Clarification from the agency

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

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WHAT IS THE TAXPAYER AVOCATE SERVICE (TAS)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:
Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), Executive Director Case Advocacy, Intake & Technical Support (EDCA ITS), CCI

The following are the duties of this position at the full working level.

• Answers and manages initially incoming telephone call traffic and customer inquiries. This includes, but is not limited to: internal, taxpayer, congressional, and stakeholder contacts. Ascertains the nature of the contact and refers it to another staff member or handles personally any basic issues. Obtains information from customers who are dissatisfied with assistance received in IRS or are experiencing a hardship. Elicits information to clarify basic issues and identify basic Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) criteria. Requests forms and worksheets within IRS for customer in response to customer needs.
• Reviews initial basic customer case-related information received, following Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) 13. Distributes all incoming casework in accordance with management guidelines and timeframe specifications. Receipts are either by telephone, electronic or paper correspondence or in-person and originate from customers, their representatives, other IRS divisions and other TAS offices.
• Receives and processes Congressional, White House and other priority inquiries received by the office that deal with constituent's problems. Makes appropriate referral of non-criteria cases. Ensures TAS transfer processing guidelines are met on cases received from other TAS offices. Directs inappropriate transfers to the correct office when clearly distinguishable, or refers them to higher-graded employee for transfer determination.
• Researches and interprets under supervisory direction basic procedures and rules in applicable databases including Integrated Case Processing (ICP), Servicewide Electronic Research Program (SERP), Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), Taxpayer Advocate Management Information System (TAMIS), and other applicable information.
• Protects confidentiality of taxpayer information as outlined in IRC §6103 and 7803(c)(4)(a)(IV).

Conditions of employment

STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD):
PD21425, PD21424, and PD21423
Visit the IRS SPD Library to access the position descriptions.

• A 1-year probationary period is required (unless already completed).
• 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.

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-05 LEVEL: You must have 1 year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-4 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes: Experience that is related to the work of this position and has provided you with the competencies required for successful job performance. Examples of experience qualifying as specialized include: preparing, receiving, reviewing, and verifying documents; processing transactions; maintaining office records; and locating and compiling data or information from files and other data sources; and contacting customers through correspondence or telephone to obtain information, explain liability, and encourage compliance.

OR

EDUCATION:
Bachelor's degree or four years of education above high school in any field of study from an accredited college or university.An equivalent amount of combined education and experience. Only education in excess of 60 semester hours, 90 quarter hours or 1440 classroom hours is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirement for the GS-5 level. For example, one full year of academic study (30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, or 720 formal classroom hours) beyond the second year is equal to 6 months of specialized experience. To be creditable, education must have been obtained in an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, college or university.

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.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: GS-06 LEVEL: You must have 1 year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-5 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes experience that is related to the work of this position and has provided you with the competencies required for successful job performance. Examples of experience qualifying as specialized include: preparing, receiving, reviewing, and verifying documents; processing transactions; maintaining office records; and locating and compiling data or information from files and other data sources; processing a variety of tax returns and reports; examining tax returns and supporting documents for current and prior year and amended returns; and contacting customers through correspondence or telephone to obtain information, explain liability, and encourage compliance.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: GS-07 LEVEL: You must have 1 year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-6 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes experience that is related to the work of this position and has provided you with the competencies required for successful job performance. Examples of experience qualifying as specialized include: preparing, receiving, reviewing, and verifying documents; processing transactions; maintaining office records; and locating and compiling data or information from files and other data sources; processing a variety of tax returns and reports; ensuring that all required identification, schedules, income tax deposits, or other required information is available; and contacting customers through correspondence or telephone to obtain information, explain liability, and encourage compliance.

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".

AND

THIS IS A BILINGUAL POSITION: Applicants will be required to demonstrate proficiency in SPANISH. You must be able to speak, read and write the selected language in order to be considered proficient in that language. If you indicate language proficiency, you may be tested at some point in the hiring process to determine if you possess the required level of proficiency. If you are unable to demonstrate proficiency, you will not be qualified for these positions.

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. Applicants who disqualify themselves will not be evaluated further.

In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires a bilingual assessment to evaluate your language proficiency. The bilingual assessment will test your ability to read, write, and/or converse in SPANISH. In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process and meet all qualifications. Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

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.