Predominant Purpose Statement (PPS)
Draft, [insert date here]

Project # - “Project Title”

Researchers

List all Census Bureau Employees and all SSS, with their affiliation.  This should be in two separate sections.  Below the list of SSS, include a brief description of their role on the project.

[Additional project supporters may be added to this project after it commences as needs dictate. In accordance with the Census Bureau - IRS Criteria Agreement of March 2018, the Census Bureau will notify IRS Statistics of Income of any additions and/or subtractions of Special Sworn Status individuals on a quarterly basis.]

Duration – (In months)

Locations – (HQ and/or all RDC Locations)

Funding – (If an internal project, this is ‘Internal Project – Census Bureau’; if there are additional funding sources, list them here.)

Background

This section should provide an understanding of the research questions, why these questions are of importance to the Census Bureau, the methodology that will be used, and how FTI will be used for the project.  This section can be used as a form of proposal, explaining the research, how it will be conducted, and its importance.

Criteria

List all relevant criteria here and an explanation of how this project will further the mission of the Census Bureau.

Requested Datasets

FTI Datasets

[Only the following Federal Tax return Information (FTI) items from the following files will be needed by the researcher(s) to conduct this project.]

List all FTI datasets and variables contained in them here.

Census Bureau Datasets

List all non-FTI datasets here.  Variable listings are not needed.

User Provided Datasets

List all public use datasets here, along with a brief description or link to it.

Need and Use of FTI

In this section, list each FTI variable, the datasets it is contained in, and the description/label for the variable.  Below this information, for each variable, provide a description of how the variable will be used in the proposed project and why it is needed. 

Ex.:

EIN				LBD, BR				Employer Identification Number
Used to identify establishments and link to external data.

Project Completion

[The researcher(s) will provide the Census Bureau with annual progress reports on this multi-year project.  After this project is completed, the researcher(s) will produce a CES Working Paper and related research papers for conference presentation and/or journal publication.  They will also produce a CES technical memorandum summarizing the key findings pertinent to Census Bureau Title 13, Chapter 5 programs.  In addition, the researcher(s) will produce a Post Project Certification (PPC) summarizing whether and how the criteria described in the project proposal's Predominant Purpose Statement (PPS), as well as any others, were or were not met.]

Disclosure

Public releases of all statistics by the Census Bureau conform to policies and rules described in IRS Publication 1075 (September 2016) Tax Information Security Guidelines for Federal, State and Local Agencies adhering to cell thresholds established for Federal Tax Information including, but not limited to, business and geographic classifications.  Furthermore, as agreed to in the May 2018 Memorandum of Agreement between the Census Bureau and the IRS regarding Confidentiality and Disclosure Protection of Federal Tax Information, the Census Bureau will develop additional disclosure avoidance methodologies for data releases when it is not practical to apply the framework expressed in Publication 1075.  These methodologies will be certified by the Director, Statistics of Income Division, Internal Revenue Service.

Project Timeline

The proposed duration of the project is [X] years.  [Additional documentation if needed].

Insert table with timeline.  The timeline should include activities such as cleaning data, merging data, conducting specific analyses, and estimated timeframe for outputs, such as publications, presentations, or any public use products.  Tie the activities in the timeline back to the benefits.