Clarification from the agency

Open to IRS Career/Career-Conditional, Treasury/IRS CTAP, & IRS RPP employees

WHAT IS THE INDEPENDENT OFFICE OF APPEALS DIVISION?
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:
Independent Office of Appeals, Collection Appeals, Area 4, Team 7
Independent Office of Appeals, Collection Appeals, Area 4, Team 3
Independent Office of Appeals, Collection Appeals, Area 4, Team 2
Independent Office of Appeals, Collection Appeals, Area 4, Team 5
Independent Office of Appeals, Collection Appeals, Area 4, Team 6

Collection Appeals, Area 1, Team 1
Collection Appeals, Area 1, Team 5
Collection Appeals, Area 1, Team 9
Collection Appeals, Area 1, Team 2
Collection Appeals, Area 1, Team 5
Collection Appeals, Area 1, Team 7
Collection Appeals, Area 1, Team 9
Collection Appeals, Area 2, Team 2
Collection Appeals, Area 3, Team 7

Collection Appeals, Area 1, Team 10
Collection Appeals, Area 1, Team 1
Collection Appeals, Area 1, Team 9
Collection Appeals, Area 1, Team 5
Collection Appeals, Area 2, Team 3
Collection Appeals, Area 2, Team 4
Collection Appeals, Area 2, Team 9
Collection Appeals, Area 3, Team 2
Collection Appeals, Area 3, Team 4
Collection Appeals, Area 3, Team 1
Collection Appeals, Area 3, Team 3
Collection Appeals, Area 3, Team 5
Collection Appeals, Area 3, Team 6
Collection Appeals, Area 3 Team 7

• 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.
• Reviews incoming cases for statutes, development of the issues, by both the taxpayer and the government, completeness of supporting documents, transcripts, and work papers. Reviews and analyzes information from internal and external sources in order to resolve issues and close cases.
• Researches case issues to determine and apply the law to the facts presented. Where issues are unclear or where a clear precedent is lacking, determines the appropriate resolution based upon relevant factors including reasonableness, adjudication trend and settlement practices.
• Analyzes taxpayer responses and initiates further contact with taxpayers to determine appropriate case resolution and provide technical and procedural information to taxpayers and their representatives by correspondence, telephone, virtually and in-person.
• Contacts taxpayers and their representatives to clarify facts and issues, and resolve problems. Confers with taxpayers and their representatives to explain procedures, law, and regulations, discuss options and administratively resolve the full range of collection issues.
• Conducts Appeals face-to-face, virtual or telephone conferences for the resolution of tax cases with taxpayers which have the most complex technical collection issues. Resolves a variety of collection issues which are within Appeals' jurisdiction.

Conditions of employment

STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD):
PD97915
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.

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:

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: GS- 12 LEVEL: You must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes: Experience with Appeals policies, procedures and practices relevant to the Appeals collection work in order to work cases and resolve issues. Experience with the tax laws and administrative procedures relating to liens and levies to ensure full taxpayer compliance and counsel taxpayers on alternatives; Experience using various collection procedures such as Offer in Compromise and installment agreement to advise and discuss collection alternatives with taxpayers. Experience with Internal Revenue Code, IRM, court decisions, and other tax publications related to assigned areas in order to research cases, apply relevant tax law to issues that are unclear or where a clear precedent is lacking, and determine the appropriate resolution for collection issues; Experience applying knowledge of basic accounting and financial analysis techniques to analyze financial information (e.g., analyzing taxpayer transcripts, case files, financial books and records and other information to determine collectability for case resolution). Experience using available on-line systems, research materials and technology to research taxpayer information and resolve taxpayer inquires. In addition, you must have experience in communications and interpersonal relationships to work effectively and professional with taxpayers and their representatives in resolving collection issues. Examples include: Contacting taxpayers and their representatives to provide tax assistance and determine appropriate case settlement/resolution.

OR
COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION: You may qualify by a combination of experience and education. Options for qualifying based on a combination will be identified in the online questions.

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.