Short Form

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 1545-2274)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: 2018 Life Events Alert Analysis

PURPOSE:

As outlined in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Strategic Plan, the agency is working towards allocating IRS resources strategically to address the evolving scope and increasing complexity of tax administration. To do this, IRS must realize their operational efficiencies and effectively manage costs by improving enterprise-wide resource allocation and streamlining processes using feedback from various behavioral research techniques.

This collection of information is necessary to enable the Agency to garner customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner, in accordance with our commitment to improving taxpayer service delivery. The information collected through various studies, conducted by Wage and Investment Strategies and Solutions (WISS), from our customers and partners will help ensure that users have an effective, efficient, and satisfying experience while engaging with the Agency’s programs. This feedback will provide insight into customer or partner perceptions, experiences and expectations, provide an early warning of issues with service, or focus attention on areas where communication, training or changes in operations might improve delivery of products or services. These collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative and actionable communications between the Agency and its customers and stakeholders. It will also allow feedback to contribute directly to the improvement of program management.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Taxpayers and employees of the Internal Revenue Service.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

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

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

[ ] Focus Group [ ] Other: _____________________

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: Courtney Rasey

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

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 [ ] No

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

No PII will be collected. Discussion participants will not be identified in any of the documents or files used for this project. Further, no questions will be asked that are of a personal or sensitive nature, or require details regarding participants’ tax return or account.

Gifts or Payments:

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

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden Hours
Online Survey – Potential participant reads email invitation	600	1	10
Online Survey – Potential participant takes screener survey	300	3	15
Call for a second screening for those that pass email screener	60	10	10
Confirmation reminders to participants	36	10	6
Conducting interviews	30	60	30
TOTAL			71

FEDERAL COST: The estimated cost to the Federal government is: $26,260.47

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 Contractor recruiting for the study will use an external panel, where panel respondents have pre-agreed to participate in interviews, focus groups and/or surveys and will know in advance of agreeing to participate in these interviews that the topic is related to life events and tax implications.

The IRS will provide the Contractor with a demographic profile (age, gender, preparer method, etc.) of the recruiting population. The Contractor will then use a screener guide to attempt to sample participants to get an adequate representation of the population being recruited for. This will reduce overall taxpayer burden as less taxpayers will need to be contacted in order to obtain the necessary sample population.

Administration of the Instrument

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

[ X ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ X ] Telephone

[ X ] In-person

[ X ] 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.

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