Clarification from the agency

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

WHAT IS THE WAGE AND INVESTMENT (WI)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: Wage and Investment Customer Assistance, Relationship and Education

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.

• Assists and advises taxpayers in meeting their Federal Tax obligations. Assistance is technical, and covers the full range of individual income, excise, and employment taxes, as well as certain elements of all other kinds of taxes.
• Conducts interviews with taxpayers to determine their tax situation, provide advice, and explains probable consequences of various courses of action open to taxpayers for the current and other tax years.
• Discusses tax law impact with tax practitioners and accountants, review books and records to gain understanding of taxpayer's financial status (cash/accrual basis).
• Confers with taxpayers and/or their representatives to explain issues involving the applicability of tax law, regulations, notices and account adjustments.
• Assists taxpayers in preparing tax returns and explains the consequences of courses of action. Explains to taxpayers the collection and examination processes.

Conditions of employment

STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD):
PD96320, PD96321, and PD96322
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.

• File a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report within 30 days of appointment and annually from then on.
• 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-5 LEVEL: You must have three years of general experience, one year of which was equivalent to level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-04 grade level in the Federal service. General experience includes: Analyzing problems to identify significant factors, gathering, researching, and interpreting pertinent data, and recognize solutions; Planning and organizing work; Communicating orally and in writing, in-person, via telephone, and utilizing web-based computer applications. Such experience may have been gained in administrative, professional, technical, investigative, or other responsible work. Experience in substantive and relevant secretarial, clerical, or other responsible work may be qualifying as long as it provided evidence of the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the duties of the position to be filled. Experience of a general clerical nature (typing, filing, routine procedural processing, maintaining records, or other non-specialized tasks) is not creditable.

OR EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree or higher or four year course of study in any field leading to a Bachelor's degree or higher, in an accredited college or university.

OR Three years of general experience one year of which was equivalent to the next lower level in the Federal government that demonstrated the ability to: Analyze problems to identify significant factors, gather pertinent data, and recognize solutions; Plan and organize work; and communicate effectively orally and in writing. Experience may have been gained in administrative, professional, technical, investigative, or other responsible work. Experience in substantive and relevant secretarial, clerical, or other responsible work may be qualifying as long as it provided evidence of the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) necessary to perform the duties of the position to be filled. Experience of a general clerical nature (typing, filing, routine procedural processing, maintaining records, or other nonspecialized tasks) is not creditable.

OR A combination of qualifying education and experience equivalent to that described above.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE GRADE 7 LEVEL: You must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-05 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience includes: Experience with business practices, accounting principles, and Federal tax laws, rules and regulations sufficient to perform the duties of this position. To be qualifying your experience should be sufficient to demonstrate: Experience with tax code and regulations applicable to individual income, excise, and employment taxes, sufficient to provide educational assistance on taxpayer rights, tax law, and IRM policies; Experience with tax analysis techniques to apply appropriate tax laws and regulations to individual cases; Experience with the interrelationships between Federal and state laws; Experience with interviewing techniques needed to determine the nature of taxpayer assistance. Experience communicating orally and in writing, in-person, via telephone, and utilizing web-based computer applications.

OR EDUCATION: One year of graduate education in a related field of study. OR Superior Academic Achievement may be met by having a Bachelors degree, with one of the following: A GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale for all completed undergraduate courses or those completed in the last two years of study, or a GPA of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale for all courses in your major field of study or those courses in your major completed in the last two years of study, or rank in the upper one third of your class in the college, university, or major subdivision, or membership in a national honor society recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies.

OR Combination of qualifying graduate education and experience equal to that amount required.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE GRADE 9 LEVEL: You must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-7 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes: Experience with tax code and regulations applicable to individual income, excise, and employment taxes, sufficient to independently provide educational assistance on taxpayer rights, tax law, and IRM policies; Experience with tax analysis techniques to apply appropriate tax laws and regulations to individual cases; Experience with the interrelationships between Federal and state laws; Experience with interviewing techniques needed to independently determine the nature of taxpayer assistance; Experience communicating orally and in writing, in-person, via telephone, and utilizing web-based computer applications.

OR EDUCATION: Master's or equivalent graduate degree in a related field of study at an accredited college or university. OR Two full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading a Master's degree in a related field of study. OR L.L.B. or J.D., if related.

OR Combination of qualifying graduate education and experience equal to that amount required.

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.