9.1 METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW

The Methodology Overview outlines the timeline and process for establishing the Taxpayer First Act Office. This section will also discuss how the TFAO conducted research and information gathering to create and refine the three Taxpayer First Act Strategies.

Immediately after the Taxpayer First Act (TFA) was codified, the IRS Commissioner, Charles (Chuck) Rettig, established an executive team to launch and lead the TFA Office (TFAO). The TFAO took primary responsibility for implementing specific TFA provisions including 1) the Comprehensive Taxpayer Experience Strategy (TFA §1101), 2) the Modernization of IRS Organizational Structure (TFA §1302), and 3) the Comprehensive Training Strategy (TFA §2402). The TFAO was also charged with leading the integration, communications, program management, and governance activities for the remaining 42 provisions owned by different operating divisions across the IRS.

The Research and Information Gathering Phase included engaging internal and external stakeholders and analyzing their feedback and pertinent documents to develop the strategies. We then socialized and reviewed the solidified strategies, cleared the report with oversight organizations and submitted the report to the Congress.

Internal Revenue Service | Taxpayer First Act 141

9.0 | APPENDIX

External stakeholders included taxpayers, partners, advisory groups, industry groups, oversight organizations and other government agencies. The TFAO used a vigorous outreach strategy to ensure we gathered feedback that encompassed the unique needs and expectations of all taxpayer segments. As part of this effort, we engaged wage earners and self-employed individuals, small and large businesses, international businesses and individuals, and taxexempt and government entities through town halls, focus groups, interviews and/or forums.

We held over 140 different external stakeholder engagement activities. At each event, we shared the TFAO@IRS.gov mailbox to obtain additional stakeholder feedback. We received 182 emails with suggestions from external stakeholders. The mailbox remains open to continue engaging with stakeholders.

The TFAO sponsored a series of Taxpayer First Act Stakeholder Forums in January 2020 and July 2020 and invited a diverse cross section of external stakeholder groups. We used the Forums to engage in a conversation with stakeholders and encouraged them to provide input on the development of the TFA strategies. These forums included tax accounting firms representing small and large businesses, professional/trade groups, payroll industry groups, Low Income Tax Clinics and state, foreign, and tax-exempt representative groups.

Internally, we engaged employees, management and senior executives from all levels of the organization and from across the country. We held over 30 different internal stakeholder engagement activities including site visits, townhall meetings, and focus groups (see Appendix 9.4 for more details). We collected more than 630 pieces of employee feedback from over 100 articles posted on our intranet. We created the Innovation Advisory Council (IAC), which provided a bi-weekly forum for senior executives and the TFAO to discuss TFA deliverables. Additionally, the TFAO hosted bi-weekly meetings with senior leaders and representatives from each IRS function. These discussions were key to ensuring alignment across all provisions while providing another venue to collect input for developing the comprehensive Taxpayer Experience Strategy, Training Strategy and Organizational Redesign Strategy.

Internal Revenue Service | Taxpayer First Act 142

9.0 | APPENDIX

Following the Research and Information Gathering phase, the Analyze and Develop phase involved distilling information from thousands of pages of feedback and research into key insights, opportunities and enablers. These key insights formed the foundation to developing the strategies outlined in this Report.

The Taxpayer Experience, Training, and Organizational Redesign Strategies went through significant rounds of feedback and review during the drafting process. The Taxpayer Experience and Training Strategies were reviewed for comment by representatives from each operating division across the IRS. Leadership from every operating division participated in this review process. The Taxpayer Experience, Training, and Organizational Redesign Strategies were socialized and reviewed with the IRS Senior Leadership Team in a series of IAC meetings, where leadership provided direct feedback during hours of discussions. In addition, a group of IRS executive leaders from across the IRS reviewed all three strategies and participated in disposition sessions with the TFAO team to provide targeted comments and feedback. In addition to these internal methods for capturing feedback, the strategies were also shared with external partners, such as the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Management, the TFA Forums, tax practitioners via National Public Liaison (NPL) and the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC), individual taxpayers via the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel or surveys, and many more. Given the IRS’s reach and complexity, it was a priority to hear from our diverse pool of internal and external stakeholders before moving forward with strategy development.

Our strategies were broadly socialized with internal IRS audiences using internal communications such as IRS Headline articles, TFAO IRS Source intranet pages and various briefings tailored for an array of employee audiences. Our strategies were also socialized externally with partners such as the American Bankers Association and NPL, via forums like the IRS Nationwide Tax Forums or ad hoc presentations.

Internal Revenue Service | Taxpayer First Act 143

9.0 | APPENDIX