supporting_statement

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

Revenue Procedures 2016-4, 2011-5, 2016-6, and 2016-8

OMB# 1545-1520

50592. CIRCUMSTANCES NECESSITATING COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

Section 601.201(a)(1) of the Statement of Procedural Rules (26 C.F.R. § 601.201(a)(1)) provides that it is the practice of the Internal Revenue Service to answer inquiries of individuals and organizations, whenever appropriate in the interest of sound tax administration, as to their status for tax purposes and as to the tax effects of their acts or transactions. Under these revenue procedures, taxpayers can request letter rulings, determination letters and technical advice from the Service on how the tax laws apply to them. The Service requires information from taxpayers in order to process these requests and to determine the amount of any user fees.

50593. USE OF DATA

The data will be used by the Service to evaluate a taxpayer's request for a private letter ruling, or a determination letter (including the requested deletions and retroactive effect, if any). In addition, the data collected under the user fee revenue procedure will be used to determine the correct amount of a particular user fee.

3. USE OF IMPROVED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE BURDEN

IRS Publications, Regulations, Notices and Letters are to be electronically enabled on an as practicable basis in accordance with the IRS Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998.

3. EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY DUPLICATION

We have attempted to eliminate duplication within the agency wherever possible.

3. METHODS TO MINIMIZE BURDEN ON SMALL BUSINESSES OR OTHER SMALL ENTITIES

In the employee plans area, administrative programs have been established whereby certain businesses can initially obtain the approval as to the form of a plan, e.g., a master or prototype plan. Those businesses will then market the form plan to other businesses. If utilized, these programs tend to lessen the administrative costs associated with such plans to small businesses. With respect to user fees imposed where a private letter ruling is requested, if the assets of a plan are below a certain dollar amount, there is a reduced user fee.

With respect to exempt organization matters, there are reduced user fees when the combined gross income of the applicant and the applicant's spouse in an exempt organizations ruling request is below a certain dollar amount.

3. CONSEQUENCES OF LESS FREQUENT COLLECTION ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS OR POLICY ACTIVITIES

Consequences of less frequent collection on federal programs or policy activities could consist of a decrease in the amount of taxes collected by the Service, inaccurate and untimely filing of tax returns, and an increase in tax violations.

3. SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES REQUIRING DATA COLLECTION TO BE INCONSISTENT WITH GUIDELINES IN 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2)

Various sections of the revenue procedures for private letter rulings, technical advice, and determination letters require information to be submitted before 30 days. These provisions are located throughout portions of 26 C.F.R. 601.201.

8. CONSULTATION WITH INDIVIDUALS OUTSIDE OF THE AGENCY ON AVAILABILITY OF DATA, FREQUENCY OF COLLECTION, CLARITY OF INSTRUCTIONS AND FORMS, AND DATA ELEMENTS

We received no comments during the comment period in response to the Federal Register notice dated October 23, 2015 (80 FR 64505).

8. EXPLANATION OF DECISION TO PROVIDE ANY PAYMENT OR GIFT TO RESPONDENTS

No payment or gift has been provided to any respondents.

10 ASSURANCE OF CONFIDENTIALITY OF RESPONSES

Submissions under these revenue procedures are considered tax returns and tax return information, which are confidential as required by 26 U.S.C. § 6103. In general, certain matters relating to taxability and deductibility are disclosable under 26 U.S.C. 6110.

11. JUSTIFICATION OF SENSITIVE QUESTIONS

A privacy impact assessment (PIA) has been conducted for information collected under this request as part of the “ Business Master File  (BMF) ” , “Corporate Data Initiative (CDI)” system and Privacy Act System of Records notices (SORN) has been issued for these systems under Treasury/IRS 24.030–Customer Account Data Engine Individual Master File; Treasury/IRS 24.046-Business Master File and IRS 34.037–IRS Audit Trail and Security Records System, Treasury/IRS 42.001-Examination Administrative File; Treasury/IRS 42.021-Compliance Programs and Project Files.  The Internal Revenue Service PIAs can be found at http://www.irs.gov/uac/Privacy-Impact-Assessments-PIAs.

Title 26 USC 6109 requires inclusion of identifying numbers in returns, statements, or other documents for securing proper identification of persons required to make such returns, statements, or documents and is the authority for social security numbers (SSNs) in IRS systems. 

Not applicable.

11. ESTIMATED BURDEN OF INFORMATION COLLECTION

The total burden for this submission is 45,787 hours with 17,572 responses.

Estimates of the annualized cost to respondents for the hour burdens shown are not available at this time.

11. ESTIMATED TOTAL ANNUAL COST BURDEN TO RESPONDENTS

There is no estimated cost burden to respondents

11. ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

There is no estimated annualized cost to the federal government.

11. REASONS FOR CHANGE IN BURDEN

The number of respondents for Revenue Procedure 2016-6 has decreased by 65,502 from the collection previously approved by OMB. This results in a net decrese of 132,359 burden hours.

11. PLANS FOR TABULATION, STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND PUBLICATION

There are no plans for tabulation, statistical analysis and publication.

17. REASONS WHY DISPLAYING THE OMB EXPIRATION DATE IS INAPPROPRIATE

We believe that displaying the OMB expiration date is inappropriate because it could cause confusion by leading taxpayers to believe that the revenue procedures sunset as of the expiration date. Taxpayers are not likely to be aware that the Service intends to request renewal of the OMB approval and obtain a new expiration date before the old one expires.

18. EXCEPTIONS TO THE CERTIFICATION STATEMENT ON OMB FORM 83-I

There are no exceptions to the certification statement..

Note: The following paragraph applies to all of the collections of information in this submission:

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless the collection of information displays a valid OMB control number. Books or records relating to a collection of information must be retained as long as their contents may become material in the administration of any internal revenue law. Generally, tax returns and tax return information are confidential, as required by 26 U.S.C. 6103.

OMB EXPIRATION DATE

We believe the public interest will be better served by not printing an expiration date on the form(s) in this package.

Printing the expiration date on the form will result in increased costs because of the need to replace inventories that become obsolete by passage of the expiration date each time OMB approval is renewed. Without printing the expiration date, supplies of the form could continue to be used.

The time period during which the current edition of the form(s) in this package will continue to be usable cannot be predicted. It could easily span several cycles of review and OMB clearance renewal. In addition, usage fluctuates unpredictably. This makes it necessary to maintain a substantial inventory of forms in the supply line at all times. This includes supplied owned by both the Government and the public. Reprinting of the form cannot be reliably scheduled to coincide with an OMB approval expiration date. This form may be privately printed by users at their own expense. Some businesses print complex and expensive marginally punched continuous versions, their expense, for use in their computers. The form may be printed by commercial printers and stocked for sale. In such cases, printing the expiration date on the form could result in extra costs to the users.

Not printing the expiration date on the form(s) will also avoid confusion among taxpayers who may have identical forms with different expiration dates in their possession.

For the above reasons we request authorization to omit printing the expiration date on the form(s) in this package.

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