Taxpayer Advocacy Panel

Welcome/Review of Agenda
Rousseau spoke about the role of the Subcommittee Chair and the importance that all Committee members participate in their subcommittee’s work. He requested that the proposals written by each Subcommittee be presented to the full committee by September in order to have the time available to make revisions if needed and to be able to account for all the proposals made this year in the Committee’s Annual Report.

National Office Report
TAP Director Bernie Coston welcomed everyone to Atlanta. He spoke about the recruitment season and indicated that this year we received 620 applications for TAP membership with only 35 member openings. Interviews are currently being held and many of our TAP members are also involved in interviewing the candidates. He thanked those in this Committee who are involved in this process. He attributed part of the success in advertising the recruitment with newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and El Diario (a Spanish newspaper).

Coston indicated that he would like to meet with National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) Nina Olson the last week of July in order to discuss the preliminary selection of the candidates that were interviewed. The list of the candidates that results from this meeting will then be forwarded to the IRS Commissioner and thereafter to the Secretary of the Treasury for his final decision. The TAP’s goal is to notify the new members about their selection by October.

On other topics regarding the TAP: Maryann Motza was offered -and has accepted- a position in the advisory committee for TEGE (Tax Exempt and Government Entities). Motza is also completing her work on the TAP’s 2007 Annual Report. Annual Reports- the current TAP chair and vice-chair, Hank Mosler and Wayne Whitehead, are striving to have the 2008 TAP Report completed by the end of January.

Coston also spoke about this year’s Annual Meeting which will take place at the Sheraton in Arlington, VA during December 1st through the 5th. At this meeting, the new incoming members will receive an orientation session starting in the afternoon of Monday, December 1st. NTA Olson and the IRS Commissioner plan to attend and speak at this meeting.

Coston also indicated that he is in the process of hiring staff in offices that currently have vacancies. For instance, there will be a new secretary in the Brooklyn office, a new manager in the Milwaukee Office and a new Budget Analyst in Washington, D.C.

Program Owner Presentations:
Overview
Rousseau informed the members that both Mosler and he attended a meeting with TIGTA (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) where they discussed a review performed by the latter of 350 tax returns involving RALs (Refund Anticipation Loans) with refunds of under $2,000 and fees of about $190. Of the 350 taxpayers reviewed, 90% were not aware of the VITA Program and other free tax services. TIGTA also reviewed VITA and found that there was 69% accuracy rate with the Program this year. One suggestion they made to Rousseau and Mosler was that VITA volunteers should undergo background checks. Both TAP members disagreed with this suggestion.

Carol Barnett, Director of Products & Partnerships, informed the Committee that next year the IRS Volunteer Agreement with VITA volunteers will include questions related to criminal background but that the IRS would not want to enforce background checks.

Barnett also spoke about the VITA Grant Program which is currently ranking the application and expects to have the selections made by October 15th, 2009. The Program has $8 million and is a matching-fund program that involves tax preparation but no RALs. The applicants are reviewed by past performance, number of returns prepared and the quality of preparation. The organizations selected would have to have a Sec. 501 © (3) (tax-exempt) designation to receive the grant and be set up for electronic tax preparation. There is no cap for the grant but the funds must be matched. The IRS has marketed this Program extensively around urban and non-urban areas. Currently the VITA Program has 11,800 sites, 76,000volunteers and 250 sites that are open all year. TaxWise software will be provided next year to VITA sites.

Training VITA Volunteers
Kinney spoke about this year’s Product Development Project which was formed of several teams to review and revise the various training materials and tests used in the VITA Program. She indicated that the Processed Based Training (PBT) - which is something that this TAP Committee worked on the previous year- is already working successfully. She emphasized the importance of improving the PBT and that of taking the review session that is now provided through Link & Learn.

Kinney introduced Harvey who spoke about SPEC’s aim to increase the quality of the educational products and Dill who spoke about this year’s Economic Stimulus Payment (ESP).

As mentioned, Harvey spoke about quality. She stated that for the IRS “quality” means “getting to an accurate tax return”. She said that for every VITA partner there is a toll for training. In the VITA sites, quality requirements are: 1) intake tool for training, 2) quality review of tax returns, 3) confidence n the training materials and 4) volunteer hotline. The SPEC organization which operates VITA made available a Local Global Training Site Coordinator and a site coordinator corner on the irs.gov that was active from November, 2007 until January, 2008 to use as a support tool for VITA partners. These tools will also be available next year. SPEC is also revising Form 13614, SPEC Intake Sheet, and Form 8158, VITA/TCE Quality Review Sheet, to make them friendlier and easier to use.

Dill spoke about SPEC’s efforts in marketing the ESP with emphasis to those who had no filing requirements, who are disabled or who are senior citizens. SPEC marketed the VITA Program to assist mainly those in the first group in filing Form 1040A and take advantage of the ESP. The second phase of SPEC’s efforts aims to communicate that it is not too late to file in order to get the ESP. The IRS realizes that those who have not filed their tax return yet are those who cannot file on their own not are able to visit a VITA site to get the assistance needed.

Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint (TAB)
Thomas spoke about the TAB being a five-year roadmap to provide adequate service to the taxpaying public and increase voluntary compliance. SPEC coordinates the quality of the services provided by the IRS and each IRS function/organization that provides services to the public must report back to SPEC. Most specifically, she indicated, they report to an office within the organization that oversees and measures improvement and customer satisfaction. Consequently, Thomas spoke at length about the different measurements used in reaching the goal of the TAB.

She also spoke about the IRS’ nationwide outreach strategy which uses the translation of programs and products done by the IRS’ Multilingual Office in order to reach English as a Second Language taxpayers.

Link & Learn – Practice Lab
Link & Learn Taxes is an e-learning option for practice, training and certification for VITA/TCE volunteers and SPEC employees. It now has a review session called the Practice Lab. Here are some pointers about the Lab:

The Practice Lab is tax preparation software (TaxWise Online) accessible through Link & Learn Taxes.

Practice Lab will be available in early November and will include 2008 tax year preparation software.

The Practice Lab will enable users to prepare tax returns online for purposes of practice and testing.

The Practice Lab is accessible for Basic, Intermediate, Advance, Military International and Puerto Rico.

The Practice Lab is also accessible from the log in screen for the certification test.

Returns prepared in the Practice Lab can be saved and printed.

2007 Contact History Report & 2007 Recommendations to IRS
Colvin discussed “Branding the VITA Program” for which a TAP subcommittee was formed last year with the objective to develop opportunities to better package and to leverage the strengths of the Program in order to enhance its marketing. An outreach team will look at all VITA products.

Last year’s recommendations to the IRS were:

Increase the visibility and promote the credibility of free tax preparation
Develop and/or communicate the existence of a poster that may be displayed at each VITA site
Develop a plan to partner with other government programs
Integrate VITA information into existing IRS material in a visible way
Conduct mailings to specific target groups such as Earned Income Tax Credit recipients promoting Vita services
Develop a program with a goal to enhance the sharing of available promotional products with partners
Create a bi-fold, business envelope size writ-up/brochure, which could be mailed out or left in public places promoting VITA services
Solicit neighborhood leaders to promote VITA services
Identify more rural partners
Include information about VITA in mailings to clients who call the IRS and request that forms be mailed to them
Include information about VITA with press releases, e-file messaging and advertising that the IRS currently does
Update and widely distribute Publication 3676A, “VITA E-Rile Poster.”
Produce camera-ready products that can be placed in various types of media, and should be available for downloading from IRS.GOV
Create customizable Public Service Announcements (PSA) for local VITA groups to use on television and radio
Make information about free assistance from VITA more visible and easily accessible on the homepage of IRS.GOV
Have a message about VITA inserted into the hold music
Solicit support of National Taxpayer Advocate and Local Taxpayer Advocates to promote/endorse VITA/Tax Counseling for the Elderly during their outreach efforts

Barnett indicated that some of these recommendations have already been implemented but it merits reviewing them.

Subcommittee Break-out

Training VITA
TAB – Collaboration Strategy
TAB – Broader Offering of Services

Subcommittees met

Public Input
None

Closing/Wrap-up
Rousseau ended the meeting for the day

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Opening
Rousseau opened the meeting

Roll Call
Quorum met

Subcommittee Break-Out
Subcommittees met

Subcommittee Report-Out

Training VITA Volunteers Subcommittee
Bryant reported on the work done in different Product Development Teams. She spoke about the Beta test and indicated that it was a good, streamlined product. She also spoke about Publication 4012, Volunteer Resource Guide.
Bryant indicated that at this moment this Subcommittee has no further work to be done but that the members will review the Link&Learn when ready. Meantime, the members of this Subcommittee will join the two remaining subcommittees.

Tab – Broader Offering of Services Subcommittee
This Subcommittee created a Survey that –with TAP Director Coston’s permission- will be addressed to all TAP members in an effort to collect information and knowledge of the members’ experience with VITA. The Subcommittee requests the members’ suggestions on services that should be but are not currently provided at VITA sites such as preparation of forms like Schedule C, Schedule E, etc; advice and tax information; making installments arrangements; supplying tax account transcripts, etc.

TAB – Collaboration Strategy Subcommittee
Davidson indicated that the Subcommittee is interested in finding out what attracts people to volunteer their time and services. They would like to learn what incentives, besides the sense of accomplishment, volunteers seek.

So, the Subcommittee agreed to create a Survey asking these questions and compile them with those of the Broader Offering’s survey in order to make it a complete “TAB Survey” and to take the opportunity to survey TAP members on both issues simultaneously.

At the same time, this Subcommittee’s members will study already existing models of colleges and high schools that offer tax preparation to their students and to their communities in order to propose to the IRS that these schools’ program be implemented by the agency with schools nationwide.

Public Input
None

Closing/Recap Action Items
Rousseau asked members to commit to subcommittee meeting dates and to participate in their meetings.

Knispel will send all the members the Meeting Satisfaction Survey to gain feedback about this meeting.