CS-13-395 2013 Taxpayer Experience Survey Supporting Statement

OMB #1545-1432

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

Approval Request to Conduct Customer Satisfaction Research

W&I Taxpayer Experience Survey (TES) 2013

W&I Taxpayer Experience Survey (TES) 2013

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enlists a balanced measurement system consisting of business results, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. This initiative is part of the Service-wide effort to maintain a system of balanced organizational performance measures mandated by the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act (RRA) of 1998. This is also a result of Executive Order 12862 that requires all government agencies to survey their customers.

Wage and Investment (W&I) conducts transactional customer satisfaction surveys to obtain satisfaction ratings and customer feedback on various aspects of the customer’s experience. While some of the surveys do address pre-filing and filing concerns, they do so reactively: i.e., the customer takes the initiative because of a problem, issue, or question they have, and those functions respond as best they can. Relatively little is known about the pre-filing and filing needs and preferences of the general W&I market segment, including those taxpayers who have minimal or no contact with W&I beyond filing their tax returns.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection

The overall objective of this task is to administer the English and Spanish versions of the Taxpayer Experience Survey to survey customers regarding their pre-filing, filing, and post-filing experiences, needs, and preferences.

The key goals of this research are:

1. To determine pre-filing, filing, and post-filing experiences, needs, and preferences

2. To identify service needs of W&I taxpayers

3. Consideration Given to Information Technology

The Taxpayer Experience Survey provides insight into the needs, opinions, and behaviors of the overall 1040 filer population. The TES questionnaire will be administered via a web-panel.

4. Efforts Not to Duplicate Research

This is the only study currently conducted that continues to provide the opportunity to hear from W&I’s full taxpayer base on a broad range of customer service issues, with the objective of identifying how to improve customer satisfaction.

5. Reducing the Burden on Small Entities

The survey has been designed to minimize burden on the respondent. The time that a respondent takes to complete a survey has been carefully considered and only the most important areas are being surveyed. The current selection criteria established in the survey methodology will allow the respondent to participate in only one survey. This will aid in decreasing respondent burden.

6. Consequences of Not Conducting Collection

Without this research, Wage & Investment would be unable to meet corporate goals and would have less information regarding the service needs of W&I taxpayers. W&I taxpayers are a large segment of the tax filing population.

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 IRS

A contractor will administer the survey.

9. Payment of Gift

Monetary incentives will not be provided, but participants will earn points through an arrangement with the subcontractor.

10. Confidentiality

All participants will be subject to the provisions of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights II during this study and the vendor will ensure that all participants are treated fairly and appropriately.

The security of the data used in this project and the privacy of taxpayers will be carefully safeguarded at all times. Security requirements are based on the Computer Security Act of 1987 and Office of Management and Budget Circular A-130, Appendices A & B. Physical security measures include a locked, secure office. Notes are stored in locked cabinets or shredded. Data security at the C-2 level is accomplished via the Windows NT operating system. Systems are password protected, users profiled for authorized use, and individual audit trails generated and reviewed periodically.

The IRS will apply and meet fair information and record-keeping practices to ensure privacy protection of all taxpayers to the extent allowed by law. This includes criteria for disclosure—laid out in the Privacy Act of 1974, the Freedom of Information Act, and Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code—all of which provide for the protection of taxpayer information as well as its release to authorized recipients.

The survey will not contain tax return or taxpayer information. Survey participants will not be identified in any of the documents or files used for this project. We will limit and control the amount of information we collect to those items that are necessary to accomplish the research questions. We will carefully safeguard the security of data utilized as well as the privacy of the survey respondents. We will apply the fair information and record-keeping practices to ensure protection of all survey respondents. 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 information as well as its releases 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 has been designed to minimize burden on the respondent. The time that a respondent takes to complete a survey has been carefully considered and only the most important areas are being surveyed. The current selection criteria established in the survey methodology will allow the respondent to participate in only one survey. This will aid in decreasing respondent burden.

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden Hours
Respondents	3,400	22 minutes	1247
Recruits Attempted	5,278	3 minutes	264
Total			1,511 hrs

Total Burden = 1,511 hrs

Estimated Response Rate: 64%

13. Costs to Respondents

N/A

14. Costs to Federal Government

$296,000.00

15. Reason for Change

N/A

16. Tabulation of Results, Schedule, and Analysis Plans

Feedback collected 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.

The sources of the sample are the database maintained by the contractor.

The contractor shall use a web panel for survey administration that will accurately represent the U.S. adult taxpayer population and also accommodate skip patterns that allow for drill down analysis based on taxpayers who have used different IRS services. Additionally the contractor shall develop a sample plan that is acceptable to the Government.

The contractor will prepare a report that provides national tabulations and response rates. The report will also include detailed findings, an executive summary, and content analysis of the open-ended comments and recommendations for improvement priorities. Data may be weighted to eliminate the effect of disproportionate responses among relevant customer groups.

The contractor will hold the identities of respondents private to the extent permitted by law. The contractor will not provide the IRS with data or status updates that are linked to individual respondents. Upon completion of data collection and cleaning, the contractor will provide de-identified survey data to the IRS. This data will not include any individually identifying information such as name, address, or taxpayer identification number.

17. Display of OMB Approval Date

N/A

18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

N/A

19. Dates collection will begin and end

Collection will begin May 1, 2013 and end March 31, 2014.

B. STATISTICAL METHODS

Data collection methods and procedures may vary; however, the primary purpose of these collections will be for internal management purposes; there are no plans to publish or otherwise release this information.

1. Universe and Respondent Selection

The sampling frame consists of W&I taxpayers.

2. Procedures for Collecting Information

The contractor will be responsible for establishing procedures for data collection. The contractor will prepare the data and conduct data analysis in accordance with accepted industry standard procedures. The contractor will be responsible for hosting and administering the web survey.

3. Methods to Maximize Response

Standard procedures will be used in order to obtain the highest response rate possible for the TES. The contractor will send a pre-notification e-mail to all web-panel members. This study will be multi-wave to increase response rate.

4. Testing of Procedures

Prior to survey launch, the contractor will test the survey on 20 participants. A separate OMB package was submitted for this pretest. The contractor will also test that the web survey program functions as intended. The contractor and W&I staff will jointly test the survey exactly as it will be viewed by the respondents—on multiple browsers, etc. Upon launch, the contractor will monitor the number of completed surveys and the dispositions on a daily (and, at the beginning, hourly) basis.

5. Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection

For questions regarding the study or questionnaire design or statistical methodology, contact:

Jeffery McConnell

Program Analyst

401 West Peachtree St, Suite 2030

Atlanta, GA 30308

Telephone: 404-338-9056

E-Mail: [email protected]

The Paperwork Reduction Act requires that the IRS display an OMB control number on all public information requests. The OMB Control Number for this study is 1545-1432. Also, if you have any comments regarding the time estimates associated with this study or suggestions on making this process simpler, please write to the, Internal Revenue Service, Tax Products Coordinating Committee, SE:W:CAR:MP:T:T:SP, 1111 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC  20224.

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