Duties
WHAT IS THE Taxpayer Advocate Service-(TAS) 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:
Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), EDCA ITS, CCI
The following are the duties of this position at the full working level.
- Answers and manages incoming telephone call traffic and customer inquiries. This includes, but is not limited to: internal, taxpayer, congressional, and stakeholder contacts. Confers with customers who are dissatisfied with assistance or are experiencing a hardship. Interviews customer for the purpose of eliciting information to clarify the issues and identify Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) criteria. Endeavors to correct to the extent of the incumbent's capacity erroneous interpretations made by the customer. Presents
customers with options available, or possible courses of action, and explains consequences of actions taken. Requests forms and worksheets from within the Service for customer needs.
- Reviews, analyzes, and evaluates initial customer contact, case-related information received in TAS following Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) 13. Receives, reviews, establishes initial controls and distributes all incoming casework in accordance with management guidelines and timeframe specifications. Receipts are either by telephone, electronic or paper correspondence or in-person and originate from customers, their
representatives, other IRS divisions and other TAS offices.
- Reviews and processes routine Congressional, White House and other priority inquiries received by the office to deal with constituent's problems. Makes appropriate referral of non-criteria cases. Ensures TAS transfer processing guidelines are met on cases received from other TAS offices. Directs inappropriate transfers to the correct office.
- Independently researches and interprets applicable databases including Integrated Case Processing (ICP), Service wide Electronic Research Program (SERP), Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), Taxpayer Advocate Management Information System (TAMIS), and other applicable information. Interprets relevant data including master file records, tax account history, etc. Inputs customer information outlined in IRM 13 into the ICP System and/or TAMIS and opens IDRS controls.
- Protects confidentiality of taxpayer information as outlined in IRC §6103 and 7803(c)(4)(a)(IV)
This position has career progression. If you are selected at a grade level lower than the full working level, you may be non-competitively promoted as your career progresses. For example, you may be hired as a GS-05, but if the position has career progression to GS-11, then you may move from a GS-05 to a GS-11 in as little as three years.
Requirements
Conditions of Employment
STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD):
PD94985, PD94984, and PD94983
Visit the IRS SPD Library to access the position descriptions.
- 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: To be minimally qualified for this position you must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-04 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes: Experience that is related to the work of this position and has provided you with the competencies required for successful job performance. Examples of experience qualifying as specialized include: preparing, receiving, reviewing, and verifying documents; processing transactions; maintaining office records; and locating and compiling data or information from files and other data sources; and contacting customers through correspondence or telephone to obtain information, explain liability, and encourage compliance.
OR
Bachelor's degree or four years of education above high school in any field of study from an accredited college or university. An equivalent amount of combined education and experience. Only education in excess of 60 semester hours, 90 quarter hours or 1440 classroom hours is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirement for the GS-5 level. For example, one full year of academic study (30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, or 720 formal classroom hours) beyond the second year is equal to 6 months of specialized experience. To be creditable, education must have been obtained in an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, college or university.
OR
You may qualify by a combination of experience and education. Options for qualifying based on a combination will be identified in the online questions.
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE:GS-6 Level: To be minimally qualified for this position 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 for this position includes: experience that is related to the work of this position and has provided you with the competencies required for successful job performance. Examples of experience qualifying as specialized include: preparing, receiving, reviewing, and verifying documents; processing transactions; maintaining office records; and locating and compiling data or information from files and other data sources; processing a variety of tax returns and reports; examining tax returns and supporting documents for current and prior year and amended returns; and contacting customers through correspondence or telephone to obtain information, explain liability, and encourage compliance.
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE:GS-7 Level: To be minimally qualified for this position you must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-06 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes: experience that is related to the work of this position and has provided you with the competencies required for successful job performance. Examples of experience qualifying as specialized include: preparing, receiving, reviewing, and verifying documents; processing transactions; maintaining office records; and locating and compiling data or information from files and other data sources; processing a variety of tax returns and reports; ensuring that all required identification, schedules, income tax deposits, or other required information is available; and contacting customers through correspondence or telephone to obtain information, explain liability, and encourage compliance.
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.
Education
A copy of your transcripts or equivalent documentation is required for positions with an education requirement, or if you are qualifying based on education or a combination of education and experience. An official transcript will be required if you are selected. If the position has specific education requirements and you currently hold, or have previously held, a position in the same job series with the IRS, there is no need to submit a transcript or equivalent at this time. Applicants are encouraged, but are not required, to submit an SF-50 documenting experience in a specific series.
A college or university degree generally must be from an accredited (or pre-accredited) college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. For a list of schools which meet these criteria, please refer to Department of Education Accreditation page.
FOREIGN EDUCATION: Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the requirements. You must show proof the education credentials have been deemed to be at least equivalent to that gained in conventional U.S. education program. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence when applying. Click here (Section 3, Explanation of Terms) or here for Foreign Education Credentialing instructions.
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. Applicants who disqualify themselves will not be evaluated further.
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.
How to Apply
The following instructions outline our application process. You must complete this application process and submit any required documents by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on 04/18/2025 and/or cut-off dates in this announcement. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET, Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, please contact us by noon ET on 04/18/2025.
To preview the Application Questionnaire, please click the following link: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12574343
- To begin the application process, click the "Apply Online" button.
- You will be re-directed to USASTAFFING to complete your application process; answer the online questions and submit all required documents. (To submit supporting documents, import documents from USAJOBS to the appropriate document types. If the document you need was not imported from USAJOBS, you may upload it directly into this application. To protect your privacy, we suggest you first remove your SSN).
- To complete, you must click the "Submit Application" button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on 04/18/2025.
To update your application, including supporting documentation, at any time during the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account (
https://secure.login.gov/). There you will find a record of your application, the application status, and an option to Update Application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed.
To verify the status of your application both during and after the announcement open period, log into your USAJOBS account:
Welcome | Login.gov. All of your applications will appear on the
Welcome page. The application record in your USAJOBS account provides an
Additional Application Information page that provides information regarding the documentation you submitted and any correspondence we have sent related to this application. The
Application Status will appear along with the date your application was last updated. For information on what each
Application Status means, visit:
https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/application/status/.
Are you unsure how to write your federal resume? We are here to help. The Treasury Recruitment Service regularly offers
Writing Your Federal Resume training sessions, and other career-related information sessions, to assist you in your career search journey. To register for a session,
click here to go to our Career Information Sessions webpage.
Next steps
Treasury believes in a working environment that supports inclusion; to review reasonable accommodation policies and procedures please visit https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/disability-employment/reasonable-accommodations/. We provide reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis; contact us if you require this for any part of the application and hiring process.
Once your application package and online questionnaire is received you will receive an acknowledgement email. You are responsible for checking status updates and notifications in USAJOBS. Hard copy notifications will not be sent to you. You may check the status of your application for this position at any time by logging onto the USAJOBS "My Account" tab and clicking on "Application Status." For a more detailed update of your application status, you may click on "more information." Please notify us if your contact information changes after the closing date of the announcement. If your email mailbox is full or blocked (SPAM) you may not receive important communication that could affect your consideration for this position.
As a current employee, you know the great benefits we offer. Should you have any questions about benefits, please contact the Employee Resource Center (ERC) at 1-866-743-5748 option #1 for ERC.