Clarification from the agency

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

WHAT IS THE TAX EXEMPT/ GOVERNMENT ENTITIESDIVISION?As part of the TE/GE division, you'll help customers understand and comply with applicable tax laws, and protect public interest by applying the tax law with integrity and fairness to all. TE/GE is designed to serve the needs of three very distinct customer segments: employee plans, exempt organizations and government entities. Ranging from small local community organizations and municipalities to major universities, huge pension funds, state governments, Indian tribal governments and more, they represent a large economic sector with unique needs. You'll answer four basic key customer needs: education and communication, rulings and agreements, examination and customer account service. Check out our video here. Vacancies will be filled in the following specialty areas: Tax Exempt & Government Entities Employee Plans Division Rulings & Agreement, Technical and Actuarial Group.

MAJOR DUTIES

• Analyzes unusually difficult and extremely complex problems regarding tax liability under the Internal Revenue Code involving the valuation of complex life estates and remainder interests to determine estate, gift, and income tax liability or involving qualification for tax exemption of pension, annuity, profit sharing and stock bonus plans and trust; and the deduction from income tax of employer contributions under such plans.
• Actuaries performing pension work also analyze difficult and complex matters related to issues and requests for rulings pertaining to the requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), such as minimum funding standards, plan mergers and changes of actuarial funding methods.
• Prepares actuarial determinations for the use of various TE/GE employees, other business unit employees, taxpayers and their representatives, Department of Justice, Chief Counsel, and the Department of Treasury on matters involving important questions of interpretation or complex actuarial problems.
• Assists in the development of the actuarial tables published by the Service in administering the estate and gift tax, pension, and income tax provisions of the Code.
• Develops new techniques, formulas, and procedures for the solution of complex actuarial problems.
• Conducts or participates in conferences with taxpayers, their representatives and professional consultants in connection with rulings or technical advice and participates in conferences with attorneys, representatives of the insurance industry and actuarial consultants on problems and procedures.

Conditions of employment

• 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-timework 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 OR time of referral:

BASIC REQUIREMENT:
To be basically qualified for an Actuary position, you must meet the basic requirement (positive education requirement) below.

You must have a Bachelor's degree that included courses in actuarial science, mathematics, relevant statistics, business, finance, economics, insurance, or computer science totaling at least 24 semester hours. This course work must have included a minimum of 12 semester hours of mathematics that included differential and integral calculus and one or more courses in mathematics for which these calculus courses were prerequisites.
OR
A combination of education and experience that includes BOTH of the following requirements: (1) Technical work experience in actuarial support work or in mathematics, AND (2) Completion of a minimum of 24 semester hours of courses in actuarial science, mathematics, relevant statistics, business, finance, economics, insurance, or computer science at a four-year college or university. This course work must have included a minimum of 12 semester hours of mathematics that included differential and integral calculus and one or more courses in mathematics for which these calculus courses were prerequisites.

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".

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE GS-1510-14:

In addition to meeting the basic requirements, 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:
Expert knowledge of actuarial principles and methods as they apply to the areas of work handled by the group. Expert knowledge of the tax treatment provided by the Code and regulations for various types of insurance, annuities, income interest, and charitable interest, or the tax treatment provided by the Code with respect to pension, profit sharing, and stock bonus plans. Ability to analyze unique and complicated cases and to apply relevant laws, regulations, published rulings, and other precedents to inconsistent data and novel situations to arrive at sound, well-reasoned decisions. Ability to apply legal and actuarial principles to analyze effects of proposed legislation and recommend approaches in regulations. Knowledge of written communication techniques in order to prepare written testimony, policy memoranda, private letter rulings, technical advice memorandums, and other documents. Knowledge of oral communication techniques in order to communicate analysis and policy recommendations, respond to inquiries, make presentations, and provide expert testimony.

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.