VITA Issue Committee Meeting Minutes
February 12, 2008
2:00 P.M.
Teleconference
Welcome
Rousseau welcomed the members, IRS staff and guest.
Roll Call
Members Present
Buschmann, Raymond
Colombo, Paul
Colvin, A. Elizabeth
Coonradt, Richard
Criel, Laura
Hutchinson, Carolyn
Ling, Julia
Rousseau, Richard
Taylor, Rita
Welch, Peter
Yandow, Robert
Quorum Met
TAP Staff Present
Knispel, Marisa, Program Analyst & Acting DFO
Odom, Meredith, Management Assistant
Guest Present
Yanuk, Gil
Program Owners
Gavaghan, Peggy
Thomas, Beverly
Roll Call
Quorum Met
Review Agenda
Rousseau indicated that today’s meeting will provide our subcommittees with more information and clarification on what they need to focus on. He also announced the Committee’s decision to keep the name of our Committee as the VITA Issue Committee. However, he indicated that he wishes to revisit this decision at the face to face meeting.
Program Owner’s Presentation
Gavaghan introduced Specialist Beverly Thomas who will provide an overview and clarification of the Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint (TAB). Thomas had provided us with a Power Point (attached) that further explains the TAB initiative by summarizing the two phases involved. Phase 1 was done in 2006 and Phase 2 in 2007.
The TAB Phase 1 Report was the preliminary research and reports five TAB Strategic Improvement Themes. The Phase 2 Report provides six Guiding Principles. Thomas indicated that only some of both, Themes and Principles are those that the SPEC is involved with (those marked in red) which are:
- Improve and Expand Education and Awareness
- Optimize the Use of Partner Services
- Improve and Expand Training Support Tools to Enhance Assisted Services
- Enhance the IRS website so that it becomes the first choice of more taxpayers for obtaining the information and services needed to comply with tax obligations.
- Look into opportunities to assist these third parties in helping taxpayers understand and meet their tax obligations.
- Enhance marketing, outreach and education to targeted populations to improve service awareness, access and quality.
This is based on the following Guiding Principles:
- Facilitate Compliance with Federal Tax Obligations
- Prevent, Minimize, and Correct Inadvertent Taxpayer Errors to Reduce the Tax Gap and Taxpayer Burden
- Prevent, Minimize, and Correct Taxpayer Noncompliance
- Make IRS Web Site More Effective for More Taxpayers and Partners to Obtain Information and Service
- Look for Opportunities to Assist Third Parties to Help Taxpayers Understand and Meet Tax Obligations
Thomas also referred to the Improvement Initiatives that must be implemented in FY 2008 and FY2009 and indicated that this Committee should focus on the FY 2009 Broader Offering of Services and the Collaboration Strategy.
Subcommittee Report-Out
Training VITA Volunteers
The subcommittee wants to be involved in the revision of this year’s training VITA materials. They had some discussion on the test as they found it to be tricky and unclear. The subcommittee members will be surveying some of the sites’ volunteers to get their reaction on this test. Criel, who reported for Bryant, added that this subcommittee will have a limited number of meetings during the filing season and that most of their work will be done via email.
Guest Gil Yanuck is concerned about the possibility of not having the Processed Based Training next year. Gavaghan replied that the problems with the TaxWise have not been resolved yet and are found to cause many problems.
Tax Wise, Gavaghan said, needs to be improved. She also replied to Criel’s comments on the test saying that she (Gavaghan) has not heard any negative comments on it or that many of its questions were “tricky”.
Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint
(TAB) – Collaboration Strategy
Coonradt stated that this subcommittee decided to start their work by:
- reviewing the practitioner groups that are currently partnering with the IRS to offer free tax services to the community
- categorizing these groups
They have already received a long list of local partners from Knispel but they also need to know who the national partners are. Once these groups are identified, the subcommittee would like to contact several partners to learn their opinion on how to best improve collaboration efforts between the partners and the IRS.
Knispel will forward this local list of partners (obtained from the Intranet) to Beverly Thomas.
Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint
(TAB) – Broader Offering of Services
Criel indicated that this subcommittee would like to expand IRS services to small businesses. The members find that many people discover that they are “self-employed” and do not know of their filing or recordkeeping requirements. Thus, we must educate these people by using the existing coalitions or identify new partners that will. The subcommittee expects more guidance from the IRS on this issue.
Gavaghan would like the subcommittee to emphasize on the needs of people who do not have a business. What services would these individuals need? more forms and publications? More assistance in answering tax questions? Would they need financial education? So, Gavaghan suggests that the members focus on the current needs of the VITA sites and how the sites’ services can be expanded.
Face-to-Face Meeting
The face to face meeting will be June 11 – 14 in Atlanta, GA.
Public Participation
Yanuk thanked the Committee for the work they did last year on the VITA materials.
Closing
Colvin commented that this meeting was very good and very helpful.
Rousseau congratulated the Committee for being ahead on their work as compared to other Issue Committee that apparently is still in the beginning stages of planning their subcommittees and their focus.
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