TREAS IRS - Creation of Qualified Opportunity Zone - MRAS

The Department of the Treasury (TREAS), in collaboration with the General Services Administration (GSA), is conducting market research to support its Office of Research, Applied Analytics & Statistics (RAAS) within the Statistics of Income (SOI) Division. The primary goal of this initiative is to enhance the reporting and analysis capabilities related to investments in Qualified Opportunity Zones, as mandated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OB3). This legislation has introduced new reporting requirements for these investments, and TREAS aims to ensure robust policy evaluation and oversight through improved data processing and analysis.

The contract seeks expert support for designing, developing, and delivering an automated data editing and imputation system specifically tailored for Forms 8996 and 8997 filings. Starting with Tax Year 2026, this system will utilize SOI national sample data as benchmarks to refine its automated processes. The contractor will be responsible for ensuring that this system can handle both individual and corporate tax returns filed annually. Additionally, it is expected that the contractor will provide specialized expertise in developing methodologies that facilitate public reporting on various aspects of Qualified Opportunity Funds, including fund numbers, aggregate assets, investment categories by NAICS codes, employment indicators, real estate versus other property mix, residential units, and investment amounts by tract.

To achieve these objectives effectively, the contractor must ensure consistency with existing SOI data editing methodologies while also enabling detailed statistical production as required by OB3. The developed system should adhere to federal statistical standards as outlined in the Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency. Moreover, it should be modular enough to adapt to other IRS tax return data used for federal statistics production. Throughout development and implementation phases, training will be provided to SOI staff so they can independently maintain and enhance these processes post-contract completion.

By project completion, IRS SOI staff are expected to have received comprehensive training along with all necessary documentation and transition materials needed for ongoing execution. This includes maintaining system updates, customization capabilities, quality monitoring practices, and integration techniques for new data sources or methods ensuring long-term sustainability of Opportunity Zone data production capabilities within TREAS.