Summary of Changes

Attachment: OMB Control Number 1 5 4 5 - 1 4 3 2 Taxpayer Advocate Service

Taxpayer Advocate Service: Changes to the FY2007 Survey

Changes to Taxpayer Advocate Customer Satisfaction Survey Questionnaire (fy 2007):

Question 5:

Original Version	Change
“In your first call with the Taxpayer Advocate employee who helped you, were you given an estimate of how long it might take to solve your problem?”	“Did the Taxpayer Advocate employee who helped you give you an estimate of how long it would take to solve your problem?”

Reason for Change: Taxpayer Advocate Service employees are required to provide an estimate of how long it might take to resolve a taxpayer’s problem. However, this estimate may be given after the first contact. The change made recognizes this and raises the likelihood of an accurate and reliable response.

Question 7H:

Original Version	Change
This question was not in the original version	“The Taxpayer Advocate Service employee….explained to you why your problem happened?”

Reason for Change: TAS case advocates are required to educate their customers about what they may have done to contribute to or cause the problem they are seeking to resolve to the extent that they have played some role in the situation. Taxpayers who are educated by TAS in this manner are less likely to be recidivists, requiring TAS’ services in the future.

Question 11B (new):

Original Version	Change
This question was not in the original version	“Did the Taxpayer Advocate sufficiently explain to you why you did not get the results you wanted?”

Reason for Change: This is a conditional question that will identify whether customers who do not get the outcome they expected were given a sufficient explanation (in their minds) about the outcome of their case.

Question 18A (new):

Original Version	Change
This question was not in the original version	“To make sure I understand your answer completely, let me confirm what you said. The problem you just described is the problem you expected the Taxpayer Advocate to work on, but they didn’t. This is a different problem than the one they actually worked on for you in your recent case. Is this correct?”

Reason for Change: This is simply a rephrasing of question 18. Based on a test of the original survey instrument, it was felt that there might be some misunderstanding among respondents as to what this question meant to achieve or how to answer it.

Burden Hours

As a result of actual experience during the first quarter of data gathering, due to the questions added to the survey, the estimate of taxpayer burden hours is changed from 1,252 to 2,504.