Area 1 Committee Meeting
April 20, 2010
Teleconference
10:00 – 11:00 pm (EDT)

Designated Federal Official

• Benedetti, Elaine, LTA- Providence, RI

Committee Members Present

• Alvarado, Frank
• Bernstein, Mark
• Garant, Felicia
• Gibbons, Jo Ann
• Jackson, Robert
• Leggett, John
• Morse, Cheryl
• Murray, Alan
• Steinberg, Stepner

Committee Members Absent

• Cabusora, Haidee
• Gambardella, Linda
• Stepner, Gerald

TAP Staff

• Babb, Rose
• Morizio, Louis, Program Manager
• Odom, Meredith

Welcome/Announcements
Morse welcomed everyone to the call.

DFO Report
Benedetti met with her congressional staffers last week along with panel member Jackson. She also mentioned the following items of interest:

1. Barry Levine’s tour as the LTA in Boston is over this week. Benedetti will be the new Acting LTA for the next five months. She will be in Boston, MA Monday through Thursday and in Providence, RI on Fridays.

2. An issue was brought to her by an IRS employee on Form 4868 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return for Automatic Extension of Time Instructions. The form states that there are three ways to request an automatic extension of time to file a U.S. individual income tax return.

• File Form 4868 electronically by accessing IRS E-file using a home computer or by using a tax professional who uses E-file
• Pay all or part of the estimate of income tax due using a credit or debit card.
• File a paper Form 4868.

Benedetti noted the instructions are confusing -to pay all or part payment by debit or credit card. She asked TAP if this is something they would be interested in looking at.

Morse mentioned that in the interest of other pressing issues for the committee to work, this issue is a good issue but, it should be placed in the parking lot.

Office Report
Jenkins asked the committee to provide her with a list of issue topics for the face to face meeting in May. Jenkins will research the issues, and provide subject matter experts that can assist the committee.

Morizio reviewed the travel regulations with the committee since Leggett received a response from the TAP Director regarding the travel issue that he had written up:

• Panel members are subject to the same travel regulations as any government employee.
• Panel members cannot make their own travel arrangements; if they do, they will not be reimbursed for expenses. The panel members must go through TAP’s management assistant.
• Nongovernment tickets are not refundable. Therefore, panel members must ensure that they will travel to the meeting when accepting these nongovernment tickets.

The Vermont Town Hall meeting in May was mentioned with Gibbons, Morse and Stepner attending the event. Benedetti and Morizio will not be able to attend as they are scheduled for other travel that week. Gibbons and Morse have their speeches ready.

Subcommittee Report Out.
The committee agreed to drop the 90 Day letter issue. Leggett mentioned that the toll free service is a big issue affecting the service. He hopes the National Taxpayer Advocate Olson can make some progress and TAP can save time by dropping the issue. Benedetti, stated that this is a very serious issue for Olson and that there is a budgetary issue, she needs more people brought on and trained.

Alvarado mentioned that Form 8615 Tax for Certain Children Who Have Income of more than $1,800 is very complex and not frequently used, so the committee agreed to drop this issue.

Subcommittee Process Update
Steinberg is researching issues 16672 –Collection Notices and 16690 on Form 1099B regarding the sale of property and taxpayers not being clear on whether they need to file a tax return on gains or loses.

Morse mentioned that the Joint Committee returned some issues to the committee. The JC asked that the original authors rewrite the issues based on the QR feedback. Morse also stated that the Joint Committee has asked that each area have their own Quality Review Committee. She suggested that the Screening Committee help with quality review as well.

Best Practice:
Alvarado mentioned that through the organization he works for, he visits merchants businesses. He assisted in putting together a curriculum for entrepreneurial training and he included information on TAP and the Local Taxpayer’s Advocates (LTAs). Alvarado does four sessions of training each month and during those sessions he discusses TAP and its importance. His sessions are bilingual - English and Spanish.

Leggett mentioned as a member on the TAC committee and a former member of the EITC issue committee, EITC did a lot of outreach events in Manchester, NH by placing signs in public areas. He stated that for outreach, Area 1 should consider what they are doing and why it is being done as opposed to anything else.

Outreach
Morizio asked panel members to try to send in their outreach reports by the 5th of each month. He needs this information to submit his report to the TAP Director by the 9th of each month. If there are no outreach activities to report, panel members should still send Odom an email informing her that they did not have any Outreach for that month.

Public Participation: None.