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)