SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- Analyst to support development of an inferential framework for Compliance Assurance Process firms.
- Notice Date
- 8/18/2011
- Notice Type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- NAICS
- 541211
— Offices of Certified Public Accountants
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), National Office Procurement (OS:A:P), 6009 Oxon Hill Road, Suite 500, Oxon Hill, Maryland, 20745
- ZIP Code
- 20745
- Solicitation Number
- TIRNO-11-P-00498
- Archive Date
- 9/9/2011
- Point of Contact
- Daniel K Higgins, Phone: 202-283-6383
- E-Mail Address
-
daniel.k.higgins@irs.gov
(daniel.k.higgins@irs.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. Solicitation TIRNO-11-P-00498 is issued as a Request for Proposals (RFP) with the evaluation and award prescribed in FAR Part 13 "Simplified Acquisition Procedures." The solicitation document and incorporated provisions are those that are in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 05-38, and the size standard is $8.5 million. This is a set-aside for small business concerns. The associated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 541211. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a requirement for a researcher to develop a framework to draw compliance inference about income shifting using Compliance Assurance Process (CAP) firms as a benchmark. The research will merge and extend the conceptual and empirical results from income shifting study and combine these results with evidence from the study of book and tax attributes in compliant CAP firms. The objective of the research is to specify an analytical framework that is suitable to draw compliance inferences about offshore income shifting based on knowledge of book and tax attributes observed in two sets of corporate tax payers: CAP firms and non-CAP firms. CAP firms will provide the benchmark for compliance and if the data is available APA firms may also be included in firms used to define the compliance benchmark. A similarly sized group of non-CAP firms will be identified with a separate sample design that IRS Research will develop and provide in order to demonstrate the framework. A set of two subtasks are required to prepare the data needed from the two studies in order to draw compliance inferences for income shifting. The identification of related entities for a corporate taxpayer is one of the fundamental building blocks for the process and involves describing the capitalization of the various majority and minority (corporate subsidiary) positions, partnerships, disregarded entities and sundry transparents that comprise the business venture. And Conceptual and empirical accounting rules are needed to resolve data exceptions and to perfect aberrant computational expressions that may arise in computing rates of return and tax rates in the income shifting context. Three subtasks comprise the requirements of the task to specify the analytical framework. These task address the use of quantifying risk measurement and risk attributes, the specifications of the inferential framework and a demonstration of the results. Quantifying risk attributes will provide the basis to partition the population into like groups and stratify the variance of the risk measures. Book and tax measures are expected to provide much of the empirical evidence to select suitable attributes. Quantifying risk measures involves identifying economic variables in the tax data that serve as proxy measures for the probability and severity (or magnitude) of compliance. In the case of non-CAP firms these variables are associated with noncompliance. Specifying the inferential framework involves the selection of a set of analytical expressions or a logical process to ascribe the expected compliance or noncompliance of income shifted in an offshore jurisdiction for the two set of corporations (CAP and non-CAP). A demonstration of the inferential framework will be provided to compare the unrecognized tax benefits (UTB) for an entity in a jurisdiction for CAP and non CAP firms. Statistical analysis of the scenario in the framework should include: the conceptual and empirical definition of the measures of the probability and severity (or magnitude) of compliance to reflect the certainty of the results; a comparative ranking of CAP firms to each other and CAP to non CAP firms; descriptions and the econometric estimations of regression equations used in the framework, accounting measures/techniques in the framework and, the logical process used to draw the inferences about the taxpayers; and a discussion to compare & contrast results from the framework in the 2 offshore super-jurisdictions used in the income shifting model, Where the 2 offshore super-jurisdictions are comprised of AED countries & non-AED countries. The required deliverables are: Empirical Techniques to Align the Income Shifting and CAP Studies: 1.) Documentation of the parts of the two models that are aligned and the data sources used in the alignment, including copies of the data with definitions of variables and measures, sources of the data, along with copies of the computer programming software used to estimate the model. 2.) A report explaining the entity definitions and the accounting rules as they are applied to the data. 3.) A briefing and demonstration of the model and research results for senior IRS management and staff. Specification of the Analytical Framework for the Inferential Analysis of Income Shifting in CAP Firms: 1.) Documentation of the model & data sources used in the analysis including copies of the data with definitions of variables and measures, sources of the data, along with copies of the computer programming software used in the framework and the demonstration. This will include specialized software documentation/instructions that may be part of the framework. 2.) A report explaining the inference framework, a review of pertinent academic literature, and including a descriptive narrative and statistical analysis of the measures and variables used in the framework. The report should also include a detailed explanation of the logical process, quantitative constructs, accounting measures/techniques and economic models used to draw the inferences. 3.) A briefing and demonstration of framework and research results for senior IRS management and staff. The Contractor will conduct a minimum of three project meetings with IRS personnel during the progress of work. The meeting should be scheduled at the beginning, midpoint, and completion of the contract. All travel by contractor personnel to IRS locations for meetings shall be the responsibility of the Contractor without any additional charge to the IRS. The Contractor shall provide monthly status reports by the 15th of each month for program monitoring purpose. This report shall contain costs expended and dollars remaining for each individual sub-task. Impact statements, where and when appropriate, shall be produced by the Contractor. In addition, if the Government is expected to provide information, a decision, or assistance, the Contractor shall include this information in the monthly report. The specific criteria for each Deliverable are detailed as follows: Empirical Techniques to Align the Income Shifting & CAP Studies: To be accepted by the IRS, the report and documentation shall satisfy the following criteria: Contains a methodology description, a recommendation on tax compliance issues for testing, and a list of potential data transformations & qualitative attributes to be considered for estimating the corporate tax gap. Specification of the Analytical Framework for the Inferential Analysis of Income Shifting in CAP Firms: To be accepted by the IRS, the deliverables for this task shall satisfy the following criteria: 1.) Complete description of the tax measures used as proxies for the financial attributes from the book data used in task 1, 2.) Documentation for creating the combined data-streams used for the framework. Instructions for running the computer software and running the framework demonstration including documentation of the entities and super-jurisdictions used in the database for the framework. The applicable Contractor employee shall not begin working under this contract until all security forms have been properly completed and submitted. All Contractor employees shall be required to wear identification badges when working in Government facilities. The Contractor shall strive to utilize personnel with an acceptable IRS MBI already in place. The Contractor's personnel assigned to this task will be subjected to a Minimum Background Investigations (MBI's) as stated in IRM 1.23.2 (Feb 1, 2003). The COTR will provide to the Contractor all forms needed for investigative purposes and all forms are to be filled out by the Contractor's employees prior to work being initiated this task. The Contractor shall provide personnel capable of obtaining a Minimum Background Investigation (MBI) security clearance as required by the IRS. The Contractor shall cooperate fully with the IRS in providing the information necessary for the IRS to conduct these security checks. The Contractor shall replace any employee who fails the security background check. The Contractor's personnel shall be required to obtain identification badges in order to perform work on the contract resulting from this synopsis. The period of performance for this contract shall be September 15, 2011 through September 14, 2012. The provisions at FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to offerors - Commercial, apply to this acquisition. Offerors shall include a fully executed copy of FAR provisions at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications - Commercial Items, with their offer. FAR Clauses 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial Items, and 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Order - Commercial Items apply to this acquisition. Per 12.603(b) the SF 1449 is not used. FAR Clauses 52.222-21, Prohibition of Segregated Facilities; 52.222-26, Equal Opportunity; 52.222-36, Affirmative Action for Workers with Disabilities and 52.232-33, Payment of Electronic Funds Transfer - Central Contractor Registration. Offerors not in possession of the above referenced clauses and provisions in full text may obtain a copy via the internet at http://www.arnet.gov or by contacting the contract specialist. The Government intends to award a firm fixed price order. Award is anticipated under Simplified Acquisition procedures and will be based on best value to the Government, taking price and past performance on similar jobs into consideration. All responsible sources who can provide the above requirement shall submit a quote via email no later than 5 calendar days from the posted date of this announcement. All proposals shall include a schedule by Task and shall include the planned start and completion dates, and responsible organization (either Contractor or Government) for each activity as well as the due date for the Deliverable. All proposals must include price per item, 3 references from work similar to this requirement performed by your company (Organization you have done the work for, dates, and contact information), payment terms, delivery time, a contact person (name & phone number), business size, and DUN's number. Requests for on-site visits and quotes shall be emailed to Daniel.K.Higgins@irs.gov. All Treasury contractors are required to be registered in the DOD Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database prior to receipt of award. All questions shall be referred to Daniel Higgins, Contract Specialist, (202)283-6383.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/TREAS/IRS/NOPAP/TIRNO-11-P-00498 /listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: 77 K St. NE, Rm 3100, Washington, District of Columbia, 20002, United States
- Zip Code: 20002
- Zip Code: 20002
- Record
- SN02539617-W 20110820/110818235249-5d788d6d9f7281b3fd48450153ec64a4 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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