OMB Behavioral Lab WISS Summary page

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

OMB Control Number: 1545-XXXX

T ITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

Wage and Investment Strategies and Solutions Behavioral Laboratory Customer Surveys and Support

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. In order 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:

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

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

[X] Focus Group [X] Other: Behavioral Research

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 IDENTILFABLE INFORMATION:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [X ] Yes [ ] No

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 22,050 burden hours. Initially, WISS estimates reaching 50 percent of the desired individuals for each project through various recruitment channels. Using this percentage, 25,200 potential participants will need to be initially contacted. The initial contact will take an estimated 20 minutes. Once the desired participant is identified and contacted, it will take an estimated 10 minutes for them to confirm/decline participation and, if confirming, make the project team aware of their availability. An estimated 50 percent will decline participation in the study once contacted. 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. Once confirmed and scheduled, the estimated time to conduct each interview will be 100 minutes. Any remaining confirmed participants will be used as alternates for each study.

Collection Activity	Minutes Per Person	Number of Participants	Total Hours
Contacting possible participants for studies	20	25,200	8,400
Participant confirmation and availability or decline through email	10	12,600	2,100
Participant interview scheduling	10	6,300	1,050
Conducting interviews	100	6,300	10,500
TOTAL HOURS			22,050

FEDERAL COST:

It is unknown at this time what expenses will be incurred by the Federal government in collecting this information. For future submissions, we will be able to provide an accurate accounting of expenses incurred and expected in the future.

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 when applicable to the project. Applicable projects will use taxpayer demographical information in developing a sampling pool. The CDW offers a broad range of databases that can be easily accessed through a variety of third-party tools. Whether the desired research is ad-hoc in nature, or involves the use of advanced quantitative methods, the CDW can provide the solutions needed to quickly and efficiently get analytical results.

For the sampling plan, potential study participants will only be pulled from the CDW database if the population included in the project need to meet criteria that could be difficult to find in the general population. This will reduce overall taxpayer burden as less taxpayers will need to be contacted in order to obtain the necessary sample population.  A potential participant list will be pulled from CDW to ensure they meet the specific criteria as determined by the need of the specific study, such as age, filing method, balance due, etc. In the event that the project is narrower in scope and does not require use of the CDW database to identify a sampling pool, the customer requesting the research will provide the sample population or, when applicable, WISS will utilize an online panel provided by a contracting company.

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.