LSJ.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

LIMITED-SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

Acquisition Title: Taxpayer Experience Engineering Support This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program (see FAR 8.401)

Treasury Standard Form 1012 (Rev 12/24)

Prescribed by Treasury: DTAP 1008.405-6 Tracking No.

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity:

Requiring Activity is IRS IT office, Taxpayer Services and Online Accounts (TSOA) vertical.

Contracting activity is IRS.

2.a Nature and/or description of the action being approved:

The purpose of this justification is to obtain approval to award an urgent and compelling award needed to support uninterrupted delivery and operations for high-volume, mission-critical web applications such as the Data Authorization and Transfer Service (DATS) and priorities and legislative requirements, such as the Tax Withholding Estimator (TWE 2.0).

Failure to award the contract will cause major disruptions in high-volume, mission-critical tax applications used by taxpayers during filing season. Stakeholders including taxpayers, tax return preparation software providers (Intuit, H&R Block, etc.), state department of revenue, and federal agencies will experience reduced service quality and potential downtime. Inability to integrate new technologies and support existing technologies may compromise filing season 26 readiness and compliance.

The proposed award will be six-months and it represents the minimal and essential continuation of services required to maintain and stabilize filing season critical IT services including the Data Authorization and Transfer Service and Tax Withholding 2.0, the latter of which is in the final stages of implementation and modernization. No additional features or scope expansion are being introduced; all work directly supports ongoing taxpayer usability, auditability, and compliance objectives. The scope has been deliberately minimized to core delivery, maintenance, testing, and user experience support, ensuring continuity without overpayment for unnecessary services.

2.b Name of the vendor: TrussWorks, Inc.

2.c Requisition No.: 5000220995 2.d Bridge contract: Yes No 2.e Brand name: Yes No

The proposed acquisition is to acquire engineering, DevOps, security, and operations services from TrussWorks, Inc. (Truss). Award to this vendor would ensure senior application engineering and DevOps resources can support maintaining and enhancing the Current Production Environment (CPE) applications, in particular the Taxpayer Resources and User Service Tier (TRUST) platform, external systems, and interfaces. These applications serve individual taxpayers, third party industry partners, state departments of revenue, and other federal agencies.

3.b Includes IT: Yes No Product Service Code: DA01, NAICS Code: 541512

3.c IGCE/Estimated dollar value: The IGCE is $2,266,665.80 for six months. Refer to IGCE and SC 5000220995 for details.

4.a Identification of the authority being used (Check the appropriate box that applies).

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(A) An urgent and compelling need exists, and following the procedures would result in unacceptable delays.

Acquisition Title: Taxpayer Experience Engineering Support This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program (see FAR 8.401)

Treasury Standard Form 1012 (Rev 12/24)

Prescribed by Treasury: DTAP 1008.405-6 Tracking No.

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(C) In the interest of economy and efficiency, the new work is a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule order or BPA provided that the original order or BPA was placed in accordance with FSS procedures in accordance with the applicable Federal Supply Schedule ordering procedures. The original order or BPA must not have been previously issued under sole-source or limited-sources procedures.

FAR 8.405-6(b) Items peculiar to one manufacturer. (i.e., Brand Name specifications) 4.b Supporting Rationale:

The proposed action is justified under urgent and compelling circumstances due to the immediate need to restore uninterrupted engineering support for taxpayer-facing systems, including DATS, and TWE. These systems are mission-service delivery obligations for the 2026 filing season (FS26).

Without a prompt award, the Government will be unable to continue usability testing and taxpayer engagement necessary to maintain system readiness and compliance timelines. An immediate award to TrussWorks, Inc. will minimize schedule risk and eliminates the phase-in and training costs that would be incurred with a new contractor. Onboarding a replacement vendor would require an estimated 90-day transition for knowledge transfer, security clearance processing, and re-establishment of taxpayer testing protocols, resulting in unacceptable delays to the program schedule and need to deliver commitments by FS26. By the time the new vendor would be operationally capable of performing, FS26 will be nearly complete and the period of performance will be ending.

This urgent award ensures continuity of critical engineering services across IRS and Treasury, while the program office initiates planning for a competitive follow-on procurement. Future acquisitions will be structured with adequate lead time to prevent recurrence of similar urgency and to promote full and open competition. This approach fulfills the immediate mission needs with long-term procurement integrity and safeguards against disruption to taxpayer-facing systems.

The IRS anticipates it would take any new vendor a least six months to be competed, ramped up and take this work, which would be well after the work for the Tax year 26 filing season needs to be completed. The proposed vendor is already fully onboarded to the IRS and has worked continuously on specialized taxpayer facing tax applications since 2023, including Direct File, DATS and TWE, which require in-depth knowledge of the usability testing and taxpayer interviews for complex real-time tax applications. TrussWorks, Inc. was previously awarded a contract in 2023 to provide identical services to what is being requested for this current award.

5. A determination by the ordering activity Contracting Officer that the order or BPA represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d):

Acquisition Title: Taxpayer Experience Engineering Support This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program (see FAR 8.401)

Treasury Standard Form 1012 (Rev 12/24)

Prescribed by Treasury: DTAP 1008.405-6 Tracking No.

The Contracting Officer determines that the anticipated price(s) will be fair and reasonable based on the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) for this requirement used for the prior contract award directly to Truss. The IGCE was calculated using rates used under the previous sole source award to Truss, which were originally derived by a combination of GSA CALC, and Digital Service contracts of similar engineering and development scopes.

6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results or a statement why market research was not conducted:

Market research was conducted to meet the urgent and compelling timeline in the form of:

- On 11/06/2025, IRS Procurement sent an offer letter to the San Diego Small Business Administration (SBA) office to attempt to award this requirement direct 8(a) sole source to TrussWorks, Inc. However, due to the Government shut down, all actions were centralized to the SBA DC office, which was operating with very limited staff and handling all of the 8a inquiries and requests for the entire country. The SBA Deputy Director of contracts, Patrick Mayle discussed realistic timelines and how they are prioritizing work, he estimated for it to take longer than 1-2 months to process acceptance letter or any requests.

- On 11/07/2025, IRS Procurement searched for GSA MAS 54151S for capable vendors and located TrussWorks, Inc. (GS-35F-174GA); which is listed as an MAS 8(a) Pool- Sole Source contract holder.

See SF 1010 Market Research Summary Report 7.a Any other facts supporting this justification: N/A 7.b Attachments: Yes No : SF 1010 Market Research, SC - 5000220995, IGCE, SF 1011 Acquisition Plan

8. A statement of the actions, if any, the Requiring Activity and Contracting Activity may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies and services is made:

The initial procurement for these services resulted from competition among 8(a) Digital Service vendors. However, due to the pressing timeline to meet Filing Season 2026 (FS26) milestones and deliver legislative priorities and given the unique qualifications of the proposed contractor described in Section 4(b), the Government cannot solicit broader sources at this time. The Requiring Activity will restore full competition for subsequent acquisitions and anticipates executing a competitive 8(a) award targeted for June 1, 2026, immediately following the expiration of this six-month bridge action.

Planned actions to remove barriers and enable competition include: (1) conducting market research and issuing a Sources Sought/RFI to identify and validate the pool of qualified vendors; (2) publishing a draft PWS and accepting industry questions to refine requirements and reduce incumbency advantage; and (3) attending and/or hosting a vendor Q&A/industry day to clarify expectations, including security and transition timelines. The anticipated timeline is: RFI/market research (Jan 2026); draft PWS for comments (Feb 2026); final solicitation release (Mar 2026); proposals due (mid-Apr 2026); evaluation/negotiations (Apr May 2026); competitive award on or about June 1, 2026). This sequencing is intended to ensure an orderly transition without service disruption.

Acquisition Title: Taxpayer Experience Engineering Support This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program (see FAR 8.401)

Treasury Standard Form 1012 (Rev 12/24)

Prescribed by Treasury: DTAP 1008.405-6 Tracking No.

9. Certifications and Approvals:

9.a Program Office Certification (Requiring Activity). I hereby certify that any supporting other rationale for the limited sources) and which form the basis for this justification for an exception to fair opportunity, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Name: Samuel Swire Date:

Signature:

9.b Contracting Officer Certification and Approval. I hereby determine the circumstances of this acquisition support the justification to acquire these supplies or services on a limited source basis. I also certify this limited-sources justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Therefore, unless additional approvals are required as prescribed below, as the authorized contracting officer for this acquisition, I hereby approve the processing of this requirement on a limited-source basis.

Name: Stacy Parran Date:

Signature:

10. Additional Reviews and Approvals (As applicable):

10.a Bureau Chief Information Officer or Authorized Designee (for IT requirements that are over $5 million but not exceeding $75 million) (Contracting Activity). I have reviewed this justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and

Therefore, I hereby consent to the approval of this justification. (Note: The Bureau CIO may delegate their authority for proposed contracts over $5 million but not exceeding $15 million to the Associate Bureau CIO(s).)

Name: Date:

Signature:

10.b Advocate for Competition (if over $750,000 but not exceeding $15 million) (Contracting Activity). I have reviewed this limited-sources justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Therefore, unless additional competition, I hereby approve this limited-sources justification.

Name: Julius Bradshaw Date:

Signature:

10.c Head of the Procuring Activity or Authorized Designee (if over $15 million but not exceeding $75 million) (Contracting Activity). I have reviewed this limited-sources justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Therefore, unless additional approvals are required as prescribed below, as the head of the procuring activity or authorized designee, I hereby approve this limited-sources justification.

Acquisition Title: Taxpayer Experience Engineering Support This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program (see FAR 8.401)

Treasury Standard Form 1012 (Rev 12/24)

Prescribed by Treasury: DTAP 1008.405-6 Tracking No.

Name: Date:

Signature:

10.d Treasury Chief Information Officer (for IT requirements that are over $75 million).

I have reviewed this justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my

Therefore, I hereby consent to the approval of this justification.

Name: Date:

Signature:

10.e Senior Procurement Executive (if over $75 million) (Contracting Activity). I have reviewed this limited-sources justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Therefore, I hereby approve this limited-sources justification.

Name: Date:

Signature: