Short Form

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

OMB Control Number: 1545-2274

T ITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

IRS W&I Independent Review of IRS Free File Program

PURPOSE:

This research is part of a larger independent assessment of the Free File Program’s current state and recommendations for the program. The assessment includes assessment of the IRS Memoradum of Understanding (MOU), site visits with Free File Alliance Members covered under the current Free File Program MOU, and usability with Free File taxpayers to assess usability and the taxpayer experience with Free File.

This OMB approval request is for the taxpayer interviews. The purpose of the interviews is to assess usability of the Free File program using scenarios and the taxpayer experience with the program.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Taxpayers who used Free File in Tax Year (TY) 2017 or TY2018.

TYPE OF COLLECTION:

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

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

[ ] 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 question:

PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [X ] Yes [ ] No - Personally identifiable information (PII) will only be collected to the extent necessary and will not retained.

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

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [X ] No

GIFTS OR PAYMENTS:

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

BURDEN HOURS:

This research will use an estimated 1,288 burden hours. Initially, the IRS will send 3,000 introductory letters to desired individuals. Then, MITRE will send invitation letters to the same 3,000 individuals. The initial contact will take an estimated 20 minutes. It is estimated that approximately 1/3 of the 3,000 individuals will contact MITRE to confirm eligibility or decline through email. It is estimated to take 10 minutes to respond. An estimated 50 percent of those who contact MITRE will decline participation. Of those that confirm, the project team will respond to the participant with a tentative date and time for the study. The participant will use an estimated 10 minutes to confirm or propose new time for interview. Due to the short timeframe and summer months, it is estimated that approximately 20% of participants who qualify will be available for participation during an available timeslot. Once confirmed and scheduled, the estimated time to conduct each interview will be 60-90 minutes. Any remaining confirmed participants will be used as alternates for the study.

Collection Activity	Minutes Per Person	Number of Participants	Total Hours
Contacting possible participants for studies	20	3,000	1,000
Participant confirmation and availability or decline through email	10	1,000	167
Participant interview scheduling	10	500	83
Conducting interviews	90	25	38
TOTAL HOURS			1,288

FEDERAL COST:

The total amount obligated for the Independent Free File Assessment effort is $1,589,069.00. This includes, but is not limited to, the taxpayer interviews.

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 Compliance Data Warehouse (CDW) will be used to develop a target study participant list of potential participants using the Free File indicator to identify those taxpayers who used Free File in TY2017 and TY2018 in the zip codes near where the in-person interviews will take place. This will reduce overall taxpayer burden as less taxpayers will need to be contacted to obtain the necessary sample population. CDW will be accessed using Structured Query Language (SQL) or SAS, a software program.

Using the list of potential participants, MITRE will mail invitation letters to potential participants. Participants can call MITRE to complete a verbal screener and schedule an interview. The interviews will occur in-person and use a computer for usability testing.

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.