Member Suther would rewrite the notice and share it with the team. This will then be forwarded to Geoff for consideration. Program Owner Representation Jim Cesarano said the SME will look at it. They don’t commit to accepting the TAP’s version.

• Direct Mail Marketing
  Committee Member Joe Hurr stated there were two (2) version of this plan started. They are now working on a final version. Program Owner Representative Jim Cesarano requested the committee take the lead in making an introductory presentation on the possibilities of using direct marketing expertise in IRS correspondence efforts at a September meeting of notice analysts. He explained the direct marketing plan should be a long-range goal. The present concentration should be on introducing and explaining the benefits of direct marketing to IRS employees and decision makers. He volunteered his help in preparing the presentation. The September meeting will probably be at the Bolger Center in Potomac, MD – subject to funding approval. It is tentatively scheduled for the week on September 12. Committee Member Lee Congdon lives in the DC area. Will see if he can attend the meeting since he has a direct interest in the plan.

New Issues or Old Issues

• DAT
  Committee Vice Chair Max Scott is not available so TAP Program Analyst Sallie Chavez reported for him. There are 10 more IMF notices to be scored. She will assign them next week and asks that they be scored and normed by the September meeting. That gives the committee almost 2 months to do the work. It would be great if the committee could report that they had scored all of the IMF notices that were provide to them during this year.

• Goals and Objectives
  Committee Member Warren Wong asked if the Goals and Objectives were complete. Acting Committee Chair Martin Romeril said that Committee Chair Allen Scioli had said at the face-to-face meeting that he would get them out. Since he is not here, will attempt to get them by the next meeting.

• Other comments
  Committee Member Lee Stieger said that the Joint Committee was working on continuity. They want comments from the committee members. Acting Committee Chair Martin Romeril said if anyone had any suggestions for the Annual Meeting to send them to him by August 6 and he will roll then up and forward to the TAP Chair.

  Program Owner Representative Jim Cesarano said he just found out that there is going to be a Dynamic Project Team meeting starting July 19. He will forward the email to Program Analyst Sallie Chavez to forward to the appropriate team.

Meeting Close
Next Meeting will be August 3, 2006 @ 11:00 am ET. (This meeting was cancelled after the ending of this meeting.)