Each year, individual taxpayers in the
United States submit more than 140 million tax returns to the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS uses the information in
these returns, recorded on roughly one hundred distinct forms and
supporting schedules, to administer a tax system whose rules span
thousands of pages. Managing such a complex and broad-based tax
system is costly but represents only a fraction of the total burden
of the tax system. Equally, if not more burdensome, is the time and
out-of-pocket expenses that taxpayers spend in order to comply with
tax laws and regulations. Changes in tax regulations, tax
administration, tax preparation methods, and taxpayer behavior
continue to alter the amount and distribution of taxpayer burden.
The purpose of these surveys is to gather data that will be used to
update and expand the IRS Taxpayer Burden Model, a robust
predictive model based on an improved burden estimation
methodology. Information gathered by the surveys is not available
in the administrative tax return data, so survey data are a
critical input to the model. The survey data are not viewed
discretely. Rather, because the data are used as inputs to the
Taxpayer Burden Model, they provide an end-to-end, taxpayer facing
view of compliance burden. The related behavioral studies further
inform IRS’s understanding of taxpayer behavior, inform burden
model design, and help IRS improve processes and identify
opportunities to reduce taxpayer burden.
US Code:
26
USC 6103 Name of Law: Confidentiality and disclosure of returns
and return information
The survey scope is expanded to
include burden for surveys associated with all taxpayer segments.
This will create an increase in the estimated responses by 205,246
and increase the estimated burden by 99,859 hours. This effort
represents a continuation of the IRS’s strategy to gather taxpayer
burden data for all types of tax returns and information reporting
documents in order to support Wage and Investment’s OMB Improvement
Strategy to transition burden estimates for all taxpayers to the
preferred RAAS burden estimation methodology. These surveys will
allow RAAS to update and validate the IRS Taxpayer Burden Model
which will be used to provide estimates for consolidated taxpayer
segments, similar to what is currently done for OMB numbers
1545-0074, 1545-0123, and 1545-0047. Adjustments made to the
estimates previously provided will result in a decrease in the
estimated responses by 38,000 and 7,750 burden hours.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Supporting Statement -Part B.docx
2021 Other Taxpayer Segment Special Survey (Data collection 3/31/2022 – 5/31/2023)