Tax Time Savings Initiative, Collection of Post-Tax Season Data

Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Tax-Time Saving Initiative:
End of 2019 Tax Season Online Survey for Site Leads
Thank you for participating in the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Tax Time Saving Initiative
this year. The Tax Time Saving project furthers our mandate to provide opportunities for consumers to
access financial services during the preparation process to claim earned income tax credits and other
benefits. We also recognize that your organization is committed to maximizing the benefit of the tax
refund as part of your efforts to improve the financial literacy and capability of consumers, so we greatly
appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with you on this effort.
As we described before the start of the tax season, we are seeking some information about the results
you achieved during the recently ended tax season, and your feedback on some of the training and
other support provided by the Bureau. Your response is strictly voluntary, but the information you
provide would be extremely helpful to the Bureau in getting a better understanding about how
organizations such as yours integrate saving promotion strategies in their Volunteer Income Tax
Assistance (VITA) programs, and the value that the Bureau can provide in support of those efforts.
The information we receive from you will be analyzed along with survey responses from other Tax Time
Savings Initiative participants to assess whether the training, tools and materials provided to you were
beneficial, and to help us plan for future efforts in the tax time saving space. The Bureau plans to publish
a report of the findings from this year’s tax season, but will only use your information along with other
pilot sites in an aggregated form and will not report on individual results or feedback from each
organization.
The information we are seeking includes numerical outputs about tax time saving at your program, and
answers to several narrative questions regarding your experience in partnering with the Bureau on this
pilot. We estimate that your response will take no more than 60 minutes to complete, including the
time it takes to download the necessary information from your system. We would appreciate your reply
by [deadline].
If you have any questions, please contact Katelyn Sedelmyer at [email protected] or 301-5720595.

Privacy Act Statement
5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(3)
The information you provide through your responses to ICF will assist the study sponsor, the Bureau of
Consumer Financial Protection (“Bureau”), in getting a better understanding about how your
organization integrates savings promotion strategies.
ICF will access personally identifiable information (PII) such as your name, email address, number, and
mailing address. The Bureau will only receive de-identified and aggregated data.
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Information collected on behalf of the Bureau by ICF will be treated in accordance with the System of
Records Notice (“SORN”), CFPB.021 Consumer Education and Engagement Records, 79 FR 78839.
Although the Bureau does not anticipate further disclosing the information provided, it may be disclosed
as indicated in the Routine Uses described in the SORN. Direct identifying information will only be used
by ICF to facilitate the study and will be kept private except as required by law.
This collection of information is authorized by Pub. L. No. 111-203, Title X, Sections 1013 and 1022,
codified at 12 U.S.C. §§ 5493 and 5512.
Participation in this study is voluntary, you are not required to participate or share any identifying
information with ICF and you may withdraw participation at any time.
Paperwork Reduction Act Statement
According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person
is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) control number. The OMB control number for this collection is 3170-0036. It expires
on 8/31/2019. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average
approximately 60 minutes per response. . Comments regarding this collection of information, including
the estimated response time, suggestions for improving the usefulness of the information, or
suggestions for reducing the burden to respond to this collections should be submitted to the Bureau of
Consumer Financial Protection (Attention: PRA Office), 1700 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20552, or by
email to [email protected].

End of Tax Season Numerical Results
Q1: How many Federal tax returns were prepared by your whole VITA program (including all sites,
regardless of whether or not they participated in the Tax Time Saving Initiative)? ________
Q2: Did all of your tax preparation sites use Tax Time Saving Initiative strategies, or only a subset of
sites?
a) All of our sites used Tax Time Saving Initiative strategies
b) A subset of our sites used Tax Time Saving Initiative strategies
[If Q2 = a] Q3: Please provide the following information about 2018 tax returns prepared through your
program. Please consider only Federal tax returns.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

Number of returns claiming the earned income tax credit (EITC) _________
Number of returns receiving a refund _________
Number of returns using direct deposit to receive their refund _________
Number of returns splitting their refund using IRS Form 8888 _________
Number of returns purchasing a U.S. Series I savings bond _________

[If Q2 = b] Q3: Please provide the following information about 2018 tax returns, considering only
Federal tax returns. Please only include data from sites that used Tax Time Saving Initiative strategies
(i.e., “participating sites”).

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a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)

Total number of tax returns prepared at participating sites____________
Number of returns at participating sites claiming the earned income tax credit (EITC) _________
Number of returns at participating sites receiving a refund _________
Number of returns at participating sites using direct deposit to receive their refund _________
Number of returns at participating sites splitting their refund using IRS Form 8888 _________
Number of returns at participating sites purchasing a U.S. Series I savings bond _________

Q4: Did your site record the additional information that the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
recommended about whether taxpayers deposited in different types of accounts? [Yes/No]
Q5: [If Q4 = Yes] Please provide the following information about 2018 federal tax returns prepared
through your program. If you did not collect a specific piece of information, please respond “N/A”.
a) Number of taxpayers who directly deposited at least a portion of their Federal refund into a
savings account in a bank or credit union, a 529 plan, or a retirement account _________
b) Total amount of Federal refund proceeds that taxpayers directly deposited into a savings
account in a bank or credit union, a 529 plan, or a retirement account _________
c) Number of taxpayers who directly deposited at least a portion of their Federal refund into a
prepaid card account _________
d) Total amount of Federal refund proceeds that taxpayers directly deposited into a prepaid card
account _________
Q6: Did your program ask any taxpayers the Bureau’s suggested question about whether they plan to
save any of their refund? [Yes/No]
Q7: [If Q6 = Yes] How many taxpayers answered in each of the following ways?
a) Yes, for 6 months or longer ___________
b) Yes, but spend it all before 6 months __________
c) No __________
d) I don’t expect a refund ___________
Q8: [If Q7 = Yes] Did you ask taxpayers who answered “Yes” to the previous question how much of their
refund they were planning on saving? [Yes/No]
Q9: [If Q8 = Yes] What was the total dollar amount of all responses to this question combined?
_________

End of Tax Season Narrative Report
Please respond to the following questions about your experience participating with the Bureau in its Tax
Time Saving Initiative. If you have participated in this initiative for multiple years, please note that the
questions below are about your participation during this year only. Do not include personal information
in your responses.
Q10: Did you participate in any Bureau-sponsored trainings or webinars about tax time saving before or
during the 2018-19 tax season? [Yes/No]
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Q11: How useful were the trainings or webinars in which you participated? [Very useful/somewhat
useful/Not at all useful]
Q12: In what ways were the trainings or webinars most useful? Open-ended responses
Q13: How could the trainings or webinars be improved? Open-ended responses
Q14: Did you receive Bureau trainings and materials early enough for them to be useful in this year’s
campaign?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Not sure
Q15: [If Q14 = No or Not Sure] Please explain your answer to the previous question.
Q16: Did you provide training about tax time saving strategies to volunteers and staff at your
organization? [Yes/No]
Q17: [If Q16 = Yes] How did you provide this training to volunteers and staff? Please check all that apply.
a) Live webinars provided by the Bureau
b) Recorded webinars provided by the Bureau
c) Written materials provided by the Bureau
d) Face-to-face presentations or trainings
e) Other (specify)
Q18: [If Q16 = Yes] Was the training that you provided to volunteers and staff connected to your regular
tax prep training, or was it delivered separately?
a) Connected to regular tax prep training
b) Delivered separately
Q19: Has your program participated in the Bureau’s Tax Time Saving Initiative in previous years?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Not sure
Q20: [If Q19 = Yes] Did you change the training about tax time saving strategies that you provided to
volunteers and staff this year in any way? If so, how did you change the training and why? Open-ended
responses
Q21: How did your tax customers respond to your efforts to inform them about opportunities to save a
portion of their refund? Please provide your general impressions, rather than anecdotal evidence
containing personal information, about the level of customer receptiveness and/or acceptance. Openended responses
Q22: Please provide any guidance you may have on how the Bureau could better support your
program’s efforts to promote saving at tax time in future years. Open-ended responses
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THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR PARTICIPATING IN THIS SURVEY!

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