Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP)
EITC Issue Committee
Thursday, February 24, 2010 1:00 pm EST

Designated Federal Official (DFO)
Ferree, Nancy TAP Program Manager, Plantation, FL

Members Present
Akbar, Sandra
Alvarado, Frank
Granger, Jacqueline
Hayes, Herbert
Patterson, Robert
Stepner, Gerald
Tatum, Sue
Villarreal, Josefina
Webber, Erica

Members Absent
Armstrong, Charles
Birge, Eileen
Cabusora, Haidee

Program Owners
Foley, Barbara

Staff Present
Fields, Anita, TAP Secretary
Powers, Donna, TAP Analyst
Ayala, Marianne, TAP Analyst

Welcome & Roll Call/Quorum
Jo Villarreal welcomed everyone to the meeting. Anita did roll call and met quorum.

Introduction of Guest
None

Review Meeting Minutes
The committee reviewed and approved the January meeting minutes by quorum.

IRS Response Report
The IRS responded to the 2009 projects assigned to the EITC group. They responded to both the partner website and the partner installations. They agreed and disagreed on what the EITC issue committee presented. Villarreal encouraged all members to review the response and it is on TAP Space for all to review.

Villarreal asked if the committee is supposed to go back and make further changes or is it a conclusion. Barbara Foley stated this is an update, she said that the EITC office don’t stop looking at the suggestions just because the year is up. She said that she would have another update by the time we go to the face-to-face meeting. Foley also stated that the EITC office really don’t give a formal response other than to keep the panel update and that they are considering your recommendations and that the EITC office is not letting go of it either. If the panel have any questions about the response or don’t like the response, just give her a call and maybe she can clarify.

Bob Patterson suggested that the committee share this response with the Joint Committee; it shows how our program owners are tracking what we do. He feels that it is informative and has a wealth of information; it shows that the committee is getting feed back from them.

Subcommittee Report-Out:
Education—Jacqueline Granger said that their subcommittee is in charge of creating a PowerPoint presentation regarding EITC. They have a better understanding after they had their subcommittee call of who the target audience is. The subcommittee is in the process of creating a PowerPoint presentation pertaining to EIC. Each subcommittee member was assigned a topic and will be creating a slide pertaining to that topic.

Training—Bob Patterson reported, the subcommittee met and made sure that they had everything defined and know what they are going after. Donna Powers is gathering education materials for the subcommittee to ensure they hit the right subjects. The other thing the subcommittee is working on is a term to replace due diligence for the volunteers.

Donna will begin to post notes from the subcommittee calls on TAP Space.

Input from Program Owners
Barbara Foley asked each person that participated in EITC Awareness Day to share his/her experience.

Frank Alvarado—shared that he attended the EITC function in Bridgeport, CT. It was attended by the VITA sponsors and the Mayor. He also said that it was an enthusiastic kickoff.

Gerald Stepner—shared he attended the EITC day in Boston. He said it was approx. 50-60 people there. He was able to talk about TAP to a couple of people there and he said it was a positive day for EITC and TAP.

Granger—she said that she lives N. of Milwaukee in a different county. The county she lives in does not have any major cities in it. Therefore, she watched the Milwaukee Journal, which is the newspaper. She stated they put a little blurb in the paper about EIC about a week after EITC day. Granger also shared that she has been going around speaking to all non-profit groups who help low-income people in her county and they did not know much about EIC.

Patterson shared that he sent quite a few things out to local newspapers and television stations. He said that unfortunately a lot of it was overshadowed by the impeding snowstorm in the Northern hemisphere. Therefore, it was not much on the front, at least about any of it. Patterson said that he know they had a kick-off on some of the low income tax return programs. He also asked Foley where he could get some information to place in a small doctor’s office that service low-income people.

Face-to-Face Meeting Dates
During last month’s call, there was a conflict on the face-to-face meeting dates. The committee has decided to hold the face-to-face meeting April 19-21, 2010. Anita Fields informed the committee that the cost comparisons came in and Plantation, FL is the location for the meeting. Fields will be sending out travel request information by the end of this week.

Closing
Villarreal restated the value of EITC day. Confirmed that the two groups will be called subcommittees. She thanked everyone for attending.