Clarification from the agency

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

WHAT IS THE SMALL BUSINESS/SELF EMPLOYED(SB/SE)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: Small Business Self Employed Collection Operations

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.

• Collects delinquent tax and secures delinquent returns from taxpayers who have not resolved their obligations in response to prior correspondence or other contact. Conducts interviews with taxpayers (and/or their representatives) in different environments such as the business location, residence or office as part of the investigative process of collecting delinquent taxes and securing delinquent tax returns. Taxpayers at this level normally include individuals with relatively large gross income from diversified sources, self-employed professionals, medium sized partnerships, corporations involved retail, manufacturing, construction, wholesale, and other businesses as well as smaller businesses with valuable or unusual assets.
• Counsels taxpayers on their tax filing, deposit and payment obligations actions needed to bring taxpayers into full compliance. Provides guidance and service on a wide range of financial problems to assist the taxpayer toward a positive course of action to resolve tax issues. Works with the taxpayers and their representatives to develop a plan of action to resolve all delinquencies. Takes enforced collection actions, when appropriate,
• Provides customer service by respecting and explaining the taxpayer's rights, IRS policies and procedures. Provides instructions, and analyzes issues presented by taxpayers, practitioners and IRS employees. Customer service is based upon learning, interpreting, and applying IRM policies and procedures, regulations, court decisions, state and local laws, and various Titles of the United States Code. Provides instructions, and analyzes issues presented by taxpayers, practitioners and IRS employees. Resolve account discrepancies and responds to taxpayer and practitioner requests.
• Meets taxpayers or their representatives at the business location or residence for non-business taxpayers in order to view the assets or number of employees, or to observe indications of hardship or business failure. Conducts interviews with taxpayers (and/or their representatives) with the purpose of securing complete financial information and assessing the taxpayer's ability to pay outstanding tax obligations.
• Performs credit and financial analysis of the taxpayer financial records to determine the taxpayer's financial condition and ability to pay outstanding tax obligations and prevent future delinquencies. Analyzes financial information and evaluates assets. Applies expense standards and provides guidance on a wide range of financial alternatives to assist taxpayers in identifying options that could assist in resolving delinquent tax obligations including installment agreements, offers in compromise or suspending collection action. Evaluates and compares taxpayers' financial information to internal and external sources to verify taxpayers' financial condition. The purpose of the analysis is to develop a clear plan of action to resolve the case. For business taxpayers, analyzes financial statements that include balance sheets, income statements and profit and loss statements.

Conditions of employment

STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD): PD95515
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.
• A 1-year probationary period is required (unless already completed).
• 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-11: You must have 1 year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-09 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes: Demonstrating in-depth, broad knowledge and experience of the Internal Revenue Code and related enforcement and collection regulations and procedures; knowledge of a wide range business laws and the interrelationship between Federal and state laws and its effect on moderate complex legal instruments; knowledge of financial/managerial accounting principles, terminology, practices and methods to analyze financial records; knowledge of electronic data exchange and the ability to conduct business online including use of the internet and intranet. Experience may have been gained in work such as: Collection activities using a variety of Collection tools such as Levy, Notice of Federal Tax lien, seizure, and suits; Secure delinquent returns using a variety of tools such as summons and preparing substitute for returns per IRC 6020(b); Use computer systems to capture information secured and to aid in the collection of Federal taxes or delinquent Federal tax returns and to conduct research such as locator services, credit bureaus reports, and real estate programs; Prepare the assembly of trust fund recovery penalty files, suit and seizure packages and lien activities packages including discharge, subordination, and withdrawal; OR
You may substitute education for specialized experience as follows: PH.D or equivalent degree or 3 full academic years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in a related field such as business administration (finance, accounting, auditing, marketing and business law), law, economics, criminology, political science, government, social science, communications, psychology, public administration or another related field; OR LL.M., if related; OR A combination of experience and education.

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.

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.