CS-09-145 - Offer in Compromise (OIC) Program; CS-09-147 - Indian Tribal Governments

APPENDIX

7

Customer Satisfaction Survey (Advance Letter)
IRS
SE:T:GE:ITG
1111 Constitution Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20224

Dear [insert tribe’s name]
The Office of Indian Tribal Governments, within the Internal Revenue Service, has been
established to provide all of the services you need in order to fully administer federal tax
laws. In addition, we seek to provide tribes with information to further their economic
development without risk of federal tax concerns. It is very important that the Office of
Indian Tribal Governments understand your opinion of our operations. To get your
opinions, we will soon send you a questionnaire to ask you about how well we are doing
our job. In the next few weeks, your survey will arrive in the mail.
We hope you will cooperate with us and complete the survey, as your responses will
help us better serve your needs in area of federal tax administration. We guarantee that
all responses will remain anonymous. We would appreciate it if you would base your
responses on your experiences with the Office of Indian Tribal Governments within the
past year. Your participation is voluntary and it should take approximately 12 minutes to
complete the survey
If you have any questions or comments about this survey please contact us at [Provide
Phone Number] or you may write to us at the following address [Insert Address]. You
can also contact us if you would like a copy of the survey results. Thank you in advance
for spending your valuable time to help the Office of Indian Tribal Governments better
serve your needs.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXX
XXXXX
Enclosure

8

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
Office of Indian Tribal Governments
P.O. Box 227
Buffalo, New York 14225
TAX EXEMPT AND
GOVERNMENT ENTITIES DIVISION

July 1, 2009
Dear
The Office of Indian Tribal Governments at the Internal Revenue Service was established to
help Indian tribes address their federal tax matters. During the planning and creation of this
office, we received valuable input from Indian tribal governments and tribal associations so
we would be better able to understand and meet your specialized needs.
The overall goal of this office is to use partnership opportunities with Indian tribal
governments to respectfully and cooperatively meet the needs of both the tribal governments
and the federal government and to simplify the tax administration process.
What are we asking you to do? Complete a survey.
As part of an ongoing process, we are asking each tribe to complete the attached survey.
We would like your responses to be based on experiences your tribe has had with the Office
of Indian Tribal Governments within the past year.
We have identified you as the recipient of the survey for your tribe, but ask that you include
input from all those who have involvement in federal tax issues and/or have interacted with
our office. This would most likely include financial officers, tribal administrators and
accountants, payroll officials, casino managers, and similar positions. While several
individuals may provide input, only one survey form should be completed. All responses will
remain anonymous.
Response deadline: August 1, 2009
Please mail us the completed survey by the above response date. A self-addressed
stamped envelope is enclosed for your convenience. The survey results will post to our web
site at www.irs.gov/tribes along with a list of opportunities for improvement that we identify
during the analysis of the survey results. Surveys conducted in prior years have led to the
development of new products and processes to better serve tribal tax needs, so your input is
both valued and important.
If you have any questions or comments about this survey please feel free to contact me at
(202) 283-9800, or you may write to us at the address shown above. Thank you for your
valuable time to help the office of Indian Tribal Governments better serve your needs.
Sincerely,
Christie Jacobs
Director
Enclosures:
Survey
Envelope

9

10

11

Proposed Script for follow-up phone calls with Tribes
Survey administrator (places call to Accounting/Finance Department within Tribe). A
master sheet of contacts will be maintained to ensure that each non-respondent is
contacted only once.
READ. Hi, my name is ____________, and I work for the Office of Indian Tribal
Governments within the IRS. [Verify that you are speaking with a representative from the
Accounting/Finance Department. If not, ask the individual to transfer you to this office
and/or ask for a contact person/phone number. If the Tribal leadership prefers to
designate someone else, you must work with that individual].
My office recently mailed you a customer satisfaction questionnaire to get your feedback
on how well are serving your needs in the area of federal tax administration.
[You may need to remind them of who we are and what we have mailed, i.e., we are an
office within the IRS that is responsible for helping federally recognized tribes meet their
federal tax obligations. Our office recently mailed a questionnaire to their tribe. We want
them to let us know how well we are doing our job. This feedback will help us improve
the products/services we provide.]
READ. Have you returned the questionnaire to us?
=>Yes, thank them for their cooperation and mention the results will be posted on our
web site (provide website address). DISCONTINUE CALL.
=>No, ask them if they would be willing to take a few minutes to answer the questions
over the telephone. It should take no more than 10 minutes.
=>Yes, proceed to the questionnaire and read the directions/questions.
Periodically remind the respondent of the scale. At the conclusion of the
questionnaire, thank the respondent for their time and remind them the survey
results will be posted on our web site (provide web site address).
=>No, ask them if there would be a better time to call back. If they refuse to cooperate
over the phone, you should encourage them to complete the questionnaire that was
mailed to them. Thank them for their time. DISCONTINUE THE CALL.

12