CS-339 Web Browser Survey

Supporting Statement

Approval Request to Conduct Customer Satisfaction Research (OMB #1545-1432)

2012 Survey of ExSTARS filers Web Browser Utilization

1. JUSTIFICATION

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

Executive Order 12862 directs Federal agencies to provide service to the public that matches or exceeds the best service available in the private sector. In order to work continuously to ensure that our programs are effective and meet our customers’ needs, SBSE Excise Tax Program (hereafter “SBSE Excise Tax”) seeks to obtain OMB approval of an information collection to collect qualitative feedback on our service delivery. By qualitative feedback we mean information that provides useful insights on perceptions and opinions, but are not statistical surveys that yield quantitative results that can be generalized to the population of study.

This collection of information is necessary to enable the SBSE Excise Tax to garner customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner, in accordance with our commitment to improving service delivery. The information collected from our customers and stakeholders will help ensure that users have an effective, efficient, and satisfying experience with the SBSE Excise Tax’s programs. This feedback will provide insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences and expectations, provide an early warning of issues with service, or focus attention on areas where communication, training or changes in operations might improve delivery of products or services. These collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative and actionable communications between the SBSE Excise Tax and its customers and stakeholders. It will also allow feedback to contribute directly to the improvement of program management.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection

Improving SBSE Excise Tax programs requires ongoing assessment of service delivery, by which we mean systematic review of the operation of a program compared to a set of explicit or implicit standards, as a means of contributing to the continuous improvement of the program. The SBSE Excise Tax will collect, analyze, and interpret information gathered through this information collection to identify strengths and weaknesses of current services and make improvements in service delivery based on feedback. The solicitation of feedback will target areas such as: timeliness, appropriateness, accuracy of information, courtesy, efficiency of service delivery, and resolution of issues with service delivery. Responses will be assessed to plan and inform efforts to improve or maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and stakeholders of the SBSE Excise Tax services will be unavailable.

SBSE Excise Tax will only submit a collection for approval under this information collection if it meets the following conditions:

• Information gathered will be used only internally for general service improvement and program management purposes and is not intended for release outside of the SBSE Excise Tax (if released, procedures outlined in Question 16 will be followed);

• Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions ¹;

• Information gathered will yield qualitative information; the collections will not be designed or expected to yield statistically reliable results or used as though the results are generalizable to the population of study; 

• The collections are voluntary;

• The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents and the Federal Government;

• The collections are non-controversial and do not raise issues of concern to other Federal agencies;

• Any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the near future; and

If these conditions are not met, SBSE Excise Tax will submit an information collection request to OMB for approval through the normal PRA process.

3. Consideration Given to Information Technology

If appropriate, SBSE Excise Tax will collect information electronically and/or use online collaboration tools to reduce burden.

4. Duplication of Information

No similar data are gathered or maintained by SBSE Excise Tax or are available from other sources known to SBSE Excise Tax.

5. Reducing the Burden on Small Entities

Small business or other small entities may be involved in these efforts but SBSE Excise Tax will minimize the burden on them by sampling, asking for readily available information, and using short, easy-to-complete information collection instruments.

6. Consequences of Not Conducting Collection

Without these types of feedback, SBSE Excise Tax will not have timely information to adjust its services to meet customer needs.

7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances. The information collected will be voluntary and will not be used for statistical purposes.

8. Consultations with Persons Outside the SBSE Excise Tax

N/A

9. Payment or Gift

SBSE Excise Tax will not provide payment or other forms of remuneration to respondents.

10. Confidentiality

No personally identifiable information will be gathered. Also, the data returned to IRS will have no identifying information relating specific records to individual taxpayers. Nonetheless, IRS will ensure that privacy to the extent allowed by law and security of the aggregated results will receive the utmost attention. Public and official access to the information will be tightly controlled. The computer files containing this tabulated information will remain password protected at all times. Data security approaching level C-2 will be accomplished using the Windows XP operating system. We will apply fair information and record-keeping practices to ensure protection of all taxpayers. The criterion for disclosure laid out in the Privacy Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, provides for the protection of taxpayer information as well as its release to authorized recipients.

11. Sensitive Nature

No questions will be asked that are of a personal or sensitive nature.

12. Burden of Information Collection

The survey interview is designed to minimize burden on the taxpayer. The time that a respondent takes to complete the email survey is carefully considered and only the most important areas are being surveyed. The average time of survey completion is expected to be 4 minutes. There are two straightforward yes/ no questions and a section for comments. 

Based on a sample of potential respondents of 400 (all current ExSTARS users) and a response rate of 75%, we expect 300 survey participants, leaving 100 non-participants. There is no pre-contact letter the email survey will contain the survey questions. The contact time to determine non-participants could take up to 2 minutes to read the email, with the resulting burden for non-participants being 100 x 2 minutes = 200/60 minutes = 3.34 burden hours.

For participants, the time to complete the survey is 4 minutes. This reflects the time to read the email survey (2 minute) and time needed to complete the survey (2 minutes maximum). The time burden for participants is 300 x 4 = 1200/60 minutes = 15.00 burden hours.

The total burden hours for the survey is (3.34 + 20.00) = 23.34 burden hours

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
ExSTARS filers Non-participants	100	2 min	3.34
ExSTARS filers Expected Participants	300	4 min	20.00
Totals			23.34

The annual burden hours requested (18.34 hrs) are based on the number of collections we expect to conduct over the requested period for this clearance.

13. Costs to Respondents

No costs are anticipated.

14. Costs to Federal Government

The anticipated cost to the Federal Government is approximately $0 annually. The Senior Program Tax will individually conduct the survey. No contractor support, equipment, printing, postage or support staff is required.

15. Reason for Change

Not applicable.

16. Tabulation of Results, Schedule, Analysis Plans

Feedback collected under this information collection provides useful information, but it does not yield data that can be generalized to the overall population. Findings will be used for general service improvement, but are not for publication or other public release.

Although SBSE Excise Tax does not intend to publish its findings, SBSE Excise Tax may receive requests to release the information (e.g., congressional inquiry, Freedom of Information Act requests). SBSE Excise Tax will disseminate the findings when appropriate, strictly following "Guidelines for Ensuring the Quality of Information Disseminated to the Public.", and will include specific discussion of the limitation of the qualitative results discussed above.

17. Display of OMB Approval Date

We are requesting no exemption.

18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

These activities comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.

19. This survey will begin June 4, 2012 and will end June 29, 2012

1 As defined in OMB and SBSE Excise Tax Information Quality Guidelines, “influential” means that “an SBSE Excise Tax can reasonably determine that dissemination of the information will have or does have a clear and substantial impact on important public policies or important private sector decisions.”

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