Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP)
Issue Committee
Wage & Investment (W&I) Reduce Taxpayer Burden
(Notices)

Meeting Minutes (Teleconference)
October 4, 2007 1:00pm eastern time

Designated Federal Official (DFO)
Sallie Chavez, Acting TAP Program Manager, Plantation, FL

Members Present
Ben Chapman
Paul Colombo
Steve Fulkrod
Joe Hurr
David Meister
Max Scott
Lee Stieger
Chuck Tice
Edward Uhrig
Warren Wong
J. T. Wright

Members Absent
David Jones
Neil Mitchell
Howard Stahl
Mary Suther

Staff Present
Anita Fields,   TAP Staff & Note taker
Jim Cesarano, Program Owner

Welcome & Announcements
Max Scott Chair opened the meeting by welcoming Jim Cesarano back and all other panel members and asked TAP staff Anita Fields to call roll. It was noted that there were no citizens present.

Roll Call
Quorum was met.

Approve Meeting Minutes
Minutes from July and September were approved as written.

Comments from Program Owner
Jim Cesarano is still researching information on the memos from the Vision Impaired Project and the Combined Forms and Testing Project.  Have a new project which is on a very short deadline.  The project is due next week.  It is a survey project from W&I analyst, her name is Althea Fulton.  What she wants is for people to take this short test as a dry run, it is not really a survey.  This is to test this test before it goes out to the public to try to catch any hiccups with it and get it changed before she puts it out, so please provide comments after you take the test.  She needs Tax Practitioners that work specifically on individual tax returns.  The information should be funneled through Sallie Chavez to Jim and then Jim will get it to Althea Fulton.  Chair Max Scott urged all Tax Practitioners to participate in this test. 

Ben Chapman now on call and is now running the meeting as Acting Chair.

Jim informed the committee that there is a DPT process guide being finalized.  It will identify TAP’s role.  They will ensure that TAP is put down as a stakeholder.

Paul Colombo wanted to know if panel members across TAP can participate in the testing.  Jim answered yes it would be good for it to go across TAP.  Paul then asked if Jim wanted to go outside of TAP to the practitioners.  Jim answered no, because eventually it is going to go to all Tax Practitioners.  This is something to gauge accuracy and to find out if there is anything missing.

Ben Chapman mentioned to the committee that their will be a self nomination for TAP Chair and Vice Chair.  If you are interested please send an email to TAP Vice Chair Bob Meyers and also copy your Area Chair with a little background information.  Anyone who decides they would like to run will be on the ballot. There will also be a nominating committee for the first time in TAP history.  The committee will be composed of the TAP Vice Chair and one 3rd year member from each of the seven areas.  The vote will be done by email before the annual business meeting.

Subcommittee Report and Updates
Document Assessment Tool (DAT)
DAT Team 1 (CP225 & 207) –
Joe Hurr has completed project and forwarded onto Sallie Chavez

DAT Team 3 (Form 886H-HOH & CP159& 162)
CP 159 has been completed and has a conference call scheduled for the 17th of October to work on Form 886H- HOH and the CP 162 is scheduled for November.  The team plan to have them all completed before the annual meeting.

DAT Team 4 (CP 261&187)
Both forms are complete and have been sent to Sallie Chavez.

Stuffer Project
We are making progress after the call on September 25 we asked Sallie questions and she has already answered.  We have another call scheduled for October 15.  We are proceeding okay and we are completing one call a month. Comments were made that last month’s meeting was very productive. Jim mentioned that the FY08 budget includes $187 million for postage and $63 million for printing an estimated 183 million pieces of correspondence. These large amounts are expected be a focus area in FY08.

Targeted and Improved Communications
Project has been sent to Sallie around the 15th of September.  Chuck will send the information to Sallie Chavez again. Jim will then follow up with Sidney Gardner. There could be a funding issue with the committee’s recommendations.

Vision Impaired (TIGTA) Project
Committee is still waiting on answer from Jim Cesarano before we move forward on the project to ensure that we are going into the right direction.

Combined Forms & Testing Project
Committee is still waiting on answer from Jim Cesarano before we move forward on the project to ensure that we are going into the right direction.

Form 886H-EIC 2007- Has been scored and sent to Sallie with comments. The form has been improved since we scored the 2006 form.

Ben Chapman spoke on an email that was sent out for comment with a short turn around pertaining to identity theft.  It was a scoring of a letter versus a notice, but hopefully the comments received helped.

DAT for Forms (FAT) - (Forms Assessment Tool)
Max Scott took Jim’s letter on his comments when it was informally sent it to him and incorporated most of the changes and sent it out to the committee and received some changes back.  Max will set up a conference call so that they can come to a complete understanding to see how the team will proceed.  Max will set will then send another informal submission to Jim or set up a call with him. Jim offered to include a representative from Forms & Publications on the call.

CENTS Training- Jim mentioned this internal project for training IRS employees in creating effective notices for taxpayers. It might be possible for TAP to review the materials and perhaps participate in the training.

Meeting Close
Max Scott would like to thank all of the subcommittee’s for their hard work this month.  J.T. wanted to take the time to compliment Ben Chapman for summarizing the comments from the Joint Committee call. 

Paul Colombo posed a question from Area 1 regarding notices sent in connection with installment agreements. Other issues from the New York Tax Forum’ focus group also involved notices.  Area 1 would like to know if they should send these to the Notice Issue Committee or keep them in Area 1.  Ben Chapman stated that he participated in the focus group and that Area1 should send it to the Notice Committee and they will take a look at it and see if it is something to score or could be worked jointly with Area 1.  Sallie Chavez asked Paul to ensure that the Notice number is included.

Lee Stieger will be the Acting Chair for next month’s meeting.

The Notices Issue committee meeting was adjourned.

Next meeting will be November 1st 1:00pm ET Teleconference.

*Certification of Meeting Minutes:  These minutes were approved by the TAP