Justification for Generic IC

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 1505-0231)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

Information Collections to Develop Educational- and Outreach-Related Messaging for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Tax Preparation Staff, Volunteers, and Clients

PURPOSE:

The Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, as part of an ongoing research effort with The Department of the Treasury, Office of Consumer Policy, will use interviews at VITA sites paired with on-site observations to inform the development of educational materials, messaging, and strategies to promote the Department of the Treasury’s myRA program at VITA sites. The data collected will inform the generation of messaging for educational materials (e.g., pamphlets, informational presentations) to describe the consumer benefits and operation of the myRA program in the context of filing income taxes at VITA sites, and the identification of effective touchpoints in the tax preparation and filing process for promoting myRA. The information collection is planned for 2017. The Office of Consumer Policy is administering the information collections and the underlying research in close collaboration with the U.S. Treasury Department Fiscal Service, which manages the myRA program.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Respondents are the following categories of individuals involved at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites: clients, volunteers, staff, and executive directors of organizations that manage the site.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [X] Other: __Interviews__________

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The 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 future.

Name: James Gatz, Office of Consumer Policy, U.S. Treasury Department

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No

2. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [X] No

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published?

[ ] Yes [ ] No [X] N/A

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [X] Yes [ ] No

To compensate respondents participating in interviews for their time, we will provide gift cards for each respondent. The compensation structure is as follows:

• VITA clients will receive a $25 gift card for participating in a 15 minute interview.

• VITA site volunteers will receive a $50 gift card for participating in a 30 minute interview.

• VITA staff will receive a $50 gift card for participating in a 30 minute interview.

• The Executive Director of the organization that manages the VITA site will receive a $50 gift card for participating in a 60 minute interview.

The compensation is necessary because we will be visiting the sites at a very busy period (during tax season).

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Household: VITA tax prep clients	20	15 minutes	5 hours
Private Sector: VITA site volunteers	20	30 minutes	10 hours
Private Sector: VITA site leaders (staff)	20	30 minutes	10 hours
Private Sector: VITA site leaders (Executive Directors)	8	60 minutes	8 hours
Totals	68		33 hours

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $_2,900___

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents.

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe?

[X] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan). If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them.

The universe of potential respondents is any tax preparation client receiving free services at a VITA site; any person volunteering to assist tax filers at a VITA site; any staff member, specifically site managers and trainers, employed at a VITA site; and any executive director of an organization that is managing a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance site in the United States. To recruit these sites, we sent out a Request for Proposal to VITA sites requesting their participation in the Treasury-funded study and to allow us to visit and conduct interviews. After identifying the sites that were open to us conducting interviews, the final list of sites was selected based on the size, location, and urbanicity of the site, as well as their experience with the myRA program. The recruited sites also committed to making some of their clients, volunteers, staff, and their executive directors available to us for interviews.

Administration of the Instrument.

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[X] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain: _______________________________________________________.

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ X] Yes [ ] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

We are submitting three separate instruments with this request. These include instruments for use in interviewing the VITA site clients; volunteers; staff; and executive directors of organizations that manage the site. In cases where the executive director is personally responsible for training volunteers, no staff interviews will be conducted. When staff members other than the executive director are responsible for training volunteers, the instrument used for interviewing the executive director will be used for interviewing staff as well. Sections pertaining to training of volunteers will be addressed to staff while other questions will be addressed to the executive director.

Instructions for completing Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Provide the name of the collection that is the subject of the request. (e.g. Comment card for soliciting feedback on xxxx)

PURPOSE: Provide a brief description of the purpose of this collection and how it will be used. If this is part of a larger study or effort, please include this in your explanation.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: Provide a brief description of the targeted group or groups for this collection of information. These groups must have experience with the program.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: Check one box. If you are requesting approval of other instruments under the generic, you must complete a form for each instrument.

CERTIFICATION: Please read the certification carefully. If you incorrectly certify, the collection will be returned as improperly submitted or it will be disapproved.

Personally Identifiable Information: Provide answers to the questions. Note: Agencies should only collect PII to the extent necessary, and they should only retain PII for the period of time that is necessary to achieve a specific objective.

Gifts or Payments: If you answer yes to the question, please describe the incentive and provide a justification for the amount.

BURDEN HOURS:

Category of Respondents: Identify who you expect the respondents to be in terms of the following categories: (1) Individuals or Households;(2) Private Sector; (3) State, local, or tribal governments; or (4) Federal Government. Only one type of respondent can be selected per row.

No. of Respondents: Provide an estimate of the Number of respondents.

Participation Time: Provide an estimate of the amount of time required for a respondent to participate (e.g. fill out a survey or participate in a focus group)

Burden: Provide the Annual burden hours: Multiply the Number of responses and the participation time and divide by 60.

FEDERAL COST: Provide an estimate of the annual cost to the Federal government.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents. Please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them. If the answer is yes, to the first question, you may provide the sampling plan in an attachment.

Administration of the Instrument: Identify how the information will be collected. More than one box may be checked. Indicate whether there will be interviewers (e.g. for surveys) or facilitators (e.g., for focus groups) used.

Submit all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

Attachments:

Three interview protocols:

1. myRA interview protocol – VITA site leaders (staff and Executive Directors) FINAL

2. myRA interview protocol – VITA site volunteers FINAL

3. myRA interview protocol – VITA tax prep clients FINAL

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