CS-15-458 Compliance Assurance Survey

Supporting Statement

Request for Approval for the Customer Satisfaction Survey

(OMB Control Number: 1545-1432)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: 2015 LB&I CAP Customer Satisfaction Survey

1. JUSTIFICATION

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

As mandated by RRA 98, the LB&I implemented a Service-wide effort to establish a system of balanced organizational performance measures. The LB&I Balanced Measurement System rates the LB&I, its managers and employees, on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and business results. This balanced measurement system draws on direct customer feedback, including independent surveys of customers and an annual census survey of employees. The customer satisfaction portion of these performance standards necessitates the identification of LB&I’s customers and mechanism(s) gauging the level of satisfaction with interactions and services of the Internal Revenue Service. Further, Executive Order 12862 requires all government agencies to survey their customers and incorporate customer preferences in their process improvement efforts.

Under the Compliance Assurance Process (CAP) program for large corporate taxpayers, participating taxpayers work collaboratively with an IRS team to identify and resolve potential tax issues before the tax return is filed each year. With the major potential tax issues largely settled before filing, taxpayers are generally subject to shorter and narrower post-filing examinations. LB&I has been tasked to survey this distinct group of taxpayers and use the output to identify areas for improvement. By surveying and analyzing this group of customers, it will afford LB&I management the opportunity to make informed business decisions to improve upon customer service.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection

The objective of this research is to track ongoing satisfaction among CAP customers and to identify top improvement priorities. Taxpayer feedback on the expanding CAP program will assist the Large Business and International (LB&I) Division in refining the service elements of the program.

Specific research topics include:

• Satisfaction with elements of the CAP program, including CAP preparation, CAP features, issue identification, issue resolution, account coordinator, team manager, specialists, proposed adjustments, and overall satisfaction.

• Benefits of CAP and attaining tax certainty

• Defining success of CAP

• Barriers in the CAP process

• Audit-related administrative and financial burden

• Suggestions for improvements to the CAP program

The data collected will only be used internally for service improvement. The results of the review will be used to determine the success of CAP and its impact on customer service. Overall, the research will help inform service improvement efforts.

If this information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on the Agency’s services will be unavailable. The feedback received will not institute new policy, yet enable the Service to meet taxpayer needs

3. Consideration Given to Information Technology

Data will be collected via online survey over the period of one month.

4. Duplication of Information

This survey will provide valuable information that is not available in any internal IRS data source.

5. Reducing the Burden on Small Entities

CAP customers are large corporations with $10 million or more in assets. Small entities are not affected by survey.

6. Consequences of Not Conducting Collection

If this information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on the Agency’s services will be unavailable. The feedback received will not institute new policy, yet enable the Service to meet taxpayer needs

7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances. The information collected will be voluntary and will not be used for statistical purposes.

8. Consultations with Persons Outside the Agency

NA

9. Payment or Gift

LB&I will not provide payment or other forms of remuneration to survey respondents.

10. Privacy

All survey responses will be released only as summaries. No individual answers will be reported and survey responses will have no effect on individual tax accounts. Customers are under no obligation to participate or complete the survey, it is completely voluntary. However, the participation solicitation will encourage their participation so that their answers will help the IRS provide better service to the business community. Our contract with PCG authorizes them to collect taxpayer specific information. Therefore responding to the survey is not an unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information. Prior to taking the survey, each participant who would like to verify the authenticity of the survey request, may contact Keith Fowler, LB&I Program Analyst by email (keith.fowler@irs.gov).

All survey responses will be released only as summaries. The contractor shall hold the identities of the taxpayers responding to the survey, private to the extent permitted by law. The contractor ensures that taxpayers responding to the survey are guaranteed anonymity. The contractor will not provide the IRS with data or status updates that are linked to individual respondents. Upon completion of data collection and cleaning, the contractor will provide de-identified survey data to the IRS. This data will not include any individually identifying information such as name, address, or taxpayer identification number.

11. Sensitive Nature

No questions will be asked that are of a personal or sensitive nature.

12. Burden of Information Collection

A total of 140 requests will be made to complete the survey. It is expected that 63% of taxpayers contacted will complete the survey. The estimated time to complete the survey is 15 minutes for CAP customers. It will take 1 minute to read the pre-note and one minute to read the invitation to participate. The total burden is 26 hours.

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time (minutes)	Burden (hours)
Prenote	140	1	2
Invitation to Participate	140	1	2
Survey	88	15	22
Totals			26 hrs

13. Costs to Respondents

No costs are anticipated.

14. Costs to Federal Government

The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is _$43,371.61___

15. Reason for Change

Not applicable.

16. Tabulation of Results, Schedule, Analysis Plans

The survey data is collected via online questionnaire. Many of the questions are established and have been tested over a number of years. The survey includes several ratings questions evaluating different aspects of service delivery in the CAP program as well as several demographic items. Some new questions have been added about tax certainty and administrative burden, to provide insights that will inform these specific strategic areas of focus within LB&I. In addition, ample space is provided for suggestions for improvement.

Survey scoring and analysis is based on a series of satisfaction rating items, including “Considering all the aspects discussed in the survey, but excluding the outcome of the CAP review, please rate your overall satisfaction with CAP.” These questions utilize a 5-point rating scale, with 1 being very dissatisfied and 5 being very satisfied. All survey responses will be released only as summaries. The contractor shall hold the identities of the taxpayers responding to the survey, private to the extent permitted by law. The contractor ensures that taxpayers responding to the survey are guaranteed anonymity. The contractor will not provide the IRS with data or status updates that are linked to individual respondents. Upon completion of data collection and cleaning, the contractor will provide de-identified survey data to the IRS. This data will not include any individually identifying information such as name, address, or taxpayer identification number.

17. Display of OMB Approval Date

We are requesting no exemption.

18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

These activities comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.

19. Data Collection

October or November 2015

B. STATISTICAL METHODS

The primary purpose of this collection will be for internal management purposes; there are no plans to publish or otherwise release this information.

1. Universe and Respondent Selection

Survey invitations are sent to a census of individuals, including senior tax counsel staff and chief tax officers, who have the most contact with the IRS on the CAP program; these individuals come from organizations participating in CAP. The objective of this research is to track ongoing satisfaction among CAP customers and to identify top improvement priorities. Taxpayer feedback on the expanding CAP program will assist the Large Business and International (LB&I) Division in refining the service elements of the program.

2. Procedures for Collecting Information

Individuals who have the most contact with the IRS on the CAP program receive a pre note, sent via email, signed by the Director, Planning, Analysis, Inventory and Research (PAIR). The pre note provides information about the reason for the survey, the contractor who is conducting the survey on our behalf and an LB&I program analyst contact information if they want to confirm the validity of the survey. The customers are then contacted via an email message sent directly from the contractor inviting them to participate in the survey. This message again provides information about the survey, its validity and voluntary nature, and provides a direct link to the questionnaire with a username and password. See Attachment A for a copy of the pre note, invitations and reminders, and Attachment B for the survey questions.

3. Methods to Maximize Response

The contractor uses social exchange principles to maximize survey response rates. These include establishing trust that the survey is legitimate, establishing the anonymity of the respondent, explaining the value and uses of the survey data, making multiple contacts, using a respond-by date to help motivate timely responses, making it convenient to participate, and reduce participation burden. Individuals will be contacted up to three times to encourage their participation. Reminder notices will be sent within 7-day intervals and will provide a link to the survey with a username and password, as well as the contact information for an LB&I analyst who can verify the validity of the survey if there are any questions. The survey itself is designed to minimize burden and maximize response by using the following approaches:

• Ensure each question covers only one topic to avoid respondent confusion and reporting bias.

• Use terminology that is familiar to the respondent.

• Always look for a logical order for questions (e.g., chronology, severity, cause, location).

• Choose words and phrases that play to the least educated respondent without sacrificing clarity for brevity.

• Utilize pre-programmed skip patterns to allow respondents to bypass irrelevant questions based on responses to prior questions.

4. Testing of Procedures

Contractor’s quality assurance process includes testing of all survey programming to ensure accuracy of content and to test programming logic and questionnaire length. IRS staff is invited to participate in the testing of questionnaires. In addition to testing the accuracy of the questionnaires, contractor administers customer pretests to a small subset of respondents to test comprehension of survey questions, questionnaire flow, and in the case of online surveys, visual appeal.

5. Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection

For questions regarding the study or survey design, contact

Keith Fowler

Program Analyst, LB&I

Planning, Analysis, Inventory and Research

1301 Clay Street

Oakland CA 94612

513-518-4905

Keith.Fowler@irs.gov

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