Area 1 Committee Meeting
March 16, 2010
Teleconference
10:00 – 11:00 pm (EDT)

Program Owner

• Benedetti, Elaine

Designated Federal Official

• Morizio, Louis

Committee Members Present

• Bernstein, Mark
• Cabusora, Haidee
• Gambardella, Linda
• Garant, Felicia
• Gibbons, Jo Ann
• Leggett, John
• Morse, Cheryl
• Murray, Alan
• Steinberg, Jeffrey
• Stepner, Gerald

Alternate Members Present
None

Committee Members Absent

• Alvarado, Frank
• Gambardella, Linda

TAP Staff

• Babb, Rose A.
• Jenkins, Audrey Y
• Odom, Meredith

Other Attendees
None

Welcome/Announcements
Morse welcomed everyone to the call.

DFO Report
Benedetti mentioned the following:

1. She attended TAC Open House on February 20.
2. She will be scheduling a meeting in April with Rhode Island Congressional Committee and will discuss TAP recruitment. She will also be taking TAP material to distribute.
3. Nina Olson, National Taxpayer Advocate will be at the Ways and Means Committee today at 2:00 pm she will be discussing collection issues, aliens; phone service and tax exempt preparer initiatives and can be seen online.
4. Benedetti stated that she has spoken to LTAs and contacts in TAC to find out if thee are any issues to discuss. She got a response that everything seems to be fine except for First Time Home Buyers Credit.

Office Report
Jenkins mentioned that with the new system and three different committees, she has not received any emails requesting any research for new issues from the writing committee.

Morizio mentioned that TAP’s recruitment began yesterday. The applications are available on line. Area 1 is recruiting from four states two of the four states are for alternate members from New York and Vermont. New members will be recruited from New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Leggett and Jackson terms are ending 2010 for New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Morizio asked panel members to mention the recruitment during outreach activities and encourage people to apply. Odom with send out recruitment flier emails to the committee.

The TAP town hall meeting in Vermont will be held on May 4 at 6:00pm in Burlington, VT. Morizio has informed Bob Fett, the LTA in Vermont. He will work on finding TAP a Venue. It is possible the Town Hall will be held at the University of Vermont. Morizo will not attend the meeting; he is scheduled to attend a second session of FMRP class in Denver. Linda Rivera, Analyst from National Office Headquarters will attend the Town Hall Meeting in his place along with Babb, Jenkins and panel member Stepner. Benedetti and Morse will not be attending the town hall meeting.

Morizio will prepare a town hall speech format for Gibbons. Some minor revisions can be made if necessary.

On the issue #5189 Voice Activitation, Morizio received a response from IRS regarding the recommendation that was submitted. The recommendation was accepted but due to budgetary restraints, it cannot be implemented. TAP had a series of questions as a counter response. Morizio did consult with the database analyst MaryAnn Delzer and the TAP Director Shawn Collins. Morizio noted an issue of concern was that the counter response should not be in the format of additional questions. He also stated that because this issue was rejected for budget reasons, even if those changes were made, the issue would still been rejected since there are budget restraints. Morizio is working on the unwritten rule to get it written into the IRM and in the member handbook, on how to draft a counter response. He is recommending that this issue be closed. There was concensus to close the issue.

Subcommittee Report Out
Morse stated that there was a response from the IRS on Issue # 8109B which states that coupons are available for use by the taxpayers and that the staff will aid in filing out the coupons and provide advice on electronically filing the coupons. Morse stated that a counter response is necessary to tell the IRS to educate and adhere to their standards. Morizio will provide some guidance to Morse to draft a counter response to the IRS on issue# 8109B.

The 1040X issue received a number of comments from the joint committee on electronic filing. This is already in the works and the committee decided to drop to the issue.

Issue# 16906 Identifying IRS Employee Contacts -the committee agreed to elevate this issue.

Old Business
Issue#16669 Toll Free Line -Leggett stated he still has a key question that was not answered from his list of questions. He asked if there any efficiency measures on the IRS employees or not? Jenkins suggested that since Nina has this on her list, the committee should put this in the parking lot until Nina gives a response. The committee agreed to put this issue in the parking lot.

Issue# 16665 Search Engine Improvement -Steinberg researched this issue and found that the search engines have no problems and that the advanced search engines work well. He suggested dropping this issue. The committee agreed to drop this issue.

Issue# 5301 Centralized Appeals -Bernstein suggested this issue be dropped.

Issue# 16672 Publication 17 Gross Income Instructions -Steinberg suggested that this issue be closed with other combined issues as well.

Jenkins will do some research on 90 Day Notices and provide some feed back to Leggett.

Morse mentioned that the link for outreach communications is posted everywhere possible. Roy Block, TAP Program Manager from Milwaukee is trying to capture the information as part of the outreach reporting. Morse will be contacting Odom regarding this early next week.

Leggett discussed the TAP Travel Issue which he sent to Morizio and his staff. Babb will do some research to find cheaper air fares at non-government rate before accepting the government rates. Morizio mentioned that cheaper air fares will need to be approved by the deputy National Taxpayer Advocate. In addition, there must be an “absolute guarantee” that panel volunteers will not make any changes or, TAP will lose those air fares.

Morizo discussed the following:
Tax forms and Publications instructions had some confusing procedures. TAP is drafting new procedures to simplify the process. The old system will not be used for referring issues to Tax Forms and Pubs Committee. If a referring issue comes up as an area issue, will remain with the area as a grass root issue. The area will research and work it. If there is some expertise required to address issues, there will be some procedures on how to use Wagner and her staff as subject matter experts.

Best Outreach
Murray mentioned that he submitted some information on TAP for his alumni magazine and it was published. Murray also stated that a number of people have contacted him on tax issues. He will be attending his 55th reunion and will be taking to the public about TAP.

Jackson mentioned that he has done some short TAP presentations. He also stated that he likes making one on one TAP presentations and that he needs to understand what the individual tax issues are from taxpayers to determine if they are appropriate to bring to TAP. Jackson mentioned that he will provide contacts for prospective TAP volunteers.

Morizio stated that outreach has multi-purposes:

1. Get the issues to work.
2. Make people aware of what TAP is about.
3. Get people to sign up for recruitment.

Public Participation
None.

Closing: