Supporting Statement
Information Collection (ICR) Approval Request
to Conduct Cognitive-Psychological Research (OMB# 1545-1349)
Title: Affordable Care Act (ACA) Employer Provisions
JUSTIFICATION
Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
The Internal Revenue Service has responsibility for implementing parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA contains health insurance reforms and tax provisions that affect individuals, families, businesses, insurers, tax-exempt organizations and government entities.
The mission of the ACA Program Office is to support the administration of the tax provisions of the Affordable Care Act through collaboration with government agencies and other stakeholders.
The ACA Program Office seeks to:
Ensure stakeholders are aware of and understand their ACA tax benefits and responsibilities;
Support new and existing partners to enable the operations of ACA;
Support high levels of voluntary compliance while protecting the tax system from fraud and other non-compliance; and
Ensure efficient incorporation of ACA into tax administration
The Nationwide Tax Forums sponsored each year by the IRS offer a unique opportunity to solicit the opinions, experiences, and ideas of tax practitioners about important issues for taxpayers and for the IRS.
Purpose and Use of the Information Collection
The market segment of interest for this research consists of tax practitioners. The objective for the Affordable Care Act Employer Provisions focus group is to solicit information concerning awareness of and experience with the employer provisions of the legislation cumulatively known as the “Affordable Care Act.”
We hope to impact our market segment by using the results of the focus groups to make recommendations to improve IRS implementation and administration of the employer-related ACA provisions.
Consideration Given to Information Technology
The focus groups will be conducted face-to-face during the IRS Nationwide Tax Forums. Conducting face-to-face focus groups allows group interaction which can help elicit in-depth thoughts and discussions. The opportunity to probe participant responses can yield richer data than surveys. Face-to-face focus groups also give the moderator more opportunity to read nonverbal cues and use nonverbal cues to control the flow of discussion.
Duplication of Information
The focus group will provide valuable information that is not available in any internal IRS data source.
Reducing the Burden on Small Entities
Small entities are not included in this study.
Consequences of Not Conducting Collection
Small Business/Self-Employed (SB/SE) initiatives fall under the IRS’ goal to “improve service to make voluntary compliance easier, and enforce the law to ensure everyone meets their obligation to pay taxes.” If the focus group is not approved, SB/SE will not have the necessary data to improve IRS implementation and administration of the employer related Affordable Care Act provisions.
Special Circumstances
There are no special circumstances. Participation in the focus group is voluntary.
Consultations with Persons Outside the Agency
No one outside of the IRS will be consulted.
Payment or Gift
No honorarium or non-monetary incentives will be given to the participants.
Confidentiality:
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 focus group questions do not request tax return or taxpayer information. Focus group 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 objectives. We will carefully safeguard the security of data utilized as well as the privacy of the focus group participants to the extent allowed by law.
Sensitive Nature
No questions will be asked that are of a personal or sensitive nature. The report will not contain any individually identifying information such as name, address, or taxpayer / practitioner identification number. The moderator ensures that tax practitioners participating in the focus group are guaranteed anonymity.
Burden of Information Collection
A total of 5 focus groups, one in each of five cities will be conducted, with no more than 10 participants in each focus group. The total burden hours estimated is 115 burden hours.
The estimated time to screen a person is 3 minutes. Based on past experience, we will assume that 60 people will be screened at each site (60 people x 5 focus groups = 300 people) before 20 invitations are issued. We will assume that 20 invitations will need to be issued to ensure that 10 people will be present for each focus group. The burden for screening potential participants is 15 hours (300 people x 3 min screening / 60 min). .
The estimated time for participating in the focus group is 2 hours. We will assume a maximum number of 10 participants in each focus group. The total participation burden is 100 hours (10 participants x 120 minutes / 60 min x 5 focus groups).
Screening for and participating in the Affordable Care Act focus group
Category of Respondent |
Number of Respondent/ Contacts |
Participation Time (minutes per person) |
Burden (Hours) |
Screening potential focus group participants |
300 |
3 minutes |
15 hrs. |
Focus group expected participants |
50 |
120 minutes |
100 hrs. |
Total Burden |
|
|
115 hrs. |
Costs to Respondents
There will be no cost to the respondents.
Costs to Federal Government
The total estimated cost of conducting the focus group in the five cities is $11,134.
Reason for Change
There is no change request. This is a new request.
Tabulation of Results, Schedule, Analysis Plans
At the completion of the five Tax Forums, the focus group responses will be released in a report as summary observations and categorized by the topic of discussion in the moderator’s guide. The report will not contain any individually identifying information such as name, address, or taxpayer / practitioner identification number. The moderator ensures that tax practitioners participating in the focus group are guaranteed anonymity. Upon completion of data collection and delivery of the report, the focus group data will remain on a secured IRS server for three years.
Display of OMB Approval Date
IRS is seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval, as this is a one-time, limited-duration collection
Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
These activities comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.
19. Dates Collection of Information will Begin and End
Data collection will begin during the week of July 11, 2016 and end during the week of September 12, 2016.
B. STATISTICAL METHODS
Universe and Respondent Selection
Focus group participants are screened and selected from the tax practitioners attending the 2016 IRS Nationwide Tax Forums.
Procedures for Collecting Information
Trained focus group moderators from SB/SE Finance, Research & Strategy will screen and invite tax practitioners using a screener’s guide approved by the SB/SE business unit. There will be two focus group moderators in each focus group. One moderator will conduct the focus group using a moderator’s guide - and the second moderator will be documenting the participants’ responses and possibly non-verbal expressions (excitement, head nods, doubt, etc.).
Methods to Maximize Response
The moderator’s guide contains open ended questions to obtain candid opinions and suggestions about the topic of discussion. Additionally, some of the questions contain probes to be used by the moderator if responses are minimal. The probes also serve as memory joggers for the focus group participants.
Testing of Procedures
The screener and moderator guides were developed with the assistance of the SB/SE business unit. If changes are made to the moderator guide, they will be minimal. Revising a question to make it understandable is one example of a potential change.
Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection
For questions regarding the study or moderator guide or methodology, contact:
Debbie A. Cortez
SB/SE, Lead Social Scientist
303-603-4732
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | DOCUMENTATION FOR THE GENERIC CLEARANCE |
| Author | 558022 |
| Last Modified By | Department of Treasury |
| File Modified | 2016-06-24 |
| File Created | 2016-05-19 |