December 2006
Supporting Statement for Form SSA-7156
Farm Self-Employment Questionnaire
20 CFR 404.1082(c) & 20 CFR 404.1095
OMB No. 0960-0061
Justification
1. Section 211(a) of the Social Security Act states that the existence of a trade or business is a necessary prerequisite for determining whether an individual or partnership may have "net earnings from self-employment." An agricultural trade or business is further defined in 20 CFR 404.1095. Rules for farm rental income are established in 20 CFR 404.1082(c).
The Social Security Administration (SSA) needs the information collected on Form SSA-7156 to determine the existence of an agricultural trade or business. This determination of coverage may affect an individual's insured status for receipt of monthly benefits, or it may affect the amount of the monthly benefits.
3. The electronic submission of application/form data is an Agency goal as an alternative means of doing business with SSA, unless face to face contact with the individual is required as part of the intake process or the circumstances are so sensitive or complex that the completer would be better served interacting with a trained SSA employee. Electronic intake can only occur if there is functional equivalency on the backend to receive and process the electronic submission. This expenditure of Systems resources must compete with other priority initiatives for very limited funds. The SSA-7156 cannot compete with the legislative mandates that are driving the use of these funds and, therefore, this collection is currently not scheduled for electronic implementation.
4. The nature of the information being requested and the manner in which it is collected preclude duplication. There is no other form used by SSA that collects data similar to that collected on Form SSA-7156.
5. This collection of information does not involve small businesses or other small entities.
6. The collection of information takes place in order to determine the existence of a covered agricultural trade or business, because the earnings may affect the monthly benefit or insured status. If this information is collected less frequently, some claimants for benefits will be disadvantaged. There are no technical or legal obstacles that prevent burden reduction.
7. There are no special circumstances that would cause this information collection to be conducted in a manner that is not consistent with 5 CFR 1320.5.
8. The 60-day advance Federal Register Notice was published on January 25, 2007 at 72 FR 3468, and SSA has received no public comments. The second Notice was published on March 23, 2007 at 72 FR 13851, and there have been no outside consultations with members of the public.
9. SSA provides no payment or gifts to the respondents.
10. The information requested on this form is protected and held confidential in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 1306, 20 CFR 401 and 402, 5 U.S.C. 552 (Freedom of Information Act), 5 U.S.C. 552a (Privacy Act of 1974) and OMB Circular No. A-130.
11. The information collection does not contain any questions of a sensitive nature.
12. Form SSA-7156 is used by approximately 47,500 respondents annually. The estimated average response time is 10 minutes, for a total of 7,917 burden hours. The total burden is reflected as burden hours, and no separate cost burden has been calculated.
13. There is no known cost burden to the respondents.
14. The annual cost to the Federal government is approximately $80,000. This estimate is a projection of printing and distribution costs for the information collection.
15. There is no change in the public reporting burden.
16. The results of the information collected will not be published.
17. OMB has granted SSA an exemption from the requirement that the expiration date for OMB approval be printed on its program forms. SSA produces millions of public-use forms, many of which have a life cycle longer than that of an OMB approval. SSA does not periodically revise and reprint its public-use forms, (e.g., on an annual basis). This exemption was granted so that otherwise useable editions of forms would not be taken out of circulation because the expiration date had been reached. In addition, government waste has been avoided because stocks of forms will not have to be destroyed and reprinted.
SSA is not requesting an exception to the certification requirements at 5 CFR 1302.9 and related provisions at 5 CFR 13208(b)(3).
Statistical methods are not used for this information collection.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | May 2001 |
| Author | OPB |
| Last Modified By | Kathy |
| File Modified | 2007-05-31 |
| File Created | 2007-03-27 |