Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Committee
Teleconference Meeting Minutes
October 3, 2006  3 p.m. ET

Designated Federal Official
Sandy McQuin, TAP Manager

Program Owner
Elaine Beck, Chief, Education and Product Development Staff
Cynthia McKinney, Senior Tax Analyst, Education and Product Development

Welcome / Introduction
Paul Duquette welcomed everyone.  The minutes from March and April were approved by consensus.  Sandy McQuin announced that Steve Maisch changed his issue committee and will no longer be on the VITA Committee.

Roll Call
Quorum met.

Program Owner’s Report
Elaine Beck reported they are very busy with the Process Based Training (PBT) and has gotten executive endorsement for the pilot this year, and it is officially part of the business plan.  The current draft of the instructor guide should be ready for release to VITA Committee members later  this week.  Vicky Fairley, Senior Manager in Stakeholder, Partnership, Education, & Communication (SPEC) is putting it together.  The purpose is to use in the pilot of the PBT so there is consistency in how the training is given.  Consistency in the pilot testing will give Stakeholder Partnerships, Education and Communication (SPEC) a better idea of how effective the process based training is.  The train-the-trainer class will be held on November 8, in Cincinnati.  Fairley is sponsoring it.  Elizabeth Colvin, Paul Brubaker, and Ferd Schneider will be attending this training. 
To make the pilot successful, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) needs it to have appropriate structure and measures. 

Rick Rousseau asked if they had received any response from the Military.  Beck has not heard that the military will be part of this pilot.

Public Input
Gil Yanuck sent a link to AARP’s process based training to Duquette.  Their course is available on-line now. 

ACTION:  Duquette will send the PBT link out to everyone on committee. 

There are twenty-seven modules in the AARP  PBT.  All the PowerPoint sessions received from Fred Bates of AARP have been put on TAPSpeak. 

Agenda Topics

Process Based Training – Facilitator’s Guide
This topic was pretty well covered by Beck at the beginning of the meeting.  Cynthia McKinney hopes to have the guide information from Fairley to send  to Barbara Toy later this week.  Toy will put on TAPSpeak when she receives it.  The Committee will have about a week to review it.  Please send your comments to Duquette, Colvin, and Brubaker who will consolidate them and send them to Fairley. Colvin will follow up on the consolidation since Brubaker and Duquette will be at the Joint Committee meeting.

ACTION:  Toy will post the PBT Facilitator’s Guide on TAPSpeak and notify the Committee when it is available.. 

VITA Test – Paper and Online
Colvin said the test review is completed and the team is excited about the final product.   The test will be posted for one final review.  The team has a conference call this Thursday.  Beck had hoped to provide a on-line site so the Committee would be able to look at the test but the process is moving slowly.  The vendor has run into problems revising the test and is behind schedule.  Colvin said that the IRS  has basically accepted the test as suggested by the team.  The next step is to see how it works on-line.  The testing worked well using the paper product, but how it works online is the real test.  Beck noted there will be instant remediation which is helpful.  Duquette asked to have someone on the review team complete the test via dial-up.  Brubaker suggested having a kit which has information and sample forms so volunteers do not have to print everything.  Beck said the facilitator’s guide will reference the test.  Brubaker felt the process the IRS used to develop the test was excellent, and the IRS was very willing to accept comments from its partners.  

Form 8453, U.S. Individual Income Tax Declaration for an IRS e-file Return
This form is very burdensome as it requires three copies, all with original signatures.  One is given to client, one sent to the IRS service center, and another copy retained by the preparer of for most VITA sites sent to the SPEC territory office.  Everyone agreed that it should be dispensed with.  How does Publication 3189, Volunteer e-file Handbook, refer to it?  Duquette said IRS will not put in a preferred method and the publication describes all three signature methods.  It would be easier to dispense with it.  paid professionals had submitted a recommendation to get rid of Form 8453.  An Area 1 member attended a meeting where they were led to understand that the Form 8453 would be discontinued when the Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, .is revised.

Comments/Concerns
Duquette raised the issue of the TaxWise class.  Colvin attended the class last week and said it was a very long three days.  She sent a lot of feedback to the IRS with suggestions as to how things could be changed.  McQuin was concerned that no one self identified they wanted to attend these classes.  Remember, it is not supposed to be learning how to prepare a return using TaxWise, but geared toward a site coordinator.  

Colvin noted it was taught at a lower level and they actually started out by giving training tips as to grooming and hygiene which she felt was insulting.  The class was disappointing if you were knowledgeable in TaxWise, and they spent a lot of time on TaxWise on-line the second day so everyone had to sit through it even if they had no intention of using it.  Colvin said they do not have Spanish forms online so we will not be using it in Austin. 

Brubaker planned to attend the class in Pittsburgh in two weeks and feels the on-line session will be very beneficial. 

Duquette asked Colvin to write up her thoughts to submit to Beck and Kinney for next year.  TAP’s input is very valuable as it is coming from a volunteer standpoint.  He asked Brubaker to do the same thing.  Colvin said the training was on 2005 material, not 2006, which was also disappointing. 

Brubaker suggested adding this to a list for the Committee to work on next year.  Duquette will go through all VITA minutes and highlight areas discussed that the Committee thought was important but somehow lost sight of.  He will put together a list. 

ACTION:  Duquette will put together a list of issues for the VITA Committee to look at in 2007.

McQuin is meeting with Beck next week regarding IRS expectations for the VITA Committee for next year. 

Colvin went to the TaxWise training class in Texas, and Brubaker will go to Pittsburgh for the training.

Public Input
Mark Helfman thought meeting was very interesting. 

Next meeting November 7, 2006 @ 3:00ET

Meeting Adjourned

ACTION:

Duquette

1. Duquette will put together a list of issues for the VITA Committee to look at in 2007.
2. Duquette will send the PBT link out to everyone on committee. 

Toy

1. Toy will post the PBT Facilitator’s Guide on TAPSpeak and notify the Committee.