Pia Pclia #4218

Survey PCLIA ID Number: 3899
Date of Approval: June 07, 2019

SURVEY DESCRIPTION
Full name and acronym of the Survey.
Comprehensive Taxpayer Attitude Survey, CTAS
Type of Survey:
Survey
Note: the remaining questions will be simplified to refer to the Survey but still apply to
Telephone Interview or Focus Group. If Telephone Interview or Focus Group, a copy of
Interview Questions or the Moderator's Guide will be requested by the Privacy Analyst.
Is this a new Survey?
No
Is there a PCLIA for this Survey?
Yes
Enter the full name, PCLIA ID and acronym of the most recent Survey PCLIA:
IRS Oversight Board Comprehensive Taxpayer Attitude Survey (CTAS) SU-2899 - Now
conducted by IRS as CTAS
Enter the reference number (include SOI, OPC, TCBC or Other
SOI, CS-18-492 (for last year's survey) [SOI, CS-16-470 was the control number at the time
the PCLIA was approved.]
What is the approval date of the most recent Survey PCLIA?
5/20/2016
Indicate the changes that require this update:
PCLIA Expired

Were there other changes not listed above?
No
Is this a reoccurring Survey?
Yes
List the schedule or requested operational date(s) of when the Survey will be administered.
The 2019 annual CTAS will be fielded in late July through September 2019.
Does this survey have an SOI (Statistics of Income) control number?
No
Does the Information Collection Request require OMB clearance?
Yes
What is the OMB Clearance number?
1545-1432 (attached)

GENERAL BUSINESS PURPOSE
What is the general business purpose of this Survey? Provide a clear, concise description of the
Survey, the reason for the Survey, and the benefits to the IRS mission.
The Comprehensive Taxpayer Attitude Survey (CTAS) is an annual survey of U.S. adults
about their tax compliance attitudes and service preferences, and it informs IRS' tax
administration responsibilities. The survey is administered by a contractor (Pacific
Consulting Group or PCG) under an IRS contract. This survey was formerly conducted by
the IRS Oversight Board, but due to the Board's lack of quorum, the IRS now sponsors this
research.

PII Details
Is Personally Identifiable Information (PII) used, collected, received, displayed, stored,
maintained, or disseminated in the Survey; or is PII used to select participants? (i.e. names,
addresses, email addresses, etc.)?
Yes

Please specify the types of PII:
Name
Mailing address
Phone Numbers
E-mail Address
Are there other types of PII collected in the Survey?
No
Is any PII data collected, disclosed, or studied on employees, taxpayers, stakeholders or other
individuals who choose not to participate?
No

PRIVACY ACT & SYSTEM OF RECORDS
Is there a System of Records Notice(s) or SORN(s) that addresses the PII records in this Survey?
Yes
Enter the SORN number(s) and the complete name of the SORN(s):
IRS 00.001

Correspondence Files and Correspondence Control Files

PRIVACY ACT NOTICE
Based on the information you have provided, does the Survey require a Privacy Act Notice to be
provided to the participants?
No
Please add the Disclosure office agreement date:
5/20/2016

RESPONSIBLE PARTIES
## OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Incoming PII Interfaces
Does the employee/taxpayer PII come from the IRS, Treasury, or other Government system(s),
application(s) or data base(s)?
No
Does the data come from other sources?
Yes
Describe the source of the information:
No IRS, Treasury, or other government systems, applications, or data are used to conduct the
survey or to select CTAS survey participants. In addition, no sensitive PII (i.e., information
that can be tied back to a specific individual) is provided to IRS as part of the results of this
survey. The data source for selecting survey participants for the phone survey is Random
Digit Dialing (RDD) of household telephone numbers. The data source for selecting survey
participants for the online survey is a recruitment panel belonging to survey contractor PCG's
contact list sub-contractor Ipsos, for which participants, independent of the IRS survey, have
previously voluntarily completed Ipsos' online panel registration surveys and provided their
e-mail addresses, names, and addresses to the sub-contractor to participate in various surveys
conducted by its customers.

PII SENT TO EXTERNAL ORGANIZATIONS
Are the Survey results disclosed to any other Federal or State Government? (For example, the
Federal Viewpoint Survey/Questionnaire - OPM gets the results.)
Yes
Identify who the information is disclosed to how the data is transmitted and if there is an InterAgency Agreement (ISA) /Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Organization Name: Treasury
Transmission Method: Email of survey results or other non-PII information as part of the
IRS/Treasury/OMB CX Experience Team's deliberations or for other purposes as deemed
appropriate by IRS Executives. Highlights of results are also published as part of the IRS
Data Book, with a link provided to the CTAS Executive Report.
ISA/MOU No

Organization Name: OMB
Transmission Method: Email of survey results or other non-PII information as part of the
IRS/Treasury/OMB CX Experience Team's deliberations or for other purposes as deemed
appropriate by IRS Executives. Highlights of results are also published as part of the IRS
Data Book, with a link provided to the CTAS Executive Report.
ISA/MOU No
Are any external resources used to create the database of the participants?
Yes
Identify the external resources used to create the database, how the data is transmitted and if
there is an Inter-Agency Agreement (ISA) /Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Organization Name: PCG/Maximum Research/Ipsos
Transmission Method: Random Digit Dialing by PCG's CATI sub-contractor (phone
numbers - not provided to IRS) and PCG's online panel subcontractor via mail (names,
addresses, & email addresses - not provided to IRS)
ISA/MOU No

SURVEY PARTICIPATION
Who will the Survey be administered to?
Others
Please explain:
CTAS survey targets the general public over the age of 18. We assume they are likely to be
taxpayers, but there is no screening to distinguish between taxpayers and non-taxpayers.
Explain how participants are selected. Include a detailed description of the method and reason
of selection. If selection is random, please explain.
Phone Survey: Members of the general public over the age of 18 are selected using Random
Digit Dialing (RDD) of home telephone numbers. The sub-contractor uses working area
codes and exchanges and computer generates the last 4 digits of the telephone numbers.
Online Survey: In advance, and totally independent of this IRS survey, participants have
been recruited by PCG's contact list sub-contractor (Ipsos) and have voluntarily completed
Ipsos' online panel registration surveys and provided their e-mail addresses, names, and
addresses to the subcontractor to be able to participate in its customers' future surveys. A
subset of these registrants is later asked by the sub-contractor to participate in the IRS
survey.

That subset of potential online survey participants is selected via the sub-contractor's
proprietary sampling methodology to get a statistically representative random sample of U.S.
adults.
How are participants notified of the Survey?
Phone respondents are notified via phone calls. Online respondents who have previously
registered with the contact list sub-contractor Ipsos are sent an email link by the subcontractor to participate in the IRS survey. The sub-contractor does not mention IRS as the
sponsor of the survey and does not use any IRS branding or language that would imply that
IRS emailed the survey link. The sub-contractor notifies recipients that a web link to the
survey will be sent by email ahead of time. Recipients are informed that their email
information will be used for surveys when they sign up for the panel, and they receive a
Privacy Notice. CTAS only sends a link to participants, so it doesn't need to be encrypted.
The emails contain no references to IRS and do not use IRS branding. The emails do not
disclose the existence of a return or return information. The survey is listed on IRS.gov, so
participants can verify that it is a legitimate survey.
Is the Survey voluntary?
Yes
How is notice given that the Survey is optional?
The introduction to the surveys includes the following language: Phone Surveys: This
voluntary survey should take about 20 minutes to complete. Online Surveys: This voluntary
survey should take about 10 minutes to complete.
How will the Survey be conducted?
Web Based
Explain the procedure:
The contact list sub-contractor sends previously recruited online participants the survey
contractor's online survey link via email. The sub-contractor uses cookies to help recognize
panelists as prior users. No personal Information is stored on any cookie used. Cookies allow
users to resume their survey sessions should they drop off or get disconnected as well as to
identify unique survey responses. Users can change the settings on their browsers to prevent
new cookies from being set, or to notify them when a new cookie is set.
Phone

Explain the procedure:
Individual participants are selected via Random Digit Dialing (RDD) of home telephone
numbers using working phone area codes and exchanges and by computer generating the last
4 digits of the telephone number. A screening question ensures that respondents are at least
18 years old. When call backs are required, the computer-assisted telephone interviewing
(CATI) process used by the survey contractor's CATI sub-contractor Maximum Research,
asks for first names only.

SURVEY PROCESS
Does the IRS administer or perform analysis of the survey?
Analysis
Provide the name of the IRS office:
PCG conducts and analyses CTAS; however, SOI's Statistical Services Branch, Statistical
Support Section staff provides additional analyses to executives and other stakeholders.
Does a contractor/vendor administer or perform analysis of the survey?
Both
Provide the name of the contractor/vendor:
Pacific Consulting Group (PCG)
Has a Contracting Officer or Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) verified that:
All applicable FAR requirements are met to engage a contractor to perform the survey.
Yes
That all required "non-disclosure" clauses are contained in the contract.
Yes
That all contractor employees who will have access to the data have signed non-disclosure
agreements and the non-disclosure forms are on file with the COR.
No

Please explain:
What is the level of access and background investigation completed on contractor employees
prior to access to PII about employees or taxpayers? Any contractor or subcontractor who will
have access to the PII should have at least a "Moderate Risk" (NACIC) investigation. See
Publication 4812 - Contractor Security Controls.

INFORMATION PROTECTION
What information/results will be provided to the business owners (IRS Requestors) of the
Survey?
IRS receives anonymized survey responses about participants’ tax administration-related
attitudes and service preferences. Participants also provide PII demographic information,
such as gender, age, marital status, household income, employment status, Hispanic origin,
race, etc. The demographic information allows responses to be categorized and compared.
However, no personally-identifiable information that would allow the demographic data to
be tied back to specific individuals is provided to IRS, so IRS has no ability to take adverse
actions against participants based on their answers.
Can you confirm that employees or taxpayers who participate in the survey cannot be identified
under any circumstances?
Yes
Can you confirm that no adverse actions can be taken against participants regarding the
participant's answer?
Yes
For employee or taxpayer Satisfaction Surveys, can you verify that no "raw" or un-aggregated
employee or taxpayer data will be provided to any IRS office?
No
Please explain:
Are there any employee or taxpayer identifiers that are obtained as a result of responding to the
survey?
No

RECORDS SCHEDULE
Are the Survey records covered under the General Records Schedule (GRS), or have a National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA) archivist approved a Record Control Schedule for
the retention and destruction of official agency records stored in this Survey?
Yes
How long are the records required to be held under the corresponding RCS and how are they
disposed of? Explain how long any PII data will be retained by the contractor if they are
conducting the Survey on behalf of the IRS. In your response, please include the complete IRM
number and specific item number and title.
All records for the survey will be managed according to requirements under IRM 1.15.1 and
1.15.6 and will be destroyed according to approved retention periods using IRS General
Records Schedule (GRS) 6.5, Item 010, in coordination with the IRS Records and
Information Management (RIM) Program and IRS Records Officer. GRS may be superseded
by IRS-specific RCS in the future. As public customer service operations records, we will
destroy these records 1 year after resolved or when no longer needed for business use,
whichever is appropriate. The business need for SOI or RAAS surveys is 40 years. Because
we need to retain the baseline data for comparison to subsequent surveys, we currently have
an ongoing need to retain the data for business use.

DATA SECURITY
How does the administrator of the survey guarantee that the PII regarding employees or
taxpayers will not be compromised, lost or stolen when housed on IRS computers? Where and
how is it stored and protected?
As noted above, this survey is not subject to Section 6103 requirements, because no
information of any type is being provided to the contractor by IRS, and the contractor doesn't
provide sensitive PII of any kind to IRS.
Does a contractor/vendor administer or perform analysis of the survey?
Yes
Please provide the Cyber security approved security and encryption used when data is
transferred electronically from IRS to Contractors and back to the IRS.
IRS does not provide any data of any kind to the contractors and the contractors do not
provide any personally identifiable data to IRS, which is why this survey is not subject to
Section 6103 requirements. Furthermore, all data are anonymized before IRS receives
results.

When data is not sent electronically, provide in detail the information regarding the transfer
back and forth from the IRS to contractors?
IRS does not provide any data of any kind to the contractors and all communications are
electronic via email or by phone. We do not receive hard copies of survey results. We only
receive electronic copies, and none of it contains sensitive PII.
How is the survey PII protected and stored when it is housed at a contractor's site, on
contractor's computers? Please provide detailed information that the contractor uses regarding
the physical and electronic security and protection of the data before, during, and after the
survey.
Only a limited set of PII is captured by the sub-contractor employees during the survey. PII
is stored in separate data files that prevent it from being readily associated with a telephone
number or name that would enable it to be linked to a specific individual. The associated
name and telephone number are deleted from the contractor's systems once data processing
steps are fully completed. The contractor provides a letter noting actions they take to ensure
privacy protection procedures on this survey. In addition, our contractor and its subcontractor
follow common industry guidelines, standards, and regulations for privacy protection. CATI
system data are only accessible to those who are authorized to work on the survey. The
server is not accessible from public networks/internet. A daily tape backup is performed
overnight, the data are encrypted before being written to tape; the tapes are removed and
secured in a locked cabinet in a locked office. The data are archived on a secure media for
the set period allowed by the vendor's archive policy unless the client sends a written request
to destroy the data.

CIVIL LIBERTIES
Does the Survey maintain records describing how an individual exercises rights guaranteed by
the First Amendment (including, but not limited to information regarding religious and political
beliefs, freedom of speech and of the press, and freedom of assembly and petition)?
No
Will this Survey have the capability to identify, locate, and monitor individuals or groups of
people?
No