Support for IRS Interest Program

TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES Sources Sought - THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) IS RELEASED PURSUANT TO FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) PART 10, MARKET RESEARCH. This RFI/Sources Sought is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as either a solicitation or the obligation on the part of Government. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts or quotations. This notice is for market research purposes only. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement or any follow-up information requests. Respondents will NOT be notified of the results of the analysis. All data received in response to this Sources Sought synopsis that is marked or designated as corporate or proprietary information will be fully protected from release outside the Government. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with all applicable Government regulations. All documentation shall become the property of the Government and will not be returned. BACKGROUND: The Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in support of Small Business/Self-Employed, Office of Servicewide Interest, as well as its Servicewide stakeholders is seeking information on potential solutions to perform interest computations, train interest employees, and further automate interest computations. IRS personnel currently perform interest computations on taxpayer accounts for either underpayment (debit) interest or overpayment (credit) interest. Currently, many of these interest computations are generated manually or through various applications and tools. The IRS is seeking to identify vendors with in-depth knowledge of all interest laws, specifically IRC 6621(d), as well as the procedures for claiming a refund of overpaid underpayment interest or requesting the allowance of additional overpayment interest, including experience with reviewing/preparing large volumes of Forms 843 Net Rate Netting (NRN) Claims. Due to the complex nature of manual interest computations, the IRS requires contractor support to ensure accurate interest computations, current and robust training for interest employees and software solutions to further automate complex interest work. The IRS does not have a predefined idea of how the solutions should work as there are numerous options for software, tools, training materials, etc. The IRS is open to a single solution/provider that addresses three overarching needs: 1) perform complex Net Rate Netting (NRN) interest computations ; 2) train Servicewide interest employees on a variety of complex interest issues; and 3) further automate complex interest transactions. The IRS is also open to a provider who can provide one or more of these solutions. Vendor solution must have the capability to provide one or more of the needs below: Provide Net Rate Netting (NRN) computations and case resolutions for NRN inventory. Note: Case resolutions must be strictly computational according to existing tax laws and regulations and must not involve discretionary interpretation. Any cases requiring interpretation should be routed to IRS Counsel for guidance. Review current interest training materials and make modifications to update content. Provide comprehensive training materials addressing interest topics thoroughly. Provide tool/software enhancement to automate complex interest transactions, including NRN. Provide requested training and support for any tools/software enhancements developed (at no additional cost). Provide details of all updates automatically to users ASAP. Include a series of introductory sessions, web-demonstrations, conference calls, and workshops as needed to inform users of tool/software enhancement capabilities and data specifics. Provide help/support to users from the contract award date. SUBMISSION INFORMATION: The IRS is requesting submission of Technical Capabilities. I. Technical Capabilities - Responses may not exceed 10 pages, excluding the cover page. Each response should include the following information: Company Name; Company Address; Company Point of Contact, Phone and Email address; Current Contract Number and Task Area(s) appropriate for this notice; including the Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Number and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code. Type of Company (i.e., small business, 8(a), woman owned, veteran owned, etc.) Contract holder's capability statement that addresses organizational and staff experience and expertise. Given the above information, what experience do you have in providing computation software products for a large, complex and diverse amount of work? Provide an estimate of time you will need to design, develop, test and deploy your proposed solution. Identify whether your proposed solution will be a proprietary or a commercial off the shelf (COTS) product. If a COTS product, describe the tailoring effort. If you are proposing a software enhancement to COTS software, please state the existing COTS software this would apply to. List three organizations to which similar types of services have been previously provided within the last three years - to include contract number, description of the requirement, dollar value, contract type, name and telephone number of the customer. Delivery timeframe required to install and set-up the product, verify compliance and conduct training. Does the delivery date vary on the item being purchase/ service being performed? Commercial practices (e.g. warranty, support, spare parts, limitation of liability, etc). Possible solutions and approaches that may currently exist in the marketplace, and information regarding innovative ideas or concepts regarding the product or service in question. Provide the features of your solution regarding computation of Net Rate Netting (NRN) computations. Describe your background in the process and criteria for submitting Form 843 NRN Claims and computing/verifying NRN computations. Describe your background with reviewing IRS account transactions and how certain activity impacts the interest computation. Describe your background with handling Revenue Ruling 99-40, large corporate underpayment interest (IRC 6621(c)), waivers and suspensions under IRC 6601, disaster relief (IRC 7508A), IRC 6603 deposits, and interest provisions related to the allowance and disallowance of carrybacks of net operating losses (IRC 6601(d), 6611(f)). Provide features of your solution regarding development and delivery of interest training content for IRS employees. For instance, developing and conducting high-level training for interest employees, that covers all interest issues including complex restricted interest issues and Automated Computational Tool/Decision Modeling Inc. (ACT/DMI) InterestNet. Details should include delivery platforms that would be used to deliver training and any other considerations such as timeframe to deliver training materials in question. Note: The IRS uses an e-learning strategy, including virtual classes, in addition to the traditional classroom-based approach. This provides the benefit of continuous learning opportunities for all employees. The IRS's objective is to provide sufficient training to enable users to achieve a level of comfort that allows efficient use of vendor-provided tools and data. This will require ongoing work through the life of the contract to identify additional training needs and develop initiatives to address those needs. Provide the features of your solution regarding its flexibility and ability to handle complex calculations. For instance, does your solution provide the capability to automate interest transactions, potentially including NRN computations (or portions of these computations). The software/tool would need to be capable of analyzing activities from other tax periods that could impact the NRN computation. An example include(s): Ability to perform cross-module computations and suspensions needed, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) rate thresholds used on various modules, modules already subject to manual IRS interest restrictions, multiple statutes of limitation affecting a single module, prior adjustments on module, prior errors posted on module, and various other complicating factors. Provide features of your solution regarding its ability to be accessed by a population of thousands of employees. Also, provide details on the ability for solution to pull data from a source as close to real-time as possible, ensuring all transactions are taken into account. Provide the features of your solution regarding its ability to interface with IRS Master File (MF)/Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS). Provide the features of your solution regarding its ability to work in conjunction with assistive technologies (e.g., Section 508 requirements). Provide a rough order of magnitude for a potential solution of this type, relative to the following: Less than $1M Between $1M and $5M More than $5M Questions in response to this Sources Sought Notice may be submitted electronically on or before August 2nd at 5:00pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The Government reserves the right to respond to some, all or none of the questions submitted. Vendors that meet the requirements described in this announcement are invited to submit their capability statements/RFI responses. The deadline for responses to this RFI is 5:00 PM EDT, August 13, 2024. Responses should be forwarded via email to both the primary, contact@example.gov and "cc" to contact@example.gov. Responses shall not exceed 10 pages and shall not contain any brochures, advertising or any other type of extraneous, graphic literature or documents that have not been requested and are not relevant or essential in demonstrating the company's ability to provide the required services. Vendors may provide links to relevant websites, as appropriate. Vendors shall reference - RFI - IRS Interest Program Support in the subject line of their response as well as in the subject line of any other e-mail correspondence referencing this notice. ** THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT RESPOND TO PHONE CALLS. ** Thank you for your interest. Contracting Office Address: Internal Revenue Service 5000 Ellin Road Lanham, MD 20706 Primary Point of Contact: Stacey L. Dressler, Program Manager, Business Support Office contact@example.gov