Clarification from the agency

Open to IRS Career/Career Conditional Employees, Treasury/IRS CTAP, & IRS RPP Employees

WHAT IS THE DIVISION? LBI - Large Business and International
A description of the business units can be found at: https://www.jobs.irs.gov/about/who/business-divisions

Vacancies will be filled in the following specialty areas:
Large Business and International

The following are the duties of this position at the full working level. If this vacancy includes more than one grade and you are selected at a lower grade level, you will have the opportunity to learn to perform these duties and receive training to help you grow in this position.

WHAT DOES AN SENIOR ECONOMIST IN APMA DO? As a Senior Economist in the Advance Pricing and Mutual Agreement program (APMA), you will be an expert in transfer pricing and the valuation of tangible and intangible property and services transactions. You will primarily serve as a member of a team within APMA and be responsible for the review of transfer pricing studies, conducting economic analyses of transfer prices, and determining appropriate transfer prices. In this position, you will be responsible for advising management officials on the scope of and need for, and conducting and completing research and analyses relating to transfer pricing that require a wide variety of economic expertise.

As a Senior Economist you will:

• Perform research and analyses that include transfer pricing within an extensive range of industries and fields of specializations
• Conduct relevant microeconomic research and analyses that require the study of economic structure, business practices and functions;
• Review and analyze applicable economic, statistical, and tax data to determine the existence of potential economic or valuation issues;
• Develop and propose to management an effective workplan, and conduct research in databases, professional journals, publications, government publications, and other relevant information sources;
• Perform analyses under section 482 of the Internal Revenue Code and the regulations thereunder and the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines to determine value of tangible and intangible property and intercompany services and evaluate the values and analysis reported by taxpayers;
• Provide advice and recommendations to APMA and practice area officials and other IRS economists and audit teams based on research and analysis.

Conditions of employment

STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD):
PD97622
Visit the IRS SPD Library to access the position descriptions.

• If you are in a telework eligible position, you may be directed to temporarily telework on a full-time basis due to COVID 19. Employees must be within a 200-mile radius of their official assigned post-of-duty (POD) while in a telework status. Once normal operations resume, employees may be directed back to the office to perform the duties of their position. Telework eligibility does not guarantee telework; employees must meet and sustain IRS telework eligibility requirements and supervisor's approval to participate in the IRS Telework Program. As a reminder - If you are selected for a position, you are responsible for reporting to your designated POD (location) on the negotiated start date or as directed by management.
• Obtain and use a Government-issued charge card for business-related travel.

Qualifications

Federal experience is not required. The experience may have been gained in the public sector, private sector or Volunteer Service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week, on your resume.

You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement:

BASIC REQUIREMENT- IOR: To be eligible for this position at this grade level, you must meet the basic requirements below.

Bachelor's or higher degree in economics that included at least 21 semester hours in economics and 3 semester hours in statistics, accounting, or calculus.

OR
Combination of education and experience - courses equivalent to a major in economics as shown above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. The quality of the combination of education and experience must be sufficient to demonstrate that the applicant possesses the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform work in the occupation, and is comparable to that normally acquired through the successful completion of a full 4-year course of study with a major in economics.

In addition to meeting the basic requirement above, to qualify for this position you must also meet the qualification requirements listed below:

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: GS-14 LEVEL: You must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the grade 13 level. Specialized experience for the Economist position is experience that demonstrates that: Experience with applying economic and subject-matter knowledge and sound judgment in resolving complex transfer pricing issues based on the principles set forth in the Internal Revenue Code ("IRC") Section 482, the regulations thereunder, court decisions, and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Transfer Pricing Guidelines. Experience in evaluating the reasonableness of taxpayer and tax authority positions involving complex transfer pricing cases and facilitating resolutions working as part of a team of professionals. Lastly, your experience must include consistently producing accurate technical work - both written and Excel-based financial and related modeling - that is in compliance with the principles set forth in IRC Section 482 and the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines.

AND

MEET TIME IN GRADE (TIG) REQUIREMENT: For positions above the GS-05, applicants must meet applicable time-in-­grade requirements to be considered eligible. One year (52 weeks) at the next lower grade level is required to meet the time-in-grade requirements for the grade you are applying for.

AND

TIME AFTER COMPETITIVE APPOINTMENT: By the closing date (or if this is an open continuous announcement, by the cut-off date) specified in this job announcement, current civilian employees must have completed at least 90 days of federal civilian service since their latest non-temporary appointment from a competitive referral certificate, known as time after competitive appointment. For this requirement, a competitive appointment is one where you applied to and were appointed from an announcement open to "All US Citizens".

For more information on qualifications please refer to OPM's Qualifications Standards.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Your application includes your resume, responses to the online questions, and required supporting documents. Please be sure that your resume includes detailed information to support your qualifications for this position; failure to provide sufficient evidence in your resume may result in a "not qualified" determination.

Rating: Your application will be evaluated on the Critical Job Elements (CJE) of the position to be filled, in accordance with Article 13 of the IRS/NTEU National Agreement. Your application will also be rated and ranked among others, based on your responses to the online questions/assessment. Your experience, education, training, prior performance, and awards, relevant to the position being filled, will be considered throughout the hiring process. IRS employees may obtain most recent awards listing at https://persinfo.web.irs.gov/.

Referral: If you are among the top qualified candidates, your application may be referred to a selecting official for consideration. You may be required to participate in a selection interview (telephonic and/or in person at the discretion of the Selecting Official in accordance with hiring polices). We will not reimburse costs related to the interview such as travel to and from the interview site.

If you are a displaced or surplus Federal employee eligible for Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), you must receive a score of 80 or better to be rated as well qualified to receive special selection priority.