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CITIZEN ADVOCACY PANEL (CAP) New York Metro Meeting Minutes Date: June 8, 2001 Time: 6:00-9:20 PM Location: 10 MetroTech Center, 625 Fulton Street, 6th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Panel Members Attending
CAP Staff Attending Absentees:
Absentees:
IRS Guests
Public Attendees: None Opening of the Meeting Chairperson Maher opened the meeting at 6:00 PM. Minutes The minutes from the 5/17/01 meeting were reviewed. Panel member Greenberg made a motion to accept the minutes. Seconded by panel member Richards and agreed by the panel. Updates Panel Chair Maher advised the Panel members of the following:
Acting DFO Cain advised Panel members that local IRS officials will be meeting with Congressional aides on June 28th. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson is expected to attend. Chair Maher or Vice-Chair Fandozzi will be attending. Panel members are requested to provide comments on the CAP fact sheet. Members from the Executive Development Class will be in Brooklyn on July 5th. They will meet with Panel members Greenberg, Fandozzi, Cintrón and Richards. EIN Conference Report Panel member Richards attended the May 24, 2001meeting that IRS officials held with outside stakeholders regarding the issuance of new EINs. The IRS is considering various ways to improve the process to obtain an EIN by a new business. Various initiatives are being considered. Among them:
Panel member Richards would like to pursue partnering with the state to propose that the IRS provide a group of numbers to various banks so that customers could obtain a new number directly from the bank when they open their account. Panel member Mihovich would like the staff to provide a history of how the IRS has issued numbers in the past. Staff will follow up. The Small Business Committee will pursue the issue and advise the Panel. Kiosk Update Panel member Mihovich reported on the May 24th meeting with local and national officials from the Wage and Investment Division. Panel members Mihovich and Greenberg attended the meeting along with representatives of the other CAPs. The meeting included a visit to the multi-language kiosk in Flushing. National Office Analyst, William Love, presented current and future initiatives, regarding utilization of kiosks. There are currently 17 IRS Kiosks throughout the country. The IRS would like to add 49 additional Kiosks by the end of FY03. The goal is to have 85% of all taxpayers to be able to reach IRS services within a 45-minute commute. Thus the placement of kiosks would be in those areas where services are not easily accessible. A task force is currently reviewing the feasibility of kiosks that are able to take payments. Mr. Love assured that CAP would be kept informed on kiosk issues and welcomed CAP feedback. The full report of the meeting is attached and is an integral part of these minutes. CAP Chair Telephone Conference Chairperson Maher reported on the monthly telephone conference. Florida advises that they advertise their business meetings in local newspapers. Although this has not increased attendance, it has increased public awareness of CAP. He would like NY Metro to advertise in community newspapers within the area. The members unanimously agreed to follow up on this. Staff will pursue. The Chairpersons would like to have more opportunities for the Panels to meet. The next opportunity will be at the Annual CAP Conference. Panel Chairs would like to have more time to engage on mutual issues in place of having numerous speakers. No date for the conference has been scheduled. Mike Lewis advised that the conference date would be at least after August due to the Commissioner’s schedule. New members should be on board by that date. Five candidates and five alternates have been forwarded to the Treasury Secretary. The Panel members discussed various ways to engage the new members at the conference. The full Telephone Conference Report is attached and is an integral part of these minutes. Compliance Form Update Panel member Mihovich advised that the Compliance Form Committee would be meeting with employees from CID and employees familiar with customer service at the 800 number. LOGO Update Panel member Mihovich presented a tentative CAP logo design with the wording as agreed by the Panel at the last meeting. Panel member Cintrón stated that the wording should be changed to be more grammatically precise. The Panel concurred to present the drafted design to the other CAPS for their consideration. New Proposals Panel member Mihovich proposes creating an addition to the NY Metro Website called the Listening Post. The general idea is to pose a question to the visitor that would encourage feedback. The Panel agreed to the idea and will discuss further at the next meeting. Panel member Mihovich noted the recent TIGTA report findings that employees at walk in sites around the country gave incorrect or insufficient answers to questions 73% of the time. He believes the problem is that the code is too complex for any one employee too readily answer any impromptu question posed. In order to address the situation Panel member Mihovich proposes the creation of a CD- ROM that an employee or taxpayer could use to find answers. Panel members discussed the proposal. Staff pointed out that there is currently a website available to employees that can be utilized to obtain answers and procedures. The Panel would like to know how many employees have access to the site. The Panel also requested the staff to ascertain the local area error rate. The Panel will discuss further at the next meeting. Organ Donation At the March 28, 2001 meeting, Ms. Rose Luna requested that the Panel endorse Senator Schumer's bill to establish an online registry for organ donation. The Panel was also asked to urge the IRS to include information on the issue in the yearly tax filing packages. Panel members agreed not to endorse the proposed legislation since it was not a tax matter. Panel members then considered the issue of including information in the tax packages. Although all members agreed that the cause is a worthy one, but many other causes have merit as well. To choose one cause over another may place the IRS in an untenable position. The Panel will discuss further at the next meeting. Advance Refund Notices The recent tax legislation signed into law includes an immediate refund to taxpayers. The IRS intends to issue notices advising taxpayers of the amount and date of the refund or an explanation of why no refund will be issued. Commissioner Rossotti has requested CAP panels to review the draft letters for clarity and ease of reading before they go to print. After reviewing the draft notices all members agreed that a clear and bold statement be included at the beginning of the letters that the notice is not a bill and that no action needs to be taken by the taxpayer. Panel members Aiken and Greenberg proposed specific changes to the wording in both letters. The Panel concurred to recommend that these suggested changes be forwarded. Adjournment Panel member Cintrón made a motion to adjourn and Panel member Mihovich seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 PM I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the foregoing minutes are accurate and complete. Edward Maher, Chairperson New York Metro Citizen Advocacy Panel |