Clarification from the agency

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

WHAT IS THE APPEALS (AP)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: Appeals: Office of Appeals Specialized Exam Program and Ref

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.

• Provides expert technical advice and direction to Appeals Team Case Leaders, Technical Specialists, International Specialists, Appeals Officers and other service employees relative to the largest and most complex economic issues. Provides technical support and assistance on complex cases which have economic issues and entail in-depth analyses of factors such as economic structures, business practices and functions, arm's length transactions, tariffs and other government- imposed barriers, tangible and intangible products, services and assets, product life cycles, and technology transfers. Works issues that often require development of new theories, approaches and techniques, new sources and applications of knowledge and data to achieve or promote issue settlement.
• Provides technical expertise as a consultant to Appeals and other divisions, and on committees and workgroups identifying emerging and strategic issues and developing new procedures, models, theories, approaches and related training programs germane to economic issues. Serves as an instructor or speaker for courses or sessions addressing economic issues.
• Provides authoritative reviews of the technical findings provided by the Service's examination and those presented by the taxpayer's appeal. Considers the relative merits of contesting interpretations providing expert guidance to Appeals as to the appropriate determinations and issue resolutions. As necessary, prepares written findings, reports and other technical guidance for the Appeals hearing and settlement of the issues.

Conditions of employment

STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD):
PD95269
Visit the IRS SPD Library to access the position descriptions.

• Telework Eligible Positions: Telework eligible positions do not guarantee telework. Employees must meet and sustain IRS telework eligibility requirements (e.g., reporting at least twice a pay period to your assigned Post of Duty (POD)) and supervisor's approval to participate in the IRS Telework Program. Employees must also be within a 200-mile radius of their official assigned post-of-duty (POD) while in a telework status. 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.
• May be required to file a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report within 30 days of selection and annually from then on.
• Must successfully complete a (high or moderate) risk background investigation, including the FBI criminal history record check.

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 REQUIREMENTS: You must have a 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.
Examples of qualifying experience include:
1. Individual economic research assignments requiring planning, information assembly, analysis and evaluation, conclusion and report preparation;
2. Supervisory or project coordination assignments involving a staff of professional economists, and requiring the evaluation and interpretation of economic information;
3. Teaching assignments in a college or university that included both class instruction in economics subjects and include one of the following: (1) personal research that produced evidence of results; (2) direction of graduate theses in economics, or (3) service as a consultant or advisor on technical economics problems.

Experience in related fields that did not involve the use and understanding of economic principles and theories may not be used as qualifying experience for these positions. Special attention on this point should be given to certain types of work that may or may not have provided professional economic experience. The following examples of work require special care in such determinations: economic statistics; industrial surveys; management of individual business enterprises, including farms; industrial planning; writing or editorial work in economic subjects; and financial market analysis.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: In addition to the basic requirements for this position, you must have 1 year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes: Experience with a wide range of analytical and evaluative methods and techniques, qualitative and quantitative; sufficient to accomplish complex projects or studies broad in scope and magnitude. Experience with a full range of Federal laws, policies, regulations, and precedents applicable to the segment(s) of the Service's program affected by the assigned project or study; Experience with the overall mission, objectives, functions, policies, and organizational structure of the Internal Revenue Service; Experience using management principles and processes to perform project management duties and to effectively coordinate and integrate project objectives and recommendations; Experience working effectively with others and maintaining harmonious relationships with all parties, and the ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.

AND

MEET TIME IN GRADE (TIG) REQUIREMENT: You must meet applicable TIG requirements to be considered eligible. To meet TIG for positions above the GS-05 grade level, you must have served at least one year (52 weeks) at the next lower grade (or equivalent) in the normal line of progression for the position you are applying to. Advancement to positions up to GS-05 is permitted if the position to be filled is no more than two grades above the lowest grade held within the preceding 52 weeks.

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.