SBSE Issue Committee Meeting Minutes
6/12/08 - 2:00PM
Teleconference

Program Owner

• Kielszek, Charlotte

Designated Federal Official

• Knispel, Marisa

Committee Members Present

• Barry, Shaun
• Brock, James
• Clapp, Marilynn
• Gursey, Gregory
• Jason, Julie
• Lee, MJ
• Margulies, Howard
• Mull, Robert
• Shah, Rajiv
• Zgoda, Bruce-Chair

Committee Members Absent

• Blanchard, Gregory
• Maisch, Steve
• Marker, Patrice
• McQuiston, Robert

TAP Staff

• Odom, Meredith

Other Attendees

• Jones, Allen
• Welsh, Cathy

Welcome
Zgoda welcomed everyone to the call
 

Roll Call
Quorum Met

Review Agenda

Program Owner Presentation
Kielszek thanked everyone in the Committee for expressing their frustration at the face-to-face meeting on the lack of guidance received from the Office of Taxpayer Burden Reduction (OTBR) and she is looking forward to a change in direction and improvement.

Welch indicated that she currently does not have a response to the questions the Aging Issues Subcommittee addressed to her and as soon as she receives the researched information, she will share it.
 
Subcommittees Report-Out

Subcommittee on Schedule C Issues – Clapp addressed the Committee with the following two items for consensus to be addressed by Chair Zgoda to OTBR Director Jodi Patterson:

• Reply to Steinberg’s Letter – Knispel had shared with the members a letter composed by Blanchard and addressed to Director of OTBR Patterson in reply to the recommendations that Steinberg Enterprises, LLC made on the issue of the burden found on the Schedule C.
• Basic Tips for Schedule C-EZ – MJ Lee composed a checklist titled “Schedule C-EZ at a Glance” providing an easy-to-understand list of tips for people who are or could be using this Schedule.  The list can be used as a bookmark or half-page flyer and perhaps distributed at VITA and TCE sites.

Both documents were approved by the full Committee.

Clapp also informed the Committee that they are working on other issues such as:

1. a checklist that will define a “hobby” and distinguish it from “business income”. This checklist can be included in the IRS website.
2. A calculator for depreciation that could also be placed in the IRS website to facilitate the calculation of depreciation or the definition of a depreciable asset. If the calculator cannot be created for some reason, the Subcommittee will recommend that a link to another website’s calculator be provided within the IRS.gov.

Subcommittee on Aging Issues
Margulies informed the Committee his latest revision of the Excel spreadsheets that could be used to calculate the taxable portion of Social Security benefits.
He would also like to address some legislative issues concerning Social Security (such as increasing the threshold for inflation) in a letter to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson.   

Welsh has been trying to set up a meeting with other IRS personnel to discuss Margulies’ spreadsheet and Mull’s Power Point (also to aid in taxability calculation). These have already been shared with the IRS personnel responsible for creating a calculator on the IRS.gov website that will be used to calculate the tax, if any, on the benefits.  

Clapp suggested that a calculator should be created to assist the taxpayer already receiving Social Security benefits with the amount of income he or she can earn before the benefits become taxable.
 
Public Participation
None

Closing and Actions
Zgoda will address Blanchard’s letter and Lee’s proposal to Patterson.

The Aging Issues Subcommittee meeting of June 16th has been cancelled until further notice from Knispel.