PDF《Free File》

Publication

4829 (Rev 11-2011) Catalog Number 54376J Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service www.

irs.gov Free File Demographics and Migration Analysis Research & Analysis Project # 2-11-04-S-035 Research Group

2 July,

2011 Free File Demographics and Migration Analysis TY

2009 Presentation for the Office of Presentation for the Office of Electronic Tax Administration and Refundable Credits Electronic Tax Administration and Refundable Credits Research & Analysis

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51 Background To increase electronic filing, it is imperative that the IRS understand its markets, measure the success of past marketing efforts, and track changes in taxpayer behavior. In an effort to increase the number of individual income tax returns filed electronically, Electronic Tax Administration and Refundable Credits (ETARC) officials have requested an analysis of taxpayers who use the Free File program. The Free File program is a free federal tax preparation and electronic filing program for eligible taxpayers developed through a partnership between the IRS and the Free File Alliance, a group of private sector tax preparation companies. For processing year (PY)

2010 [tax year (TY) 2009], the Free File program allows taxpayers earning $57,000 or less to file their federal tax returns for free with no hidden fees. This program is intended to contribute to overall IRS electronic filing. Research & Analysis

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51 Brief Methodology Wage and Investment Research and Analysis (WIRA) addressed five business questions specified by ETARC in order to better understand Free File taxpayers and to track their behavior. Data was queried through the use of Structured Query Language (SQL) programming. The primary data source was the ETA Marketing Database. WIRA used descriptive statistics and market segmentation to profile various taxpayer populations of interest. For the migration analysis (Question # 5), WIRA analyzed individual taxpayers instead of tax returns. Since a taxpayer could have filed as primary in one year and secondary in another, analyzing taxpayers provides a more complete picture. WIRA uploaded data to the Compliance Data Warehouse (CDW), validated them, and used SAS programming to run the queries to answer the business question. Research & Analysis

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51 Tax Filing Type Technical Definitions ? Free File: For TY 2009, consortium indicator present, Online return, no RAL/RAC requested, and adjusted gross income of equal or less than $57,000 ((CONSORTIUM_IND = 'C' or 'S' and TRDBTY09 = '3' and TRDBRAL = '0' and AGICOMP