Date: November 17, 1999

Time: 6:00-9:00 PM

Location: Wyndham Wind Watch Hotel 1717 Motor Parkway Hauppauge, NY

Jim Montes, Chairperson

Kristen Bailey, DFO

Matt Mihovich

Horace Aiken

Ed Maher

Ethel Richards

Tony Fandozzi

John Rotondi

Laura Greenberg

Burton Kahn

IRS Staff Attending

Ellen Murphy, District Director

Eileen Cain, CAP Manager

Val Oveson, National Taxpayer Advocate

I ra Moseley, CAP Analyst

Edward Parenti, Taxpayer Ed. Coordinator

Absentees

Marie Nahikian, Vice Chairperson

Public Attendees

Numerous

Opening

Chairperson opened the meeting at 6:50 PM and welcomed everyone with an introductory speech. He explained the background to the formation of the four CAPs and how the panel members were selected. He also touched upon the mission of the panel and how important it is that the CAPs receive input from the public and thanked those that were attending. Chairperson then let the panel introduce themselves, starting with Ed Maher.

Panel member Maher - Stated that he is a resident of Suffolk County and is a small business owner. He enjoys his involvement with the CAP.

Panel member Richards - She is a first grade school teacher and a resident of Queens and is a very dedicated volunteer to tax issues and tax law.

Panel member Rotondi - He currently works for Merrill Lynch as an assistant vice president and compliance officer. Prior to that he worked as a CPA. He is a resident of Nassau County and joined the panel in order to affect change within the IRS.

Panel member Greenberg - Stated she is a resident of Brooklyn and a retired CPA. She is happy to be a member and to give taxpayers the opportunity to have their voices heard and for change to be instituted.

Chairperson Montes - Is vice president of Banco Popular and responsible for commercial lending in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. He is also a fourth year evening student at Fordham Law School.

Taxpayer Advocate Bailey - Is the local Taxpayer Advocate for the district and is also the designated federal official on the CAP, serving as their link to the IRS.

Panel member Fandozzi - Resides in Suffolk County. He currently works as a consultant after retiring as a customer service manager for a major public utility. He is also a founding member of the Postal Service Customer Advisory Committee. He is pleased to be a member of the CAP.

Panel member Kahn - Life long resident of Nassau County and although he is a graduate chemical engineer, he spent most of his career as president of a hardware firm servicing major supermarket chains. He has served as a volunteer for the IRS Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) program and the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. He is also involved with the STAR program and Nassau Community College, but his specialty is recommending changes to complicated tax forms that need to be simplified.

Chairperson then mentioned that three additional panel members were expected to be there - Horace Aiken, a CPA, Matt Mihovich, a small business owner, and Marie Nahikian, Vice chairperson of the panel. He then introduced Val Oveson, National Taxpayer Advocate, who gave a brief overview of the Taxpayer Advocate Service. Prior to his current position, Mr. Oveson was president of the Utah State Tax Commission, and prior to that he was Lieutenant Governor of Utah.

Mr. Oveson thanked the audience for their participation and stated that this is what the CAP is all about, to bring forward to the panel whatever issues and concerns warrants their attention. He then thanked the panel members for their willingness to serve and for the many hours they have spent on this important cause. He stated that during his career he often monitored the expenses incurred to hold various public hearings. Is the expense justified when only a few people attend? He feels strongly that it is the opportunity for citizens to come and be heard that is more important than having a room full of people attending. He then called attention to the CAP telephone number, explaining that this comes directly to the CAP office and to panel members. He then stated he was currently preparing his second report to Congress due on December 31st noting that the Advocate role is so consistent with the CAP role that they are administratively linked, with the local advocate being the link between the CAP and the IRS. His role, as National Advocate, is to sponsor issues at the national level that CAPs' have raised, even to the extent of recommending legislative changes, and last years report included several issues that came from the CAPs and assumes that this will be true this year as well. Mr. Oveson concluded by giving thanks for being invited and was pleased to be present.

Panel Member Mihovich apologized for his late arrival and introduced himself stating his role with the CAP is to represent small businesses. Chairperson Montes then introduced Eileen Cain, manager of CAP staff, Ira Mosely, Cap Analyst, and Ed Parente, coordinator of taxpayer education services.

Mr. Parente briefed the audience on the services his office, Brooklyn District's Office of Community Programs. Those programs include VITA, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, which recruits and trains volunteers to do free return preparation for taxpayers of moderate income. Last year approximately 371 volunteers assisted over 11,000 taxpayers. A similar program is TCE, Tax Counseling for the Elderly, which assists taxpayers over the age of 60. Another program is the Community Outreach Program. Under this program the IRS provides a speaker to an organization on a tax topic of their choice. His office also runs small business workshops, which reaches out to self- employed individuals to better understand their tax obligations. Another program, more recently developed, is the low income tax clinic. Under this program the IRS will match contributions by non-profit organizations to establish the clinic. The clinic will provide representation to low income taxpayers before the IRS in disputing notices or undergoing audits. There is an understanding taxes program, which provides lesson plans teachers can use to inform students what their tax obligations will be. The office also works with post offices and libraries in distributing tax forms. Mr. Parente requested questions from the audience, of which none were asked.

Public Comments

Chairperson laid down the ground rules for the rest of the meeting and asked for the first speaker.

Speaker 1

She was pleased for the opportunity to address the panel and stated she represents the Sachem Quality of Life Organization, located in Farmingville, Long Island. The problem she raises is the non-responsiveness by the IRS to issues her organization and others have brought forward to the IRS. In August of 1998, her organization tried to submit information regarding the growing underground economy in the community, arising from an influx of illegal aliens and the illegal street hiring that takes place on a daily basis. The service center refused to accept the information and refused to advise them of what department would investigate. Finally an IRS employee, who lives in the area, advised them to submit the information to the Hauppaugue office. On January 19, 1999, the information was submitted to a special agent who advised he would be referring the information to the Garden City office. The organization has not received a response, nor have they been advised that the proper office has received the information. They would like to submit additional information, but do not know who, if anyone, is investigating the matter. She submits that millions of tax dollars are going uncollected. She further submits that those landlords that provide housing for this group are also not reporting rental income. They believe the IRS should have a form, instructions, and a procedure for accepting this type of information from the public. She states it not only her organization being ignored by the IRS, but Suffolk County Legislator Joseph T. Caracapa has also run up against the same roadblocks. A letter by him addressed to the CAP was then read. He writes that since early 1998, he has written numerous letters and made numerous phone calls to the IRS, but nothing is being done to correct the situation. A copy of the letter and a copy of a letter written to the Director of the Brookhaven Service Center were submitted to National Advocate Oveson. Taxpayer Advocate Bailey addressed the speaker. The problem creating this frustration is the disclosure laws that are in place to protect the privacy of a taxpayer. If a third party should submit information regarding lack of compliance, that person is not entitled to know the outcome to a particular taxpayer. That is why they are not getting any information back. Chairperson Montes added that the disclosure rules also cause frustration within the CAP. The speaker stated they don't want to know any specifics but just that the case is being looked into. Panel Member Fandozzi stated that no response by the IRS is very poor customer service. He stated he read an article in the Suffolk Life that numerous politicians, including our two senators, have been contacted and members of the group testified before Congress. He asked the speaker if they had received any response at that level, to which she replied "nothing". She feels that the situation is allowed to grow because no one is responding to the legitimate concerns of taxpaying citizens and that's why she is bringing this to the CAP. Panel Member Kahn asked the speaker if she had submitted specific information, to which she replied that they have submitted names of contractors and lists of landlords with addresses and has more information to submit. Taxpayer Advocate Bailey agreed to accept the information and meet with the speaker.

Speaker 2

He addressed the panel on a personal problem he has had for 13 years. As the result of a business failure he has a large liability with the IRS. He has made four attempts to have his Offer in Compromise accepted but each time was denied because he earned too much money. He attended the last problem solving day and was advised to submit another offer but he feels no one is listening to him. He visited the National Taxpayer Advocate office and met with two individuals who advised him to submit a new Form 433A and Form 656. He asked the panel if the National Taxpayer Advocate is above the local offices and what is its structure within the IRS. Taxpayer Advocate Bailey replied by stating that she is the local Taxpayer Advocate and through the National Taxpayer Advocate it is now an independent operation but is still within the IRS. This enables the Advocate to take an independent review of a situation. She agreed to meet with the speaker and review his situation.

Speaker 3

The speaker addressed a problem he experienced on the IRS web site. He wanted to know why he had to download an Adobe Reader before he could obtain a tax form. He felt it would be easier to just point and click the tax form immediately to obtain it. Panel Member Maher responded by stating downloaded forms must be in a readable language, and the Adobe Reader is something in which you do not need a specific program and it is free and that once it is obtained he will be able to download any form he needs.

Panel Issues

With no one else wishing to address the panel, Chairperson Montes requested Panel members Greenberg and Mihovich to speak on issues the CAP is working on. But first he introduced Panel member Aiken. Panel member Aiken apologized for his late arrival. He stated he is CFO of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration, which is a minority corporation dealing with economic development, housing restoration, and various youth programs in the Bedford Stuyvesant community of Brooklyn.

Panel member Greenberg then addressed the audience on an issue CAP has been working on. The issue is the complexity of the forms and instructions concerning the Earned Income Tax credit. They had excellent cooperation from the IRS and were able to obtain the proposed 1999 forms, which the IRS was revising in order to make them more taxpayer friendly. The CAP subcommittee worked hand in hand with the IRS and made recommendations that will have an impact on the coming filing season. The subcommittee also looked at the revised instructions and will be looking at how the booklet is used this coming filing season, so that they can make recommendations to make that publication more user friendly for the next filing season. She then introduced Panel member Mihovich to speak on the work of the language diversity committee.

Panel member Mihivich prefaced his remarks by noting that the Brooklyn District has 85 different ethnic groups within its population, most of whom situate themselves in ethnic communities. He identifies with speaker one, and sees this activity in several neighborhoods. He feels the issue may not be one of tax avoidance but perhaps is one of understanding the tax laws. The committee is trying to take a more customer oriented point of view by attempting to address basic issues of taxes and what tax compliance is about through a language diversity test project. The concept is the development of a kiosk that is similar to an ATM. The opening window on the screen will have pictures of five flags: American, representing English; former USSR, representing Russian; Republic of China, representing Mandarin Chinese; Spain, representing Spanish; and South Korea, representing Korean. Once a flag is touched the program will proceed in that language. The first section will allow the user to print out commonly used forms for both the 1999 and 1998 tax years. The other section will be 125 questions and answers. These questions and answers were developed with the assistance of Ellen Murphy, Brooklyn District Director, and Noreen Bavaro, Customer Service Branch Chief, and are written in as simple and plain language as is possible. The first test kiosk is scheduled to be installed in the Queens Public Library and hopefully will be on-line by the middle of January. The program also has a quick survey at the end, and the committee intends to monitor the usage and results. If it is found to be successful, it will be expanded to other sites in the district. In addition, network ready disks of the information will be provided so that they can be distributed to local channels and local websites that are in foreign languages so the questions can be loaded on through the internet. This will also provide the ability to print them as small booklets in the original language.

Adjournment

Chairperson stated that the end of the meeting was at hand. He thanked all for coming and participating and invited anyone who would like to speak to a Panel member personally to please do so.

He then mentioned how the public can contact the CAP through the toll-free number, 1-888-912-1227 and the web site at www.improveirs.org. The panel would stay after the end of the meeting to talk one-on-one with anyone in the auditorium.

The meeting adjourned at 8:25 P.M.

I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the foregoing minutes are accurate and complete.

Jim Montes, Chairperson
Brooklyn District Citizens Advocacy Panel

The Panel at its next meeting will formally consider these minutes, and any corrections or notations will be incorporated in the minutes of that meeting.

Attachments:
Agenda Items

12/23/99