IRS Statistical Agency Accepting Research Proposals
The Statistics of Income program (SOI) within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is accepting proposals for its Joint Statistical Research Program. The program, which is generally offered every two years, matches researchers outside the federal government with IRS researchers to work on projects that will deepen our understanding of taxpayer behavior and of how tax policies affect individuals, businesses, and the economy. The IRS hopes that such projects will also lead to the development of new datasets to enhance future tax research.
SOI is particularly interested in proposals addressing the following topics: “Tax administration in a global economy; taxpayer needs and behavior, particularly the roles of information, complexity, salience, engagement, and compliance costs; filing, payment, and reporting compliance measures, behaviors, and drivers; benefit participation measures, behaviors, and drivers, particularly related to the Affordable Care Act; taxpayer response to policy changes, particularly taxpayer responses to changes in incentives; the role of complex business structures in tax planning; and application of new research methods for tax administration, particularly data science, behavioral insights, or other interdisciplinary approaches.”
The 2016 call for proposals is available here. Proposals will be accepted through December 31, 2016.