Clarification from the agency

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

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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:
SB/SE Exam - Examination Operations, Specialty Exam

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.

• Plans and conducts independent examinations and related investigations of a variety of individual and business taxpayers involving complex tax issues and accounting records. Such examinations may include business issues such as taxpayer's methods of accounting (cash and/or accrual basis), depreciation, inventory valuation, cost of goods sold, prepaid assets and expenses, and E-commerce.
• For Specialty Programs, such activities include investigations of strategic or special emphasis programs such as claims, nonfilers, worker classification, tip reporting, and fringe benefits and other issues.
• Conducts examinations both independently and as part of an audit team.
• Specializes in the areas of Income Tax Withholding, Federal Insurance Contributions Act, and Federal Unemployment Tax Act.
• Advises taxpayers of their rights as defined in the examination and appeal guidelines; examination procedures; current tax and reporting responsibilities; and the importance and benefit of meeting future responsibilities.

Conditions of employment

STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD):
PD96333
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.
• 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:

BASIC REQUIREMENT :

ACCOUNTING KNOWLEDGE: You must have knowledge of Principles of Accounting and Intermediate Accounting. Candidates can demonstrate this knowledge either through successful completion of twelve semester hours (6 basic and 6 intermediate) or eighteen quarter hours (9 basic and 9 intermediate) of college level accounting work and/or experience. Applicants qualifying based on education must submit transcripts with their application.

In addition to meeting the basic requirement above, to qualify for this position you must also meet the qualification requirements listed below:

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: GS-11 LEVEL: 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: Experience that demonstrates a substantive knowledge of business practices, basic accounting principles, and Federal tax laws and regulations; and that required the ability to audit tax records, analyze systems and bookkeeping, use factfinding techniques, and develop interpersonal skills. Qualifying specialized experience may have been gained in work such as: Office auditing of various types of tax returns to determine tax liability of individual taxpayers, businesses, or corporations. Applying pertinent parts of the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations and procedures to: (1) conduct comprehensive analytical examinations, (2) use creative in-office factfinding techniques, and (3) develop effective public contact skills. Determination and redetermination, or audit, on liability for Federal taxes. Program evaluation, internal audit or administrative management of the assessment and collection of Federal taxes (other than alcohol and tobacco). Investigating alleged criminal violations of Federal tax statutes and making recommendations for criminal prosecution and assertion of civil penalties.
Collecting delinquent Federal taxes (other than alcohol and tobacco), including canvassing for unreported taxes due, and securing delinquent returns. In addition, experience in areas such as Income Tax Withholding, Federal Insurance Contributions Act and Federal Unemployment Tax Act; Experience in analytical techniques, indirect methods of determining taxable income and judgement to evaluate information and to reach decisions on issues; Experience in conducting extensive research of various resources and references to answer legal questions, including consideration of judicial decisions and legislative intent in cases requiring the adaptation of precedents to current tax return examinations.


OR
EDUCATION: A Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or Three full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in accounting, auditing, taxation, business administration, law or other related fields;
One year of graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended.

OR
LL.M., if related

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.

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.