SB/SE Payroll Tax Issue Issue Committee Meeting Minutes

June 5, 2003

Members

• James Abraham
• Clayton Agena
• Charlotte Cassady
• Justin Doucette
• Keith Johnson
• David Meyer
• Theodore Perros
• Leonard Steinberg, Chair
• Steven Wood

Program Owner

• Margie Kinney

Staff

• Mary Peterson O'Brien, Program Analyst

Note Taker

• Marla Ofilas

Review Minutes
Leonard began by asking the committee if they were able to review the minutes from the previous call. He continued by asking if there were any changes to be made. Margie Kinney contacted Mary Peterson O'Brien earlier, to change some of the language regarding updates from program owners. She wanted to clarify that it should now read:

“The mission is to look at consolidated reporting requirements. This could be applicable by combining federal and state tax returns. Two avenues to help achieve consolidate reporting are:

• Consolidated or combine reports
• Interactive software that relies on a taxpayer records to extract and formulate individual reports that can be separately filed with the appropriate agencies."

Margie also added that the work done by this committee would be helpful to the task force that begins looking at recommendations . Mary acknowledged that the changes were noted and made.

Leonard asked if there were any additional comments to the last meeting. No additional comments or changes were made and the minutes were approved.

Updates from Program Owner
Leonard began the next agenda item by introducing Margie. Margie commented that she had no updates for the committee members. Margie recommended that the committee continue with the meeting until the guest speaker is able to join the call. Leonard agreed and asked Margie if she was able to view the survey for the payroll deposit committee and the reporting committee. Margie answered that she has worked with both groups before they started actually using the survey.

Subcommittee Leads Report Out
Leonard introduced Keith to report on his subcommittee survey. Keith explained that he needed to have a discussion with Denise Bigger, who has had a roll with the survey, and he will email the committee a report. Mary offered to discuss this with him at the end of the conference call.

Leonard introduced Justin Doucette. Justin also reported to the committee that his subcommittee does not have a report at this time.

Leonard asked if anyone had anything to add. Charlotte added that Steve had emailed her and they were aiming for June 15th as the finalize date for their survey. Margie asked Charlotte if the finalized meant that it would be going out or does meant that this subcommittee would have the incoming information. Charlotte replied that this is the summary of the survey. The subcommittee has already conducted the survey and should have the results by June 15th.

Leonard spoke of the third subcommittee. The third committee is made up of himself, David Meyer, Bill Gedge, Jim Abraham, and Nancy Quarles. They decided to work as one sub-committee. Leonard and the team put together a survey and feel's that there isn't anything that needs to be added and also that it is very well inclusive. Margie agreed that it was inclusive but expressed her concerns regarding the length to the profiling section. She believes that changes to the formatting should be made. This would make it easier and faster for a person to take the survey. Theodore Perros raised a question regarding who would be the recipients of the survey. Keith Johnson replied that he understood the survey was going to the Area committees within TAP. Leonard felt that Theodore had brought up a good point. He raised the question of how is the committee going to distribute the survey. Leonard wanted to know if it would be going to a specific group or if it was going to an area committee. Leonard requested input from the committee members and also from Mary and Margie on the best way to distribute the survey in order to get the maximum feed back. Theodore felt that there were a number of issues that need to be clarified before the survey is sent out if the committee wants the questionnaire to have significant value.

Margie explained to the committee that she recognizes that the committee will not get a representative random sample from what the committee is doing. The IRS can't give the committee all the identification of taxpayers. In previous discussions, it was thought that the best thing the committee would be able to do is to make sure there was at least a geographical distribution and that we would have several hundred responses. Leonard asked if this was going through the area committees. Margie recalled that the committee was going to identify organizations within the committee members' own geographical areas. The members would ask if they could distribute the survey to the organizations members or if the committee member would be able to present the survey at one of their meetings and gather input. Additional idea's that was discussed in the past was for the committee member to identify businesses through the committee members' chamber of commerce and the survey forwarded to the businesses. Also for committee members' to do outreach and talk about the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel and explain to business groups what the committee is doing. Mary added that it was up to each subcommittee to decide how they wanted to distribute the survey. Mary also explained that it was up to the subcommittee to decide the quantity of surveys that each subcommittee would distribute.

Leonard asked for feed back from the committee members on the best way to handle the logistics for distributing the survey and getting it back. Theodore asked how many surveys would be distributed. Mary explained that in the Deposit Subcommittee it was decided to distribute 300 because it was being produced in the TAP office. Mary again explained that it was decided during previous meetings, it was up to each subcommittee to decided the quantity and also were it would be distributed too. Theodore was concern that 300 would not be enough and anything less than a 1000 would not be of great value. Mary agreed and explained that the Reporting subcommittee decided to do outreach and give oral presentations. She suggested that the committee look in to doing outreach and speak to groups. The staff would be available to help arrange opportunity for the committee members to speak in his or her area if this is an idea that the committee would like to do. Mary also gave another suggestion that the committee could post their survey on Tapspeak and hear from the panel since some of the panel members are business owners. Mary continued explaining that there is a whole host of ways that the survey can be distributed but it would need to be discussed within your subcommittee group.

Leonard reviewed Mary comments that it was the subcommittees' decision on the quantity and how to distribute the survey. Mary agreed and pointed out that the Reporting subcommittee is almost completed with there survey. Leonard asked the committee if they agreed with this statement or if there was someone that didn't agree with this.

Decision: The committee agreed that each subcommittee would be responsible for distribution and data collection of it's own survey. Mary will contact each subcommittee and help coordinate survey distribution and data collection.

Finalize surveys and prepare for distribution and data collection
(Comments, Recommendations, and Proposals)

This topic was discussed during the subcommittee report out.

Subcommittee Next Step
This topic was discussed during the subcommittee report out.

Reschedule August teleconference
The committee-discussed rescheduling their August teleconference. The TAP staff will be meeting in Atlanta the first two weeks in August therefore will unable to assist the committee. The committee discussed alternative dates and decided to combine their July and August monthly meeting on July 31, 2003 at 3 pm Eastern. Leonard also reminded the committee that their next teleconference will be on September 4th.

Issue Committee Business
(Old and New)

After deciding the new date for the next committee teleconference, Leonard asked the committee if there were any old or new business that needed to be discussed. Mary informed the committee that Denise Bigger was unable to participate in the committees' conference call due to prior commitments. She still plans to participate with this issue committee but will be unavailable for the next two weeks.

Margie apologized to the committee that the guest speaker was unable to attend today's conference call. Leonard asked if the guest speaker could be rescheduled for July. Margie replied that she would definitely try to reschedule him and felt that he could answer some of the questions that the subcommittees have regarding electronic payments or electronic filing.

Margie also added that someone raised an issue as to why can't a taxpayer go on-line with his or her bank and make payments to the IRS. This service is available to utility companies but not with the IRS. Margie asked if the committee would be interested in working this issue.

Decision: The committee was unable to make a decision at this time but will discuss this during their next meeting.

Theodore asked the committee for their assistants. He would like to know how to respond to individuals that have comments or suggestions regarding the IRS but are afraid to do so because they feel that the IRS would come back and audit them. Margie explained that she knows people have a fear of the IRS but when people make a comment or suggestion that does not trigger the IRS to do an audit on the individual. Margie also suggested that if the individual feels strongly about making suggestions but is afraid that he or she would be audited, he or she could give their suggestions anonymously.

Leonard asked if anyone else had any comments or additions. There were no additions given by the committee.

Public input
No public input at this time.

Closing assessment
Leonard concluded the meeting by reviewing the date of the next teleconference and he wished everyone to have a nice Fourth of July.