Clarification from the agency

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

WHAT IS THE SMALL BUSINESS/SELF-EMPLOYED (SBSE)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 Field Collection

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.

Conditions of employment

STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD):
PD95514
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.
• 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-09 LEVEL: You must have 1 year of specialized experience a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-07 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes: Demonstrating knowledge and experience of the Internal Revenue Code and related enforcement and collection regulations and procedures. Practical knowledge of business organization and commercial practices; practical knowledge of business law, including laws governing fraudulent transfers, secured and unsecured debts, negotiable instruments, business corporations, and survivorship rights and titling instruments; knowledge of and conducts financial analysis, including the ability to analyze the operations, financial condition, profitability of taxpayers; including the valuation of assets for case resolution; uses arithmetic and mathematical reasoning to resolve collection determination issues; 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: Collecting delinquent Federal taxes and securing delinquent returns; Conducting investigations of alleged criminal violations of Federal tax statutes and making recommendations for criminal prosecutions and civil penalties; Performing internal audit, administrative, or management duties directly related to the collection of Federal taxes; Furnishing taxpayer assistance and information to the general public or determining, re-determining, or advising of liability for Federal taxes where the applicant was required to apply a comprehensive knowledge of the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations and procedures pertaining to income, estate, gift, employment, or excise taxes;
OR
You may substitute education for specialized experience as follows: Master's or equivalent degree or 2 full academic years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in a related field of study 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.B or J.D., 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.

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.

In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical competencies required to perform the job. In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process, meet all qualifications, and receive a passing score on the required assessment(s). Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or on the application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment will 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.