Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Committee
Teleconference Meeting Minutes
March 6, 2007 12 PM – 1 PM ET

Designated Federal Official
Steve Berkey, Acting TAP Manager

Program Owner
Billy Hubbard, Territory Manager, Stakeholder Partnerships, Education and Communication (SPEC)
Lynn Tyler, Tax Analyst, Oversight and Analysis

Committee Members Present
Paul Brubaker, Pennsylvania
Patricia Bryant, Tennessee
Emilio Cecchi, Maryland
Elizabeth Colvin, Texas
Laura Criel, New Mexico
Paul Duquette, Chair, Wisconsin
Harvey Epstein, New Hampshire
Harold Gadon, Rhode Island
Hank Mosler, Florida
Richard Rousseau, Vice-chair, Texas
Ferd Schneider, Ohio

Members Absent
Sandra Bland, Minnesota
Carolyn Hutchinson, North Carolina
Donna Tremblay, Georgia

TAP Staff
Barbara Toy, Program Analyst
Patti Robb, Note Taker

Visitor
Gil Yanuck, Panel Member
Barbara DelBene, National Community Center for Progress
Steve Swartz, TAS, Lanham, MD

Paul Duquette welcomed everyone to the meeting. 

Quorum met.

The February 6, 2007, minutes were approved by consensus.
DECISION:  Consensus reached to approve the 2/6/2007 VITA minutes.

Billy Hubbard has been on the Branding and Training subcommittee calls and has sent the information to headquarters, particularly on training, for their consideration.  The Branding Subcommittee asked for any materials used to market the Volunteer Return Preparation Program (VRPP).  But there is not much available.  Hubbard said he hopes to meet with Elizabeth Colvin regarding the Branding Subcommittee later this month to set the direction for the subcommittee.  The filing season is going well and the feedback on quality review shopping visits has been positive.  

Pat Bryant said the e-filing subcommittee looked at areas causing problems when e-filing. 

• Printer problems.  Volunteers have expressed problems with printers not interacting with the tax preparation software.  The Lexmark printers supplied by Stakeholder Partnerships. Education and Communication (SPEC) have caused many of the problems; however, other brands have caused problems.  Volunteers have found ways to make the printers work and the subcommittee is considering suggesting a guide explaining these work-a-rounds or moving equipment around.
• Self-Select PIN rejects.  The software defaults are set to Self-Select Personal Identification Number (PIN) which always creates a large number of rejects because information is needed from the prior year’s tax return.  The volunteer sites need more guidance on how to set defaults and what needs to be signed and retained for each of the signature methods.  Subcommittee is considering that Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) only offer the Practitioner PIN signature method which has fewer rejects. 
• Encryption problems. 
• Subcommittee considering recommending more promotion of free filing especially for out-of-scope tax returns. 
• Need some more detailed instructions to help site coordinators avoid networking problems. 
• Three day rule for e-filing.  Subcommittee not sure if this rule applies to all electronic filers or only volunteer sites and is waiting for the issue to be researched. 

The next e-filing subcommittee call is Thursday, March 8, 2007 at 10 a.m. Central Time; 11 a.m. Eastern Time.  Will ensure staff will be on all subcommittee calls. 
ACTION:  Toy will send out a reminder to all VITA Committee members with subcommittee meeting dates and time, as well as the face-to-face information. 

Paul Duquette noted the committee briefly discussed how to promote more e-filing at volunteer sites.  That is the major impetus of this subcommittee and the committee needs to look at how to promote e-filing with SPEC’s partners.  Any Committees members with ideas or suggestions for promoting e-filing for volunteer sites should please forward them to Bryant with a copy to Barbara Toy.  Hubbard will not available for the subcommittee meeting on Thursday, March 8.
ACTION:  Members with ideas or suggestions for promoting e-filing for volunteers sites should please forward them to Pat Bryant with a copy to Barbara Toy. 

The branding subcommittee had a call and determined their first step was to find out what materials the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had to promote VRPP and then review them for possible improvements.  It was found out that IRS does not have marketing materials for the program.  Elizabeth Colvin said that the committee would like to see posters, flyers, mentions in the most commonly used publications and the forms instructions.  Incorporate “You may qualify for free tax preparation” into products IRS already has.  It was mentioned that VITA is mentioned in the Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, Instructions.  The committee will look at the instructions to review what IRS already has. 
ACTION:  All members should forward any ideas and suggestions concerning branding of the VRPP to Elizabeth Colvin with copy to Barbara Toy.

This committee meets that last Tuesday of each month at 1 p.m. Eastern Time.

Paul Brubaker said this subcommittee had an informal meeting on February 23 and discussed experiences with the training material and the administering of the test.  The committee is gathering all the material and the draft should be available by May. 
ACTION:  All members should provide feedback on training materials, process based training, Link & Learn and the test to Paul Brubaker and Barbara Toy. 

There was a discussion of where to send comments about using the tax return preparation software, the e-filing or the training subcommittee.  Since Toy will be receiving copies of all input, she will coordinate with the subcommittee leaders on how the information is handled.

Steve Swartz, a VITA Coordinator in Maryland, said they were told not to use the Form 8888, Direct Deposit of Refunds.  Is that advice localized; is anyone using it and if so, what problems were encountered?  Hal Gadon from Rhode Island said they were told by AARP/TCE not to use it.  Toy said that Libby Blair stated at the e-filing Subcommittee meeting that SPEC made a deliberate decision not to prohibit the use of Form 8888, but not to teach or promote it either because from experience, they know that when a new program starts, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) usually experiences start-up problems and that is why you have not heard a lot about this form from SPEC.  Barbara Delbene said the VITA sites run by her coalition are doing many of these forms and have not experienced many problems except that there is no built-in check to verify the Routing Transit Number (RTN) or the account number like there is for a single source direct deposit or direct debit.

Gil Yanuck offered to send the guides developed for the sites in Nevada to anyone still having problems with setting defaults.

Steve Berkey is acting as the TAP Manager in Milwaukee and will be the VITA Committee’s Designated Federal Official (DFO) for the next month.  Director Coston is looking to identify another manager to fill in for Sandy McQuin for the remainder of the time.  Berkey complimented committee for work tackled to date; he reviewed the committee’s minutes for the last few months and found them very interesting.

Hal Gadon said SPEC is still supporting the use of the Self-Select PIN.  He would like to have SPEC specify the Practitioner PIN which would reduce the number of rejects.  There are many rejects using the Self-Select PIN since many taxpayers do not give or know the correct amount for their Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) from the prior year.  Eliminating the Self-Select PIN would also help reduce confusion in what papers taxpayers need to sign and which documents need to be retained.  Bryant added that volunteers are confused by what needs signing and what should be kept for each of the signature methods and the process should be made as easy as possible.  Training would be much easier with only one method.  It was also suggested that the default be pre-set to Practitioner PIN.  Hubbard has heard from Blair that SPEC wants to provide alternatives to those who use electronic filing for deciding how they chose to sign the return.  He indicated he was leaning toward Gadon’s direction.

There is lot of confusion on how to set defaults.  Harvey Epstein thought the committee could suggest what defaults to use.  Hubbard would like to see the IRS provide alternatives to fit all.  Duquette asked which subcommittee would handle this suggestion. It was determined that the e-filing subcommittee will make a recommendation that volunteer groups use Practitioner PINS.  Nearly 100 percent of rejects happened at one site because the default was not set to automatically select Practitioner PIN.  Publication 3189, Volunteer e-file Handbook, could be changed to state the Practitioner PIN is the preferred method.  Hubbard said he would discuss this issue with Libby Blair and Cindy Jones.  Jones may be attending the VITA face-to-face meeting.  Mosler said when running diagnostics the software should indicate what method was selected. 
DECISION:  The e-file Subcommittee will consider recommending the Practitioner PIN signature method be the preferred method and that the diagnostics show which signature method was selected.

Mosler noted after a return rejects, the correction is made to the return but the parameters do not reset; it still shows it is rejected.  It would be nice to track the status of the return after it’s corrected and the resubmitted.

Delbene noted that Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax (for Individuals), has a nice promotion for FreeFile on page 10.  Gadon said the IRS is promoting it by not having paper forms available. 

Next meeting April 3, 2007 at 12 Noon ET

• Consensus reached to approve the 2/6/2007 VITA minutes
• The e-file Subcommittee will consider recommending the Practitioner PIN signature method be the preferred method and that the diagnostics show which signature method was selected.

• All members should forward any ideas and suggestions concerning branding of the VRPP to Elizabeth Colvin with copy to Barbara Toy.
• All members should forward any ideas and suggestions concerning branding of the VRPP to Elizabeth Colvin with copy to Barbara Toy.
• All members should provide feedback on training materials, process based training, Link & Learn and the test to Paul Brubaker and Barbara Toy. 
• Members with ideas or suggestions for promoting e-filing for volunteers sites should please forward them to Pat Bryant with a copy to Barbara Toy. 
• Toy will send out a reminder to all VITA Committee members with subcommittee meeting dates and time, as well as the face-to-face information.