24-71-APMO-OITA - Interest Program _SSN (20240926a).docx

24-71-A-PMO-OITA INTEREST PROGRAM REQUIREMENT

Sources Sought Notice (SSN)

TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES

Sources Sought – THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) IS RELEASED PURSUANT TO FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) PART 10, MARKET RESEARCH.

This 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), Office of Servicewide Interest (OSI), supports all IRS functions performing Net Rate Netting (NRN) manual interest computation work, which includes verifying and re-computing NRN requests submitted by taxpayers.

IRS government employees currently perform complex interest computations for NRN requests filed by taxpayers. Computations may include standard/frequent calculations to verify amounts requested on Form 843 requests for netting. To properly complete computations, it requires knowledge of all interest law, legislation impacting interest, as well as knowledge of IRS transactions, ability to read IRS transcripts, and understand how posted transactions can impact the netting computation. This requires an in-depth knowledge of procedures for claiming a refund of overpaid underpayment interest or requesting the allowance of additional overpayment interest.

Recent attrition and the complexity of these cases requires Contractor support and assistance with these computations. The goal is for a streamlined process where the NRN requests can be reviewed, verified, and a determination made within 60-90 days.

The IRS is seeking to obtain Contractor support and assistance for sensitive taxpayer information to provide NRN computations, Internal Revenue Code (IRC) 6621(d) application, compute and verify NRN computations using the current interest computation brand name Automated Computational Tool (ACT)/Decision Modeling Inc. (DMI) software (or equivalent). The computations included in the taxpayer’s netting request shall be verified using an internal interest computation software.

This support would provide the Government with computations to verify NRN submissions received on behalf of taxpayers and amounts claimed on Forms 843. These cases must be reviewed for timeliness and completeness, considering all factors including statute of limitation periods under IRC 6501 and IRC 6511, which will be used to determine if the NRN requests should be allowed in full, adjusted or denied.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION: The IRS is requesting submission of Technical Capabilities organized by the categories below. Responses may not exceed 10 pages, excluding the cover page. Each response should include the following information:

1. General Information:

b) Company Name;

c) Company Address of corporate headquarters;

d) Company Point of Contact, Phone and Email address;

e) Current Contract Number and Task Area(s) appropriate for this notice; including the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code.

f) Type of Company (i.e., small business, 8(a), woman owned, veteran owned, etc.)

g) Contract holder’s capability statement that addresses organizational and staff experience and expertise.

h) Provide a rough order of magnitude for a potential solution of this type, relative to the following:

a. Between $1M and $5M

b. Between $5M and $10M

c. Between $10M and $20M

d. More than $20M

i) If the pricing, commercial catalog, rate card, or Terms of Service / Service Layer Agreements are available for IRS review on a publicly accessible site, provide applicable site address and information.

2. Core Capabilities:

a) Provide features of your solution to:

a. Perform NRN computations for corporations, Form 1120 series.

b. Consider all aspects of the computation that can impact netting, including 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)).

c. Re-compute manual interest computations for netting on all modules involved in the NRN request.

d. Consider all information with the taxpayer’s NRN submission to determine if statutes are open for netting, and if NRN submission should be accepted as filed, adjusted or denied.

e. Provide all supporting documentation to include NRN computations, manual interest reports generated using interest software, as well as IRC, Revenue Rulings and any relevant law supporting position.

b) Describe how you would compute NRN, what software would be used to perform these computations, what forms would be generated from this software to support computations, etc.

c) List three organizations to which similar types of services have been previously provided within the last three years –include contract number, description of the requirement, dollar value, contract type, name and telephone number of the customer.

d) Describe the level of effort of setting up and current ability of employees to perform NRN computations.

e) Delivery timeframe required to perform NRN computations and conduct training for employees, if applicable.

f) Describe the delivery method for NRN computations/supporting documentation and ability to securely transmit information between the IRS and contractor. What security methods would be employed to protect sensitive taxpayer data?

g) Describe storage method for taxpayer records while work is being performed by the contractor.

3. Technical / Security Requirements:

a) Is your company and solution FedRAMP certified? If not FedRAMP certified, are you planning on getting certified?

b) Provide your product’s Section 508 voluntary product assessment template (VPAT/WCAG). Provide information on how your product shows conformance to Section 508 accessibility requirements. Describe your support model for 508 defects remediation. d) Provide information on vulnerability management and run-time security detection and enforcement.

c) Provide information on how the audit log information is captured, stored, accessed, and archived.

d) Explain how authorized users authenticate on the product/solution.

INDUSTRY DEMONSTRATIONS:

If further information is needed, the IRS representatives may choose to invite SSN responders to conduct a demonstration no longer than 60 minutes of their product functionality with the intent and sole purpose of gathering further clarification of potential capability to meet the requirements, especially any development and certification risks. The following capabilities should be demonstrated:

· Demonstrate the contractor proficiency with various interest issues, including interest tax law, legislation, etc.

· Demonstrate the contractor ability to compute net rate interest netting.

· Demonstrate the software used by the contractor to compute interest.

· Demonstrate the vendor’s ability to review and interpret IRS transcripts, transaction codes, and applicability to NRN computations.

· Demonstrate software used to conduct research on interest issues, when needed.

Questions in response to this Sources Sought Notice may be submitted electronically on or before October 1, 2024, 5:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Questions should be forwarded via email to Stacey.L.Dressler@irs.gov and Michelle.D.Ribaudo@irs.gov with a “cc” to adrienne.m.spruill@irs.gov. 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/SSN responses.

The deadline for responses to this SSN is 5:00 PM EDT, October 9, 2024. Responses should be forwarded via email to both the primary, Stacey.L.Dressler@irs.gov and Michelle.D.Ribaudo@irs.gov with a "cc" to adrienne.m.spruill@irs.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 “SSN – 24-71-A-PMO-OITA INTEREST PROGRAM REQUIREMENT” 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. **