ELECTRONIC TAX PREPARATION AND TRANSMISSION SOFTWARE AND SUPPORT (ETSA) - VITA Software and Services

The purpose of amendment no. 0003 is to:
1. respond to follow up questions received in response to this solicitation via attachment "Amendment 3 - Follow Up Q and A Q6QT0107C0000"
2. provide the revised solicitation document "VITA ETSA Q6QT0107C0000 Amendment 3" which reflects changes to "other necessary documents" on page 77.

The purpose of amendment no. 0004 is to:
1. respond to the following question

Q25. The base year of the contract is shown as Mid - November 2015 to Mid - November 2016.
Does this mean that the Contractor would be providing software, training, etc... to VITA offices for filing season 2016? Or would the first software deployment be for filing season 2017?

A25. The first software deployment would be for filing season 2017.

2. amend the summary description to highlight this clarification.

The purpose of amendment no. 0005 is to:
1. respond to the following question

Q26. I have been unable to locate the deliverable table referenced in the RFP and in Attachment 5. In last year's version of the RFP, there was a ‘Section F.3 Schedule of Deliverables.'

A26. Amendment 2 - Attachment 2 - Pricing Proposal, contains the required deliverables to be priced.

The Customer Assistance, Relationships and Education (CARE) organization, within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Wage and Investment Division, seeks to award a contract for electronic tax preparation software and support services for volunteer tax preparers to complete accurate, secure transmissions of tax returns to the IRS and state agencies. The software will support the IRS organizations' various tax assistance programs described in the previous section. The software shall take advantage of current and commercially proven technology. It should meet the requirements and be compliant with IRS electronic e-file for tax preparation capability and operate out-of-the-box with minimal configuration/custom development to meet IRS regulatory, security and privacy standards.

THE REQUIREMENTS ARE DESCRIBED IN DETAIL IN THE ATTACHED SOLICITATION PACKAGE AND ATTACHMENTS.

Questions in response to this solicitation shall be submitted via e-mail to Bridgette Garcia at Bridgette.Garcia@irs.gov by Monday, June 29, 2015 at 8:00 AM EDT. The e-mail subject line must contain the text: "Questions to RFP Q6QT0107C0000"

***The first software deployment would be required for filing season 2017.***

The purpose of amendment no. 0003 is to:
1. respond to follow up questions received in response to this solicitation via attachment "Amendment 3 - Follow Up Q and A Q6QT0107C0000"
2. provide the revised solicitation document "VITA ETSA Q6QT0107C0000 Amendment 3" which reflects changes to "other necessary documents" on page 77.

The purpose of amendment no. 0004 is to:
1. respond to the following question

Q25. The base year of the contract is shown as Mid - November 2015 to Mid - November 2016.
Does this mean that the Contractor would be providing software, training, etc... to VITA offices for filing season 2016? Or would the first software deployment be for filing season 2017?

A25. The first software deployment would be for filing season 2017.

2. amend the summary description to highlight this clarification.

The purpose of amendment no. 0003 is to:
1. respond to follow up questions received in response to this solicitation via attachment "Amendment 3 - Follow Up Q and A Q6QT0107C0000"
2. provide the revised solicitation document "VITA ETSA Q6QT0107C0000 Amendment 3" which reflects changes to "other necessary documents" on page 77.

The Customer Assistance, Relationships and Education (CARE) organization, within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Wage and Investment Division, seeks to award a contract for electronic tax preparation software and support services for volunteer tax preparers to complete accurate, secure transmissions of tax returns to the IRS and state agencies. The software will support the IRS organizations' various tax assistance programs described in the previous section. The software shall take advantage of current and commercially proven technology. It should meet the requirements and be compliant with IRS electronic e-file for tax preparation capability and operate out-of-the-box with minimal configuration/custom development to meet IRS regulatory, security and privacy standards.

THE REQUIREMENTS ARE DESCRIBED IN DETAIL IN THE ATTACHED SOLICITATION PACKAGE AND ATTACHMENTS.

Questions in response to this solicitation shall be submitted via e-mail to Bridgette Garcia at Bridgette.Garcia@irs.gov by Monday, June 29, 2015 at 8:00 AM EDT. The e-mail subject line must contain the text: "Questions to RFP Q6QT0107C0000"

The purpose of amendment no. 0001 is to respond to the following question-

Question 1: Since 2002, FFI has provided free tax preparation and filing services to low income tax payers pursuant to an Administrative Procedure Act (APA) rulemaking and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the IRS. Eligible taxpayers include the lowest 70% of taxpayers by AGI, or approximately 100 million of the 140 million individually-filing taxpayers. [Text redacted] VITA serves many of the same qualifying taxpayers. [Text redacted]

Can those making a proposal under this RFP make use of Free File, Inc. software?

Answer 1: Page 79 of the solicitation describes the basis of award. The best value is represented by the lowest priced technically acceptable proposal. Offerors may propose any software that meets the requirements of the solicitation. The Offerors are encouraged to do what they can to meet the requirements of the solicitation while keeping the costs of supporting the VITA program as low as possible. IRS would consider of a solution that makes use of Free File, Inc. software.

The purpose of amendment no. 0002 is to:
1. respond to questions received in response to this solicitation via attachment "Amendment 2 - Q and A Q6QT0107C0000"
2. provide revisions to attachment 2 via attachment "Amendment 2 - Attachment 2 - Pricing Proposal"
3. provide revisions to attachment 7 via attachment "Attachment 7 - Applicable IRS Publications"
4. provide the new attachment "SF1449"
5. provide the revised solicitation document "Amendment 2 - VITA ETSA Q6QT0107C0000" which reflects the correct solicitation number.

The purpose of amendment no. 0001 is to respond to the following question-

Question 1: Since 2002, FFI has provided free tax preparation and filing services to low income tax payers pursuant to an Administrative Procedure Act (APA) rulemaking and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the IRS. Eligible taxpayers include the lowest 70% of taxpayers by AGI, or approximately 100 million of the 140 million individually-filing taxpayers. [Text redacted] VITA serves many of the same qualifying taxpayers. [Text redacted]

Can those making a proposal under this RFP make use of Free File, Inc. software?

Answer 1: Page 79 of the solicitation describes the basis of award. The best value is represented by the lowest priced technically acceptable proposal. Offerors may propose any software that meets the requirements of the solicitation. The Offerors are encouraged to do what they can to meet the requirements of the solicitation while keeping the costs of supporting the VITA program as low as possible. IRS would consider of a solution that makes use of Free File, Inc. software.

The Customer Assistance, Relationships and Education (CARE) organization, within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Wage and Investment Division, seeks to award a contract for electronic tax preparation software and support services for volunteer tax preparers to complete accurate, secure transmissions of tax returns to the IRS and state agencies. The software will support the IRS organizations' various tax assistance programs described in the previous section. The software shall take advantage of current and commercially proven technology. It should meet the requirements and be compliant with IRS electronic e-file for tax preparation capability and operate out-of-the-box with minimal configuration/custom development to meet IRS regulatory, security and privacy standards.

THE REQUIREMENTS ARE DESCRIBED IN DETAIL IN THE ATTACHED SOLICITATION PACKAGE AND ATTACHMENTS.

Questions in response to this solicitation shall be submitted via e-mail to Bridgette Garcia at Bridgette.Garcia@irs.gov by Monday, June 29, 2015 at 8:00 AM EDT. The e-mail subject line must contain the text: "Questions to RFP Q6QT0107C01000"