1b__2019-01-31_(Sales_Tax_SOW).rtf

RTF text file 129 KB Posted

Attached to
Sales Tax Data Support Federal contract opportunity
Solicitation number
7000001054
Issued by
Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service

About this file

This is the statement of work for sales tax data that include a base and four option years.

Text of this file

0 Title Statement of Work Submitted by: Research, Applied Analytics and Statistics, Office of Research Internal Revenue Service Project: Data for General Sales Tax Tables and Sales Tax Deduction Calculator for Tax Year 2019. The tables and calculator will be made available to taxpayers in FY 2020.

1 Introduction/Overview The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is seeking Sales Tax Data, both State and Local, for the purpose of developing data that the Office of Research needs to create general sales tax tables and to update the sales tax deduction calculator for IRS.gov.

2 Background United States tax law requires publication of State and Local general sales tax tables for taxpayers who are eligible to deduct State and local sales taxes. The IRS will use State and Local sales tax data for Tax Year 2019 to prepare these tables for the 2020 filing season.

3 Scope IRS will use State and Local Sales Tax data to develop General Sales Tax tables for Tax Year 2019. United States individual taxpayers will use these tables to estimate the amount of general sales tax they paid during 2019 as a possible income tax deduction.

4 Tasks

A kickoff meeting will occur within 10 business days of the award. The meeting may include key managers and staff in the Office of Research, as well as other IRS analysts and stakeholders. Topics for discussion will include contractual tasks, deliverables, and timelines.
The contractor will provide State general sales tax rates for 2019 as described below:

This data will be provided in an Excel spreadsheet named “2019 State Rates”.

The spreadsheet must include the standard two-letter State abbreviation, State Name, general sales tax rate, and its effective date.

If the sales tax rate in a given state changed during 2019, then the rate included in the Excel Spreadsheet must be the blended rate (i.e., the weighted average of the rates in effect during 2019, with the weight assigned to each rate being the number of days—not months—that the rate was in effect). In addition to providing the blended rate, the spreadsheet must also specify the previous rate, the current rate and the date(s) when the rate changed.
This is to be delivered electronically to the IRS in an Excel spreadsheet by August 8, 2019.
If a State’s rate changes during the year, but after the August 8, 2019 due date, then the IRS must be notified as soon as the law to change the rate has been enacted.

The contractor will provide data from existing databases for Spending Categories identified by the IRS for all state and local taxing jurisdictions, indicating whether each category was taxable (indicated by a 1) or not taxable (indicated by a 0) as of July 1, 2019. The contractor will also provide comparable data on the taxability of any additional Spending Categories in taxing jurisdictions based on research of unique sources for which databases are not currently available.

A list of spending categories will be provided by the IRS with this SOW. The contractor will be informed of any updates to this list during the kickoff meeting.
The data for State and Local taxing jurisdictions will be provided in two separate spreadsheets named “2019 state taxability” and “2019 local taxability”.
The State taxability spreadsheet will contain data from existing databases for State taxing jurisdictions. This will be provided in a tab named “UCC State”. The tab will include the Universal Classification Code (UCC) for Spending Categories in the first column, name of spending Categories in the second column, name of the States as column headings in the first row, and corresponding taxability data in the defined cells.
The State taxability spreadsheet will also contain data collected from research of unique sources for which databases are not currently available for State taxing jurisdictions. This will be provided in a tab named “UCC State Other”. The tab will include the Universal Classification Code (UCC) for Spending Categories in the first column, name of spending Categories in the second column, name of the States as column headings in the first row, and corresponding taxability data in the defined cells.
The Local taxability spreadsheet will contain data from existing databases for Local taxing jurisdictions. This will be provided in a tab named “UCC Local”. The tab will include the Universal Classification Code (UCC) for Spending Categories in the first column, name of spending Categories in the second column, name of the States as column headings in the first row and corresponding taxability data in the defined cells.

The Local taxability spreadsheet will contain data collected from research of unique sources for which databases are not currently available for Local taxing jurisdictions. This will be provided in a tab named “UCC Local Other”. The tab will include the Universal Classification Code (UCC) for Spending Categories in the first column, name of spending Categories in the second column, name of the States as column headings in the first row, and corresponding taxability data in the defined cells.

If the category is taxed at a rate other than the prevailing general sales tax rate, then this will be indicated in the Excel Spreadsheet with a decimal, which is the unique rate for the category divided by the prevailing general sales tax rate for the jurisdiction. (Note: a key criterion for general sales taxes to be eligible as income tax deductions is that they are applied to a wide range of goods and services at one uniform tax rate. Exceptions to this rule are few and typically require congressional or IRS approval.)
If the taxability for a category changed near the middle of the year, then this will be indicated in the data with a decimal, which is the weighted average of the taxability before and after the change, where the weights are based on the number of days in the year during which the category was or was not taxable. For example, a change from taxable to not taxable on July 1 would result in a blended taxability factor of 0.5.
A separate tab, named “Food Tax Base”, will be included in the local taxability spreadsheet for localities that have opted to tax food differently from the state. This will include a list of spending categories for food and the corresponding taxability data. Any notes related to this data will be provided in another tab named “Notes – Food Tax Base”.

A separate tab, named “New York Clothing”, will be included in the local taxability spreadsheet. This tab will include names of New York local jurisdictions that exempt clothing and jurisdictions that do not exempt clothing.

The State taxability database is to be delivered electronically to the IRS in an Excel spreadsheet by August 15, 2019.
The local taxability database is to be delivered electronically to the IRS in an Excel spreadsheet by August 29, 2019.
When the taxability data are delivered, information must also be provided on any significant taxability variation during the course of the year (2019), or a change relative to the prior year. For example, when:

A State used to have no local general sales taxes, but this year does have one or more localities imposing local general sales taxes, or vice versa.

A locality used to tax the same categories as the state, but now deviates from the State’s tax base, or vice versa.

A State used to require a uniform minimum local sales tax for all localities, but no longer does, or vice versa.

The contractor will provide local general sales tax rates for each unique ZIP Code / County / City combination in the U.S. covering the period January 1 through December 31, 2019.

This data will be provided in a comma-separated value (CSV) file and a vertical bar (pipe) delimited text file.
The files will be named “2019 STDC” (for “Sales Tax Deduction Calculator”).
The files should not include any duplicate localities—even with slightly different spellings for the city name (e.g., due to abbreviations).

If the sales tax rate in a given locality changed during 2019, then the rate included in the data files must be the blended rate (i.e., the weighted average of the rates in effect during 2018, with the weight assigned to each rate preferably being the number of days that the rate was in effect, but the number of months may be used if necessary for these local rates only).

If a locality is partially within one or more special districts that have different sales tax rates than the area outside of these special districts, all sales tax rates applicable to this locality will be provided in the database. For example, if a locality has a local rate of 2% and is partially in a special tax district with a local rate of 3%, then the data files must include two records for this locality, identifying the record for special district with its appropriate name.
The data files must include records for Indian Reservations.
A separate data file named “2019 STDC military”, both in CSV and vertical bar delimited text file, will be provided that include local general sales tax rates, if any, for each unique ZIP Code in overseas U.S. military zones or districts. The U.S. military zones tend to have no sales tax. The purpose of this data is to account for members of armed forces who moved to overseas posts of duty during part of 2019. Without the unique overseas ZIP Code and tax rates, some military members who moved overseas in 2019 may not be able to use the Sales Tax Deduction Calculator to determine their sales tax deduction amount.
The data files must include columns in the following order: 5-digit zip code (including leading or trailing zeros), State (abbreviated 2-character, e.g. NY), County, City, Local Blended Rate (to six decimal places), and State Blended Rate (to six decimal places).
These files are to be delivered electronically to the IRS by December 9, 2019.
A list of all possible locality names will be delivered to the IRS in a CSV file and a text file by May 30, 2019. If there are any additions or changes to the list, IRS will be provided with updated files by November 14, 2019.

Tasks and timelines in option years are the same as for the base year, only the sales tax data is updated to reflect the tax year specified in C.7 Period of Performance below.

5 Delivery The following items, mentioned in the Requirements above, are to be delivered to the

IRS.

List of locality names by May 30, 2019.
Weighted sales tax rates for US States by August 8, 2019.

State taxability data by August 15, 2019.

Local taxability data by August 29, 2019.

Updated list of Locality names by November 14, 2019.

Local general sales tax rates in the U.S by December 9, 2019.

Deliverables and timelines in option years are the same as for the base year, only the sales tax data is updated to reflect the tax year specified in C.7 Period of Performance below.

6 Place Of Performance The contract will be performed at the contractor’s location and the data files will be emailed to the IRS Office of Research.

7 Period Of Performance Date of award through January 31, 2020.

Note: The last deliverable date is December 9, 2019. The contractor will be expected to respond to follow up questions from December 9, 2019 to January 31, 2020.

The government anticipates the award of up to four (4) one-year options to provide equivalent data for future tax years as follows:

Base Year—Date of Award through January 31, 2020, Data for Tax Year 2019 Option Year 1—February 1 2020 through January 31, 2021, Data for Tax Year 2020 Option Year 2—February 1 2021 through January 31, 2022, Data for Tax Year 2021 Option Year 3—February 1 2022 through January 31, 2023, Data for Tax Year 2022 Option Year 4—February 1 2023 through January 31, 2024, Data for Tax Year 2023

8 Government Furnished Property No government-furnished property will be provided to the contractor.

9 Security Requirements The contractor will not be using taxpayer-level data, so there are no security requirements for this contract.

Other files for this federal contract opportunity

Other files attached to Sales Tax Data Support, newest first.
File Type Posted
2_Questions_and_Answers_Sales_Tax_Data_5.8.19.docx DOCX document
Questions_and_Answers_Sales_Tax_Data__5.3.19.pdf PDF
IRS_SalesTax_2016_Test_UCC_Categories.xlsx XLSX spreadsheet
IRS_Sales_Tax_2016_Test_ZIP_list.xlsx XLSX spreadsheet
second_page_to_SF18_sales_tax_data.pdf PDF
SF18-95a_RFQ_SALES_TAX_DATA.pdf PDF

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