SOLICITATION NOTICE
D -- Request for Information for TE/GE Form 1023 Cyber Assistant Test and Pilot Evaluation.
- Notice Date
- 9/8/2006
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541511
— Custom Computer Programming Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), National Office Procurement (OS:A:P), 6009 Oxon Hill Road, Suite 500, Oxon Hill, MD, 20745
- ZIP Code
- 20745
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-RFI-T6-T0-0F-5A-C07
- Response Due
- 10/11/2006
- Archive Date
- 10/26/2006
- Description
- SECTION 1: PURPOSE: The IRS has the need to improve Form 1023, Application for Recognition of Tax Exempt Status, processing and data quality. Therefore, the IRS is considering alternative strategies and perhaps, more importantly, a greater private sector role in assisting the IRS in its efforts. Including strategic partnerships with the private sector offers the opportunity to: 1. Improve the attractiveness of using IRS certified software to complete their Form 1023; 2. Improve the quality of the submission which would result in reduction of filer burden; and 3. Achieve potentially significant cost savings for both the IRS and strategic partners through the use of advanced technologies. The IRS Business Operating Division for Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE) is requesting participation from software developers and other interested parties, such as law firms that develop and submit Forms 1023 for clients, Trade Associations, etc., ("strategic partners") that would have an interest in partnering with the IRS to conduct a one year application beta test. The strategic partners, during the one year test, should be interested in incorporating this application into their own suite of products and/or services. The strategic partners would take ownership of the IRS built application and would make changes based on their own market needs. The strategic partners would be expected to market their version of the beta test application and provide users for testing TE/GE will cooperate with strategic partners in the implementation of a web-based automated tool, "Cyber-Assistant," for use by applicants completing the IRS Form 1023, Application for Recognition of Tax Exempt Status under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The applicants would also be required to submit a user fee along with the application. The IRS expects that partners would use the fully operational Form 1023 application which includes IRS approved supporting documentation as a base for their product. The IRS would consider offering incentives to increase the use of the Form 1023 application offered by partners. The Forms 1023 submitted to IRS using the software will be coded with a developers identification number to track applications from the various partners. Incentive to encourage use of the partner?s product could be reduced user/application fees. The government does not intend to issue a task order for this work. The purpose of this RFI is to describe the general nature of the IRS need, the information desired of industry, and to provide instructions for submission of industry responses. SECTION 2: INSTRUCTIONS AND RESPONSE GUIDELINES: To assist you in understanding this request, we have provided a background of the IRS Cyber Assistant application. Following this information is the specific information, Section 6, RFI (Requested) Response, that we are requesting interested parties to complete and provide in their Technical Capability Statements. Responses are limited to a total of 50 pages and must be completed in Microsoft Word format. Page size must be "8.5 x 11", font must be 12 point or larger, and margins must be at least 1". Briefly describe your company, your services, history, ownership, financial information, business size, other information you deem relevant, and respond to the specific inquiries in Section 6. Supplemental service brochures or marketing materials outlining specifications and capabilities may be submitted, and will not be counted in the overall page count limits. Provide points of contact, including name, address, phone/fax number(s) and e-mail. We appreciate your response. It will be used solely by the IRS as market research to select interested and qualified partners to participate in the development and test. We will not divulge the specifics of individual responses to the RFI outside of the IRS Requirements Team. When possible the Cyber Assistant Requirements Team will conduct analysis without identifying company names with their responses. Prospective participants will be required to sign appropriate nondisclosures for the test period. SECTION 3: INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPONDENTS: Please provide your response to this RFI by 5:00 PM on October 11, 2006. Responses should be sent as an MS Word attachment. You may also submit supplemental hardcopy materials such as brochures, etc., to the Contract Specialist. SECTION 4: BACKGROUND: TE/GE's "Cyber Assistant" is a web-based tool for guiding users through the process of completing an IRS Form 1023. It is intended to meet both internal IRS needs and the needs of newly created organizations that may be staffed by volunteers, as well as their professional advisors, to complete the IRS Form 1023 with the goal of becoming recognized as a tax-exempt 501(c) (3) private foundation or public charity. TE/GE expects to receive about 60,000 such applications per year for review and has experienced annual growth in the number of these receipts of 3-5%. The "Cyber-Assistant" tool shall enable applicants to be guided with appropriate educational content, consistent with IRS instructions to the Form 1023, version 06/2006, Application for Recognition of Exemption under section 501(c ) (3), to input required information for IRS review, and create a paper Form 1023 application, and required attachments, The application shall create standard 2-D barcodes on the printed forms, containing the information supplied by the applicant and contained in the completed Form 1023. The Form 1023 "cyber" application produced by the Cyber Assistant application is to be finalized and printed and submitted to the IRS through the mail via United States Postal Service or other delivery service. The partners shall utilize approved IRS Business Rules and schema in XML format as a base for their own application. The user-friendly web-based application shall guide users through the process of completing the form, provide online context-specific help and quick access to a glossary, and include validation routines to ensure that all required questions have been completed. A Form 1023 application package is specific to a single Exempt Organization (EO) and an EO can have only one application package. A package comprises the 1023 application itself (divided into several sections per the IRS Form 1023), schedules thereto, and related forms as indicated on the Form 1023 Checklist (including the Checklist itself as well as Forms 2848, 8821 and 5768 which typically accompany the Form 1023 if the applicant has executed a Power of Attorney or other authorization for representation). A package also includes attachment pages ("internal attachments") providing data entered via Cyber Assistant that cannot fit in the limited space of the forms (including lengthy explanations and lists) and separator pages to act as cover sheets for documents ("external attachments") not entered via Cyber Assistant, but which are to be included in the 1023 application package that is mailed to the IRS. By improving the quality of the responses on the IRS Form 1023, the IRS expects to increase its ability to process the applications via a streamlined review process, thus saving IRS resources. Second, the increased efficiency could result in decreasing the time it takes to process the application. Third, by providing a series of standard 2-D barcodes on the printed forms, the Form 1023 application produced by the Cyber Assistant application or system will enable the IRS to convert the responses on the Form 1023 into data that can be stored and analyzed by the IRS. To the degree that Cyber-Assistant developers conform to the IRS core content, the IRS expects to consider a reduction in applicable user fees for such applications, in order to encourage their use. The release of Cyber Assistant that will incorporate the design described in this document will interact with other IRS systems only to the extent that the paper output printed from the PDF versions of the 1023 application packages will be scannable. It is anticipated that Cyber Assistant will be extended in future releases to support electronic submission of application packages. SECTION 5: STATEMENT OF NEED: The purpose of this RFI is to determine if developers are interested in participating with the IRS in a controlled development and test of a Cyber Assistant application during for a one year period. IRS is interested in working with developers and other interested parties with the technical expertise in like development efforts. The data from the Cyber Assistant system will be received by the IRS system via 2-D bar-coded paper Form 1023s. The data from the 2-D barcodes will be in the form of XML. As discussed above, this will enable the IRS to store users' Form 1023 responses in a database where the data can be analyzed, viewed, or aggregated. It is essential that the data provided in the barcodes be linked to their corresponding fields or elements in the IRS system where the data will ultimately reside and that the Cyber Assistant data provide sufficient granularity to provide all the necessary data for the IRS storage system. The information supplied in the Form 1023 application by applicants is considered taxpayer return information and is protected from public disclosure by the IRS by section 6104 of the IRC up to and until review by the IRS is completed, and the applicant receives its IRS determination letter. Upon closing of the file, and the issuance of the determination letter, the Form 1023 application and disclosable parts of the administrative file are subject to public disclosure. Security of the non-disclosable information on any external website during the application preparation process is between the applicant and the service provider, and is not guaranteed or warranted as secure from public disclosure by the IRS until it is actually received in the IRS. When received by the IRS, appropriate security and privacy standards are in place. SECTION 6: REQUESTED RESPONSE: Please provide an affirmative statement as part of your response if you have experience with and are interested in the type of work described in this RFI. Also provide your previous experience with successful management and performance of work similar to that described in the "Statement of Need" section of this RFI to include, but not limited to, development and submission of Forms 1023. SECTION 7: GOVERNMENT FURNISHED INFORMATION: 1. Cyber Assistant Business Rules spreadsheet 2. Cyber Assistant Form 1023 XML schema definition 3. Cyber Assistant Data model 4. Interface Control Document (ICD) between Cyber Assistant and the IRS TEDS application 5. IRS approved educational content for applicants 6. Form 1023 (June 2006) This Government Furnished Information is posted and available on the Exempt Organization website : www.irs.gov/eo SECTION 8: DISCLAIMER: This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. Response to the RFI will not be returned. In accordance with FAR 15.201 (e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. SECTION 9: CONTACT INFORMATION: Clarification questions to this RFI must be submitted in writing to AWSSIRSportalsolutionexpo@irs.gov or faxed to 202-283-7031 to the attention of Charisse Marshall, Contract Specialist, by 5:00 PM, EST, on September 29, 2006. Final responses to the RFI must be emailed to AWSSIRSportalsolutionexpo@irs.gov by 5:00 PM, EST on October 11, 2006. All clarification questions and responses must reference: Request for Information T-6-T0-OF-5A-C07 - TE/GE Form 1023 Cyber Assistant Test and Pilot Evaluation. Charisse Marshall, Contract Specialist IRS, Office of Procurement Information Technology; OS:A:P:I:F:B Corporate Support Acquisitions Branch 6009 Oxon Hill Road, 5th Floor Oxon Hill, MD 20745
- Record
- SN01138237-W 20060910/060908221727 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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