Digital Asset Basis Computation and Bulk Data Analysis Case Support

Active

Contract Opportunity

Amendment 4 on 3/18/2024: The updated Q&A document has been posted to answer all questions received.

Amendment 3 on 3/8/2024: The Q&A document has been posted to answer the initial questions received. The RFI questions and answers period has been extended. Please email RFI questions to Tanya.E.Outland@irs.gov by Tuesday, March 12, 2024. The answers will be provided to industry via SAM.gov by Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 5:00pm.

Amendment 2 on 3/5/2024: The RFI closing date has been extended to Friday, March 29, 2024 at 5:00pm ET.

Attachments: "Digital Assets Initiative RFI Response Template – updated 3.5.2024" to reflect the extended RFI closing date. "Digital Asset Initiative - RFI - updated 3.5.2024" to reflect the extended RFI closing date.

The RFI questions and answers period has been extended. Please email RFI questions to Tanya.E.Outland@irs.gov by Tuesday, March 12, 2024. The answers will be provided to industry via SAM.gov by Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 5:00pm.

Please note: this RFI will also be posted on GSA eBuy. Please submit your RFI response to GSA eBuy or SAM.gov via email at Tanya.E.Outland@irs.gov.

Amendment 1 on 2/29/2024: Please email RFI questions to Tanya.E.Outland@irs.gov by Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at 5:00pm ET. The answers will be provided to industry via SAM.gov by Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 5:00pm. Please note: this RFI will also be posted on GSA eBuy. Please submit your RFI response to GSA eBuy or SAM.gov via email.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Deputy Commissioner Services and Enforcement (DCSE) Digital Asset Initiative (DAI)

Digital Asset Basis Computation and Bulk Data Analysis Case Support

Request for Information (RFI)

Introduction

This is a Request for Information (RFI) (hereinafter Notice). This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, request for bids or quotations, nor a promise to issue a solicitation in the future. The purpose of this RFI is for the Government to obtain knowledge and information for project planning purposes only.

No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in responses to this Notice, unless otherwise appropriately marked by the Respondent. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information received in response to this Notice in any resultant solicitation(s). Do Not Submit any Proposals/Offers in response to this Notice.

The Government has interest in and is seeking information regarding the capability of providing services pertaining to creating new specialized tax training courses, assessing existing Agency training courses, and strategic tax advisory services.

Request for Information Number: 24-15-IRA-OBSA

Project Title / Short Description: Digital Asset Basis Computation and Bulk Data Analysis Case Support

PSC or FSC Code: B506 - Special Studies/Analysis- Data (Other Than Scientific)

NAICS Codes:

• 541219 - Other Accounting Services

Release Date: February 26, 2024

Response Date: March 29, 2024, at 5:00pm EST

Primary Point of Contact and Contact Information:

Name: Tanya Outland

Title: A-PMO Facilitator

Email: Tanya.E.Outland@irs.gov

Digital Asset Case Basis Computation and Bulk Data Analysis Support

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires work order driven consulting services to support examination activities involving digital assets. The consulting services will assist the IRS in calculating taxpayers’ taxable gains and/or deductible losses resulting from digital assets transactions.

To comply with their income tax obligations, taxpayers must track their digital assets transactions. The transactions referenced occur on various commercial digital asset exchanges or are reflected on public ledgers (such as a blockchain and other public distributed ledgers). While every examination is unique, the examinations relevant to this request have common elements which include, a potential failure to report digital assets transactions in accordance with the Internal Revenue Code, large transaction data volume, valuation of digital assets, potential illegal or other fraudulent activity and basis tracking.

Description of Services

NOTE: See additional detail in attached draft Performance Work Statement (PWS):

Program Management

Coordinate a Project Kickoff Meeting: Within 10 (ten) days after the contract award, or other mutually agreed upon date, the Contractor shall schedule, coordinate, and host a Project Kick-Off Meeting at the time and location approved by the Government.

Progress Reports: The Contractor shall provide an electronic weekly and monthly progress report to the COR and PM.

Prepare and Update a Project Management Plan: For each PWS Objective, the Contractor shall document all support requirements in a PMP and provide it to the Government NLT 30 days after contract award.

Provide Quality Management: The Contractor shall identify and implement its approach for providing and ensuring quality throughout its solution to meet the requirements of the PWS. The Contractor shall provide a QCP at Project Kick-off Meeting and maintain and update it as changes in the program processes are identified. The Contractor’s QCP shall describe the application of the appropriate methodology (i.e., quality control and/or quality assurance) for accomplishing PWS performance expectations and objectives. The QCP shall describe how the appropriate methodology integrates with the Government’s requirements.

The QCP shall contain a meeting cadence to discuss the development of each task area with the government. The contractor shall present all draft documents and next steps at each meeting for government approval.

Meeting Participation, Outreach and Assistance: The Contractor shall be available to support the IRS in advance of meetings with taxpayers or their representatives and during any administrative appeal proceeding or litigation. This support includes but is not limited to:

1. Explaining the methodology used in arriving at the conclusions in the report


2. If blockchain data is included in the report, explaining any assumptions made by the Contractor’s algorithms or methodology in creating the report (including data inconsistencies, resolution, and report revisions)

Meetings shall be held by teleconference or an internet-based meeting platform at the convenience of all participants.

The Contractor shall meet monthly with the IRS Leadership or assigned designee to review the hours expended on and progress of each case. The Contractor will prepare monthly and/or custom reports to enable IRS Leadership to track the resources expended and progress of each case and the project overall.

Additionally, ad hoc meetings will be held with Business Operating Divisions (BOD) leadership when warranted. Contractor shall provide assistance on an approved (by IRS leadership) and as needed basis, up to 120 hours through each contract period of performance. These 120-hours will include periodic and scheduled “office hours” or related meetings and trainings to promote communication, engagement, and facilitate efficient case support to IRS case agents / SMEs.

Transition-Out: The contractor shall provide transition-out support when requested by the Government. The contractor shall deliver a transition-out plan and shall facilitate the accomplishment of a seamless transition from the incumbent to incoming contractor/Government personnel at the expiration or termination of the contract. The Government will work with the contractor to finalize the plan and at a minimum, shall be reviewed and updated quarterly during the final contract option year.

The contractor shall also establish and maintain effective communication with the incoming contractor/Government personnel for the period of the transition via weekly status meetings or as often as necessary to ensure a seamless transition-out. Additionally, the contractor shall cooperate fully with the Government and the succeeding contractor to include:

1. Permitting employees to be interviewed for possible employment by a succeeding contractor(s).


2. Releasing any employee who chooses to be employed by a succeeding contractor.


3. Orienting assigned employees of the succeeding contractor during the last 90 calendar days of the period of this contract if directed by the CO.

Examination and Case Selection Support for Diverse Digital Assets Cases

A digital assets case may have a variety of transactions that occur on one or more public ledgers (blockchains), non-public transactions facilitated through digital assets exchanges or other intermediaries or peer-to-peer transactions. The Contractor shall provide support for examination case support for up to 260 taxpayer digital asset examination cases. Examination case support includes, but is not limited to: ad hoc case discussions, bulk data analysis, data ingestion, data standardization, valuation in fiat currencies, and generating reports to support income, gain and/or loss computations for digital asset activities. A digital asset examination case may have up to 1.5 million digital asset transactions in one or more tax years, and up to 100 different digital asset classes.

Data Ingest Support

The absence of an industry standard for data formatting creates challenges for the IRS in interpreting and analyzing data generated by digital assets transactions. Contractors in the digital asset market have proprietary means to standardize data formats from diverse sources, making the information readable on IRS systems and available for analysis. The Contractor shall provide support for 440 volume enhancements. A volume enhancement is a case with over 1.5 million transactions that includes up to an additional 500,000 transactions, for a total of up to 2 million total transactions. Any one of the cases defined in Examination and Case Support above could have one or more volume enhancements. Requesting support for 190 asset enhancements. In addition to volume enhancements, any one of the cases defined in Examination and Case Support above could have one or more asset enhancements. An asset enhancement is a case with over 100 different digital assets that includes up to an additional 25 different digital assets, for a total of up to 125 different digital assets. The Contractor shall provide support as well to ingest data from 22 new sources that are in addition to the Contractor’s current ability to ingest data from third parties such as exchanges. A new source does not include (but, not limited to):

• Any data found on a public ledger.


• A change in formatting or other modification by a third party to the data.


• Transactions if the Contractor had previously received data from that third party.

Digital Asset Computation Software as a Service (SaaS)

The Contractor shall provide a SaaS product which can be utilized by IRS Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to ingest and analyze digital asset data. This software will standardize data uploaded into the platform, analyze the transactions uploaded, and produce tax, financial, and accounting reports to be utilized by IRS SMEs conducting digital asset case work.

NOTE: The Contractor must be either FedRAMP certified or must complete the FedRAMP accreditation process through IRS sponsorship.

IRS Large Business & International (LB&I) Data Analysis Support

The Contractor shall provide Facilitated Bulk Case Data Analysis Support not to exceed 300 million records each (ingestion and execution with ongoing analytical SME support). Based on the initial analysis support, the Contractor will need to perform 500 to 600 detailed computations.

Report Preparation, Summary Explanation, and Data Discrepancy Analysis

The Contractor shall provide a report within 10 business days of the case intake presenting the information requested in the work order, including gain or loss computation for each year at issue, transfer analysis for each year identifying all nontaxable transfers between taxpayer accounts identified by Contractor during the analysis of records, and a summary explanation of the methodology used to produce the report. The Contractor will transmit all underlying data to prepare the report, and the report itself, to the IRS in a format specified in the work order. The Contractor will report instances where the taxpayer’s data deviate from expected values and/or from normal accounting practices. If the Contractor foresees the report output taking more than 10 business days to deliver, the Contractor will communicate reasoning and expected delivery date of the respective report. A case status report will be provided by the Contractor to the IRS COB the last day of the month, bi-monthly.

After ingesting the data, the Contractor will provide a report summarizing the characteristics of the data including potential gaps in the completeness and/or accuracy of the data and resulting calculations. If possible and based on the characteristics of the data, calculated gains or losses will be provided for each asset for each of the years at issue and a summary explanation of the methodology used to produce the report. Any issues with the data that prevent an accurate or complete calculation will be summarized with recommendations to correct data, obtain more data as needed, or perform other steps to arrive at a substantially accurate analytic result. The Contractor will be available to discuss in detail the data received/report as well as any standardization issues so they can be promptly addressed.

RFI Instructions

Responses to this RFI are requested in three (3) parts and must be submitted using Attachment 2 RFI Response Template.

Part I: Company Profile - IRS seeks company profile information about the firms that provide services positioned to address the requirements discussed above.

Part II: Capability - IRS seeks Industry responses to specific questions. Do not include any support documentation for any company other than your own. This is an analysis of your company’s abilities.

Part III: Questions and Comments – IRS will accept open questions and comments.

Part I: Company Profile Information

Offerors are required to provide the following company information:

1. Company Name and Address


2. Company technical Point of Contact (POC) information to include name, title, telephone number, and email address.


3. Applicable NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) Code


4. List active governmentwide contracts related to the services required in the draft PWS that your company has been awarded (GWACs, IDIQs, and BPAs – include applicable SIN)


5. Business Classification / Socio-Economic Status (e.g., large, small, 8(a), women owned, hub-zone, SDB, Service-Disabled Veteran Owned)


6. Subcontracting/partnering/teaming possibilities

Part II: Capability

Pricing

1. How would you structure the team members needed to successfully deliver on this potential requirement? Historically, Project Managers and Virtual Currency Subject Matter Experts have performed these services, are there any other labor categories needed to perform all task areas in the draft PWS?


2. What hourly rates would your company charge for each labor category?


3. What is a ballpark estimated price (ROM) to successfully deliver these requirements?


4. Provide a summary of the Return on Investment that the IRS could reasonably expect to attain with the adoption and implementation of solutions in this space.

Experience/Expertise

1. Does this request lend itself to a contractor that is a large business or small business? Does business size matter when it comes to meeting this requirement?


2. Since digital assets evolve at a very rapid pace, what is your process for identifying, assessing, and integrating new practices, technology and other business and technical advances in the digital asset area. Please include how your SaaS product is updated to reflect these changes?


3. Provide summary background on any existing innovative solutions you have deployed in government or industry addressing this or a similar type of requirement.


4. How would you recommend the government leverage Basis Computation solutions for digital assets, including leveraging of API data to accurately value digital asset transactions (e.g., support basis computation)?


5. How would you recommend the government leverage Bulk Data Analytical Tools for digital assets?


6. Provide a description of the method and sources you would use to price digital asset transactions in Fiat currency values.


7. Are you currently FedRAMP certified?

General

1. Contract holder’s capability statement addressing organizational and staff experience and expertise.


2. Please explain specifics around the training for your product(s).
   
   
   
   1. For example, is training material/courses and instruction included with your product(s).
   
   
   2. What are the delivery options for training?
   
   
   
   


3. Please provide any additional insights that would help us craft the requirement(s) to best meet our need. Is there anything you would recommend adding to the draft PWS to better support and submit a proposal for this requirement?

Part III: Questions and Comments

Open questions and comments relevant to this RFI should be provided for consideration.

Other Attachments

Attachment 1 – Digital Assets Initiative Draft PWS - updated 2.26.2024

Attachment 2 – Digital Assets Initiative RFI Response Template – updated 3.5.2024

Terms and Conditions Regarding this Notice

This Notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. All costs associated with responding to this Notice are solely at the responding party's expense. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Further, the Government may contact the vendor for additional information regarding the information submitted as part of this market research effort. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Government Point of Entry or other similar source (e.g., GSA E-buy). However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract or agreement. The Government will not be obligated to pursue any acquisition alternative as a result of this notice. Responses to the notice will not be returned. Not responding to this notice does not preclude participation in any future solicitation if one is issued.

No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in responses to this Notice, unless otherwise appropriately marked by the Respondent. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information received in response to this Notice in any resultant solicitation(s).

Do Not Submit any Proposals/Offers in response to this Notice.

Thank you for your response to this Request for Informa

Attachments/Links