Tax Law Specialist

Summary

WHAT IS TAXPAYER SERVICES?
A description of the business units can be found at: https://www.jobs.irs.gov/about/who/business-divisions

• Position(s) are to be filled in following area(s):
  • TS - CARE-Customer Assistance, Relationship and Education - Media & Publications - Tax Forms and Publications

Duties

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.
Technical and Legislative Analysis (50%)
Performs advanced research and analysis of highly complex federal tax law provisions contained in the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury regulations, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, judicial decisions, congressional committee reports, and proposed and enacted legislation. Assignments involve interpreting highly complex and interrelated statutory provisions, including those with significant economic, compliance, or administrative impact to all taxpayers. Evaluates legislative intent, identifies downstream effects on tax administration, and determines how legal requirements must be operationalized within tax products.
Technical Advisory and Cross-Functional Tax Law Support (25%)
Serves as a recognized subject matter expert and senior technical advisor providing authoritative guidance on complex tax law issues affecting nationwide tax administration, taxpayer compliance, and implementation of legislative and regulatory changes. This includes reviewing tax products developed by other BODs for legal sufficiency, technical accuracy, consistency with existing guidance, and alignment with current law and Taxpayer Services policy.
Tax Product Development, Simplification, and Implementation (25%)
Leads efforts to improve and modernize tax products to enhance clarity, usability, and compliance effectiveness. This includes applying plain language principles, improving logical structure and design, and reducing unnecessary taxpayer burden while maintaining strict adherence to legal requirements.
STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD): PD26562
Visit the IRS SPD Library to access the position descriptions.

Requirements

Conditions of employment

• Probationary Period - A person who is required to go through a probationary period and then is transferred, promoted, demoted, or reassigned before he or she completes such period is required to complete the remainder of the probationary period in the new position.
• Government Credit Card - Obtain and use a Government-issued charge card for business-related travel.

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.
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: GS-13 Level: You must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes:
Experience with legal, tax accounting, or other experience that required knowledge of Federal tax laws, regulations, precedent decisions, or other areas related to the position to be filled. Examples of qualifying experience include:·

• Preparing, reviewing, or applying rulings, advisory letters, memoranda, etc. related to Federal taxation.
• Analyzing and adjudicating tax claims, appeals, settlement offers, or similar work related to Federal tax operation.
• Work as an attorney that required legal research, analysis, and preparation of briefs or similar documents interpreting laws and regulations.
• Work as an accountant, auditor, or investigator that required application of Federal tax accounting principles and/or the Internal Revenue Code and related laws.

In addition, your experience must be sufficient to demonstrate the following:

• Experience with Federal tax laws, regulations, revenue rulings, revenue procedures and other pertinent technical matters to address taxpayer's needs;
• Experience converting tax laws and other technical matters into clear concise, logically arranged, well written and easy to understand explanatory material;
• Experience with accounting methods, principles, techniques and practices to analyze the impact of tax law provisions on taxpayer reporting requirements, information reporting, income recognition, and/or other tax administration matters;
• Experience with tax law, research techniques that include using on-line and paper methods to research and analyze tax issues;
• Experience with learning theory and cognitive thinking, as they apply to the writing, design, and presentation of materials;
• Experience with Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) or other designated electronic composition and publishing system to design and produce materials and documents.

AND
You must also meet the following requirement(s):

• TIME AFTER COMPETITIVE APPOINTMENT (TACA): 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"
• 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-05, 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.

Education

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.
We recommend choosing an evaluator from a member organization of one of the following national associations of credential evaluation services: National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) or Association of International Credentials Evaluators (AICE).

Additional information

• Consider each location carefully when applying. If you are selected for a location, that location will become your official post of duty.
• In the event that a building is closed due to rent management, new hires may be placed in a local commuting location.
• Additional jobs may be filled from this announcement or any other source to fill these vacancies.
• Alternative work schedule, staggered work hours may be available.
• Salary: General Schedule (GS) Locality Pay tables may be found under Salaries & Wages.
• Cost-of-Living Allowances (COLA): Puerto Rico includes COLA. See COLA Rates 2026.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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.

Review our benefits

Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.