[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 146 (Thursday, July 30, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45505-45506]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-18667]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs.
    OMB Control Number: None.
    Form Number(s): The online survey instrument does not have a form 
number.
    Type of Request: New collection.
    Number of Respondents: 290,000.
    Average Hours per Response: 35 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 169,167.
    Needs and Uses: In an effort to improve the timely measurement of 
business dynamics in the United States, the U.S. Census Bureau plans to 
conduct a new annual survey focused on employer businesses. The new 
survey will be known as the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (ASE) and 
will collect information on characteristics of businesses and business 
owners. The survey was going to be called the Annual Survey of Business 
Owners, but that name was changed to fit the survey's focus on 
assessing entrepreneurial business practices and demographics. The ASE 
will be a supplement to the Survey of Business Owners and Self-Employed 
Persons (SBO), which provides economic and demographic characteristics 
for businesses and business owners by gender, ethnicity, race, and 
veteran status every 5 years. The ASE is an intercensal program. The 
ASE will help assess the health of the economy and provide detailed 
statistics on businesses and business owners more frequently. The ASE 
is a joint effort funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the 
Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), and the Census Bureau. On 
behalf of the Secretary of Commerce, pursuant to section 1(a)(3) of 
Executive Order 11625, the MBDA may enter into this agreement with the 
Census Bureau to establish a means for the development, collection, 
summation, and dissemination of information that will be helpful to 
persons and organizations throughout the nation in undertaking or 
promoting the establishment and successful operation of minority 
business enterprises. The Census Bureau will collaborate with the 
Kauffman Foundation, the MBDA, and other agencies to ensure the ASE is 
as robust and effective as possible.
    The Census Bureau will collect data starting with the 2014 
reference year, with corresponding estimates released in 2016. 
Estimates will include number of firms, sales/receipts, annual payroll, 
and employment by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status. The ASE 
includes questions from the 2012 SBO long form SBO-1 with additional 
questions to collect data on entrepreneurs' access to capital. The ASE 
will introduce a new module each year focusing on an important 
component related to business growth. Proposed module topics include 
innovation, research and development, technological advances, Internet 
usage, management and business practices, exporting practices, and 
globalization. The 2014 ASE module covers innovation and research and 
development. The survey will be a sample of 290,000 employer businesses 
stratified by metropolitan statistical area (MSA), state, frame, and 
age of business. By oversampling young businesses, this survey will 
help assess the impact young firms have on the growth of the economy. 
Additionally, the survey will implement a longitudinal component that 
will allow the growth of the firms in the sample to be tracked and 
analyzed over time.
    This collection will allow the Census Bureau to collaborate on the 
implementation of a key National Academies recommendation for improving 
the measurement of business dynamics in the U.S. economy, which 
recommended:
    ``The Census Bureau Survey of Business Owners (SBO) should be 
conducted on an annual basis. The survey should include both a 
longitudinal component and a flexible, modular design that allows 
survey content to change over time. In addition, the Census Bureau 
should explore the possibility of creating a public-use (anonymized) 
SBO or a restricted access version of the data file.''
    Lisa M. Lynch, John Haltiwanger, and Christopher Mackie, eds. 
Understanding Business Dynamics: An Integrated Data System for 
America's Future. National Academies Press, 2007.
    The additional sources of capital and financing questions will 
provide information on the financial trends and financial challenges 
faced by entrepreneurs. Tabulation of the financing questions will 
offer insight into the type of funding acquired and used by women-, 
minority-, and veteran-owned businesses. The 2014 ASE module will allow 
for a better understanding of the innovation and research and 
development activities conducted by entrepreneurs. Additionally, it 
will allow for an assessment on the competitiveness of businesses by 
ownership characteristics. The longitudinal component will help track 
and assess the growth of firms in the sample over time. This will also 
allow for research into the changes to the characteristics of 
businesses over time.
    Under Title 13, United States Code, Section 182, the Secretary of 
Commerce has deemed it necessary to conduct an annual survey on 
characteristics of businesses and business owners. The ASE augments the 
quinquennial SBO collected and disseminated under Title 13, United 
States Code, Section 131.
    Government program officials, industry organization leaders, 
economic and social analysts and researchers, and business 
entrepreneurs are anticipated users of ASE statistics. Examples of data 
use include:
     The Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Minority 
Business Development Agency (MBDA) to assess business assistance needs 
and allocate available program resources.
     Local government commissions on small and disadvantaged 
businesses to establish and evaluate contract procurement practices.
     Federal, state and local government agencies as a 
framework for planning, directing and assessing programs that promote 
the activities of disadvantaged groups.
     The National Women's Business Council to assess the state 
of women's business ownership for policymakers, researchers, and the 
public at large.
     Consultants and researchers to analyze long-term economic 
and demographic shifts, and differences in ownership and performance 
among geographic areas.

[[Page 45506]]

     Individual business owners to analyze their operations in 
comparison to similar firms, compute their market share, and assess 
their growth and future prospects.
     Researchers and businesses to understand the innovation 
and research and development activities conducted by entrepreneurs.
     Federal agencies to assess the competitiveness of 
businesses by ownership characteristics.
     Data users to understand time-series data in certain 
industries for entrepreneurs.
     Business owners or perspective business owners to gain 
knowledge about the funding of businesses.
    Businesses which reported any business activity on any one of the 
following Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax forms will be eligible for 
survey selection: 1040 (Schedule C), ``Profit or Loss from Business'' 
(Sole Proprietorship); 1065, ``U.S. Return of Partnership Income''; 
941, ``Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return''; 944 ``Employer's 
Annual Federal Tax Return''; or any one of the 1120 corporate tax 
forms. Current plans will only request responses from businesses filing 
the 941, 944, or 1120 tax forms. Estimates for businesses filing the 
1040 or 1065 tax returns will be created using statistical modeling of 
administrative data and will only provide data by gender, ethnicity, 
race, and veteran status by geography, industry, and size of firm.
    The 2014 ASE collection is electronic only. An initial letter that 
informs the respondents of their requirement to complete the survey and 
provides survey access instructions will be mailed from the Census 
Bureau's processing headquarters in Jeffersonville, Indiana. There will 
be 290,000 letters mailed to employer businesses that were in business 
during 2014. Initial mailout will occur in September 2015, with a due 
date of November 4, 2015. There will be two follow-up letter mailings 
to nonrespondents after the due date. Closeout of mail operations is 
scheduled for January 2016. Upon the close of the collection period, 
the response data will be processed, edited, reviewed, tabulated, and 
released publically.
    The survey will collect data on the gender, ethnicity, race, and 
veteran status for up to four persons owning the majority of rights, 
equity, or interest in the business. These data are needed to evaluate 
the extent and growth of business ownership by women, minorities, and 
veterans in order to provide a framework for assessing and directing 
federal, state, and local government programs designed to promote the 
activities of disadvantaged groups.
    The SBA and the MBDA will use the data to allocate resources for 
their business assistance programs.
    The data will also be widely used by private firms and individuals 
to evaluate their own businesses and markets. Additionally, the data 
will be used by entrepreneurs to write business plans and loan 
application letters, by the media for news stories, by researchers and 
academia for determining firm characteristics, and by the legal 
profession in evaluating the concentration of minority businesses in 
particular industries and/or geographic areas.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit; Not-for-profit 
institutions.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Sections 8(b), 131, and 182; and 
Executive Order 11625, Section 1(a)(3).
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce 
collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected] or fax to (202) 395-5806.

    Dated: July 27, 2015.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2015-18667 Filed 7-29-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P