Internal Revenue Agent

Clarification from the agency

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

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.

• Conducts independent examinations and related investigations of the most complex income tax returns filed by individuals, small businesses, organizations, and other entities. May include those with diversified activities, multiple partners, and operations of national scope. Assignments require an integrated analysis of intricate and complex accounting systems, business activities, and financing.
• Conducts examinations of complex individual and business taxpayers involved in activities or transactions designed or structured to hide or conceal income such as offshore activities, multiple related entities, and other means using a wide range of financial and other investigative skills.
• Conducts package audits to determine that other required returns such as information, excise, or specialty returns are filed and conducts concurrent examinations of these and other returns when warranted. Recognizes the need for specialists and makes appropriate referrals.
• Evaluates the content of new and modified legislation and assesses the impact on the program.
• Identifies issues to be pursued based on large, unusual, or questionable items which produce significant tax or compliance effect; recognizes the impact; and utilizes the appropriate tax law and facts needed to resolve them. Recognizes indicators of fraudulent activity and develops appropriate referrals.

STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD): PD94816
Visit the IRS SPD Library to access the position descriptions.

Conditions of employment

Qualifications

Federal experience is not required. Experience may have been gained in the public sector, private sector or through 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/day/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.
QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:
BASIC REQUIREMENTS All GRADES:
A Certificate as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or a bachelor's or higher degree in accounting that included at least 30 semester hours in accounting or 24 semester hours in accounting and an additional 6 semester hours in related subjects such as business law, economics, statistical/quantitative methods, computerized accounting or financial systems, financial management, or finance.
OR
A bachelor's or higher degree in a field other than accounting or a combination of education and experience equivalent to 4 years that included at least 30 semester hours in accounting or 24 semester hours in accounting and 6 semester hours in related subjects as described above.

AND
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE GS-13:
In addition to meeting the basic requirement, you must have 1 year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service. Qualifying experience must have been in progressively responsible and diversified professional accounting or auditing work that required 1) knowledge of and skill in applying professional accounting principles, theory, and practices to analyze and interpret accounting books, records, or systems specifically to determine their effect on Federal tax liabilities and their adequacy for recording transactions affecting tax liabilities; 2) skill in interpreting and applying Federal tax law for individuals, business, and/or exempt organizations, partnerships, and corporations; 3) knowledge of business and trade practices to develop tax issues based on analysis and evaluation of overall business operations and financial condition; 4) knowledge of corporate financial transactions and financial management principles and practices; and 5) skill in interacting effectively with a broad range of individuals and in negotiating with specialists in accounting, legal, tax, and other similar business-related professions.
AND
Experience includes:

• Experience with the Internal Revenue Code, regulation, rulings, court decisions, agency policies, regulations, and practices to determine the correct tax liability and to conduct extensive research of legal questions in examining of tax returns.
• Experience with the principals and practices of accounting and tax auditing to detect taxpayers' accounting errors through accounting systems and records including computerized accounting and financial information systems that may be applicable to a specific industry.
• Experience with conducting package audits that may require additional returns to be filed, such as information, excise, specialty, or others as warranted.
• Experience with tax compliance programs relative to Federal tax examination, examples may include Fraud, Whistleblower (WBO), High Income/High Wealth (HI/HW), Research and Experimental (R&E) Credit, Abusive Transactions, Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA), and emerging issues.
• Experience with the examination of varied issues including reorganizations, complex fraud development, tax shelters, abusive trust promotions, or other business transactions.
• Experience cooperating with taxpayers and their representatives to communicate examination findings, including highly-complex interpretations of tax laws, regulations, etc..
• Experience influencing and persuading the taxpayer or a representative to comply with requirements to provide information to resolve outstanding problems and issues or to pay tax liability.

AND

You must also meet the following requirement(s):

• TIME AFTER COMPETITIVE APPOINTMENT (TACA): 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".
• TIME IN GRADE (TIG): 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. For positions at the GS-5, you cannot advance to the GS-05 if you have held a GS-02 in the past 52 weeks. There is no TIG restriction for GS-02, 03, or 04 positions.

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 qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position. Applicants who disqualify themselves will not be evaluated further.

You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

• Attention to Detail
• Customer Service
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Reasoning
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork

Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

Rating: Your application will be evaluated in accordance with the Service's Merit Promotion Plan. A quality group rating will be used to rank and select eligible candidates. If qualified, you will be assigned to one of three quality level groups, Superior/Best Qualified, Highly Qualified and Qualified Referral: Eligible applicants rated in the highest quality group, may be referred to a selecting official for consideration. Candidates, if required to participate in a selection interview (telephonic and/or in person at the discretion of the Selecting Official in accordance with hiring practices), will be interviewed in quality group order. We will not reimburse costs related to the interview such as travel to and from the interview site.

Performance Appraisal and Awards - Will not be used in determining your overall rating. Any performance appraisal/evaluation and award documentation you provide will be forwarded to the selecting official. The selecting official will review this documentation and give it due weight consideration during the overall selection process. IRS employees may obtain their most recent awards listing at https://persinfo.web.irs.gov/.

If you are a displaced or surplus Federal employee (eligible for the Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), you must receive a score of Highly Qualified orbetter to be rated as "well qualified" to receive special selection priority.

The following documents are required and must be provided with your application. All application materials, including transcripts, must be in English.
Incomplete or insufficient information may result in not being considered for the position, or not receiving special consideration for which you may be eligible.
Please view Application Preparation or How to write a resume for federal job.

1. Resume
… Your resume should:

• Be limited to two (2) pages. Applicants with resumes exceeding two-pages will be removed from consideration. We recommend utilizing a standard 8.5x11-inch document size, a sans-serif font such as Arial or Calibri with a font size no smaller than 10-point for the main text, and page margins of 0.5 inches. Applicants that attempt to circumvent the 2-page limit page limit, for example by materially reducing readability, will be deemed ineligible. If you update your application, only the most recent resume received (uploaded under the "Resume" document type) will be considered to determine qualifications.
• Include your name and contact information.
• Include relevant work experience - Employer Name, Job Title, Employment dates (start to end date or present), number of hours worked per week, and a brief description of duties that clearly demonstrate your qualifications. To receive full credit for work experience, you must include specific MM/DD/YYYY start and end dates for every position.
• Include pay plan, series, and grade (e.g., GS-0301-09) for all federal service jobs.
• Not include photographs, classified or sensitive information, SSN, encrypted/digitally signed documents, or other inappropriate content. Resumes containing prohibited information will be deemed ineligible.
• Not include embedded links as they will not be opened or considered when determining qualifications.
• Not include personal information such as age, sex, religion, race, or disability.
• Not include specialized experience copied from the announcement or position description, as this is not a demonstration of your experience.

2. Education (if applicable) - Refer to Qualification and Education sections above for requirements

• For positions with an education requirement, or if you are qualifying for this position based on education or training, submit a copy of your transcript(s) or equivalent. An official transcript(s) will be required if you are selected.

3. Registration/License (if applicable) - Current, active registration/license

4. Performance Appraisal/Awards (strongly encouraged)

• Submit the most recent completed annual performance appraisal.
• Submit copies of any incentive/performance awards received that may have an impact on the qualifications for the position to be filled.

5. Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) (if applicable) Selection priority program for displaced or surplus federal employees:

• Review and submit the required documentation as outlined under CTAP

6. IRS Reassignment Preference Program (RPP) (if applicable)

• Submit your RPP Notice and most recent performance appraisal.
• Appraisal must reflect Fully successful or higher overall rating.

7. Current Employees Documentation (recommended if applicable)

• If applying for a higher grade and you met time-in-grade (TIG) at another agency, it is recommended that you provide an SF-50(s) (Notification of Personnel Action) (or equivalent) which demonstrates you meet the 52-week TIG requirement (e.g., Promotion with an effective date more than one (1) year old, Within-Grade-Increase at the highest grade held). Failure to provide an SF-50(s) that shows your eligibility may result in an ineligible determination.

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