Detailed Guide to IRS Revenue Agent (RA) Hiring, Benefits, and General Career Information
Current RA job posting: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/614268100
The window to apply closes on September 21st
A. Background
I made this post pay it forward because I was hired as an RA after hearing about the job on reddit. I never would have heard about the job otherwise because sadly the government’s outreach and advertising for jobs is lacking. The good thing as a candidate though is EVERY job has to be posted on USAjobs.gov, and you can create a custom search that will send you email alerts when new positions are posted.
If you have any questions not covered here feel free to ask.
B. Hiring Process
- Resume
Make a resume TAILORED for Federal jobs, and modify this resume based on the specific position you are applying to.
There is a help page on USAjobs.gov that tells you how to write a resume for Federal jobs. Use their exact template.
For work experience, read the position description (PD) of the job you’re applying for and see if any items match your experience. If they do, then use the same terminology in your resume.
DON’T LIE! What I’m saying is to tweak your resume to match the specific words used by the job description for experience you ACTUALLY have.
- Position questionairre (pre-screener)
When you apply you have to answer a series of multiple choice questions that ask about your work experience. This is to pre-screen you based on your experience for the particular GS grade you are applying for.
- Location and Grade Preferences
You will be asked to rank your top 3 locations. You can choose more than 3 and I don’t think there is any limit to how many you can choose but I wouldn’t recommend choosing a location unless you would actually be interested in working there.
The job posting may be for multiple grades (e.g., GS-7, GS-9, GS-11). Apply for as many grades as you are eligible for.
- Initial ranking
After submitting your resume and completing the questionnaire they will pre-screen you for eligibility to take a skills assessment. This is why it’s important that your resume is tailored for the job.
- Skills assessment
This is a computer simulation of the day in the life of a RA. You have to organize your calendar, talk to taxpayers using multiple choice questions, listen to voicemails, read and apply the Internal Revenue Manual, and answer accounting knowledge questions. It takes about an hour to complete.
- Final ranking
You get a rating after completing the simulation. The rating will be A, B, or C. I forget the exact names but I think rating A is Best Qualified, B is Highly Qualified, and C is Qualified.
The IRS will go through the entire process of interviewing and offering jobs to A rated candidates first before contacting any people with a B rating, then finally C. So while it’s not impossible to get hired with a B rating it’s much less likely.
- Interview
You will then be contacted to schedule an interview. The interview takes about 30 minutes. They will ask you 7-8 pre-written questions. Every candidate is asked the same exact questions. The questions will be a combination of hypothetical scenarios to test your judgement, time management, and ethics, as well as a few accounting questions.
Afterward you can ask the interviewers any questions you may have like a regular interview. Your responses are recorded and each of the 3 interviewers will rate your overall performance.
- Offer
If you are one of the highest rated candidates after the interview, you will receive a tentative offer (TO)
The purpose of the TO is primarily to allow the IRS to run a background check. You also have to complete a detailed questionnaire that asks about things like foreign travel and past drug use. After being hired you may also have to have a face to face (or phone) interview with an investigator from TIGTA, which is like Internal Affairs for the IRS.
If there are no issues with the background check then you will receive a final offer (FO). The FO is only for a SPECIFIC office. You are allowed to rescind an offer if you accept a position at 1 office and then get another offer for a different office.
It IS possible to negotiate your pay. You normally start at step 1 of whichever GS level you were hired for, but in the past the IRS has awarded step increases to match previous salaries.
Unless specifically stated in the job posting, there are no sign-on bonuses. Usually sign-on bonuses are for a specific office that is critically understaffed.
C. Pay
- GS system explained
The GS pay system is one of the most confusing things for applicants. I’ll try to make it easy. The GS scale is made up of 15 GRADES from low pay (GS-1) to high pay (GS-15). Note: there are other pay scales besides GS (e.g. IR, used for managers) but we’ll ignore those for now.
Each GRADE is made up to ten (10) STEPS.
The range of grades available to a particular position is called the CAREER LADDER. Revenue agents are GS-0512 meaning that the ladder goes from a minimum of GS-5 to a journeyman level of GS-12, with promotion potential to GS-13.
The ladder would progress as follows for someone hired at GS-5:
Start - GS-5
1 year of experience - GS-7
2 years experience - GS-9
3 years experience - GS-11
4 years experience - GS-12
The yearly promotions from GS-5 to GS-12 are AUTOMATIC.
However, you can START as high as a GS-12, in which case you are already at journeyman level when you start. If you were hired as a GS-11, you would promote to GS-12 after 1 year of experience.
Once you reach journeyman level, your yearly pay increases are STEP INCREASES. That means after 1 year of experience at GS-12 Step 1 you are bumped up to GS-12 Step 2.
GRADE increases are much larger than STEP increases. Grade increase can be as much as $10k-20k, whereas step increases are around $2k-3k.
The step increases start at 1 step per year, but slow down as follows:
1 year: Steps 1-3
2 years: Steps 4-6
3 years: Steps 7-9
That means it would take 18 years to reach GS-12 Step 10.
If you are promoted to a higher GRADE while you are in between steps, you are automatically placed in the HIGHEST STEP of the higher grade that does not result in a pay decrease.
E.g., if you are a GS-12, Step 7 in Atlanta (making $97,869) and you are promoted to GS-13, you will enter GS-13 as a Step 2 ($100,314) NOT a Step 1, because Step 1 would result in a pay decrease ($97,073).
Pay depends on your locality. Every employee makes the “base” pay, which is then increased by a percentage established by the government which represents the higher cost of living.
E.g., Atlanta employees receive a 22.16% locality pay increase over their base pay.
All pay tables can be found here.
To find out which locality you belong to, check this map.
- Advancement
As mentioned, you progress up the career ladder until you hit journey level and make step increases automatically.
In addition to staying as a RA, there are tons of different internal opportunities. A common career transition people make is becoming a Special Agent with Criminal Investigations (CI). CI heavily recruits from RAs, and it’s much easier to get in as an internal hire.
Another really nice part about internal opportunities at the IRS is the temporary assignment system. You can apply for a temporary assignment to work in an entirely new job while putting your current job on hold. The assignment can last anywhere from 120 days to 2 years. This gives you a chance to see if you like a new role without leaving your current job and lets you gain experience for your resume when competing for a promotion or other opportunities.
- Competitive promotions
Revenue Agents can compete for a GS-13 position when available. Unfortunately, the availability of GS-13 positions can vary based on the whims of Congress and budgeting levels, so there’s no telling when those openings will come along. Unlike public accounting when you are almost assured a promotion up the ladder if you put in the requisite number of years.
Note: You need 1 year of experience at the next lowest GS level to be able to apply for a higher level. So at the very least you would need to have 1 year of experience as a GS-12 before you would be eligible to compete for a 13, assuming a slot is open.
4. Benefits
- No mandatory overtime
Yes, the job is actually 40 hours per week.
- Work schedule
Work schedules have a ton of flexibility. The typical work day (called a tour of duty or TOD) is 8am-4:30pm.
Gliding - You can vary your hours on a daily basis with no prior approval needed. You can start as early as 6am and as late as 9:30am and end your day as appropriate (e.g., at 2:30pm if you started at 6am).
4-Day Work Week - You work 10 hour days for 4 days a week and get 1 day off. Typically, the day off is Friday but it can be any day. However, this plan requires prior approval and you CAN’T switch it back to a 5-day work week ad hoc.
5/4/9 Plan - You work 9 hours per day for the first week of the pay period, 9 hours per day for 4 days of the 2nd week, then have 1 extra day off. Basically you take every other Friday off.
- Teleworking
Even before the pandemic, the IRS allowed generous teleworking arrangements.
Ad Hoc Telework - You can decide to telework whenever you want to, but it can’t be a consistent schedule (e.g. you can’t telework every single Friday under this specific plan)
Scheduled Telework - You have sets days every week that you telework, but less frequently than the plan below (i.e., the same 1-2 days per week every week).
Frequent Telework - You telework for 8 days per pay period and have to come into the office for 2 days. Since this is based on the bi-weekly pay period you could technically telework for the entire first week, then come into the office twice in the 2nd week.
- Vacation/sick time
The amount of annual leave (vacation) and sick time you accrue each pay period (bi-weekly) is based on years of service.
You accrue 4 hours of sick leave per pay period. This never changes.
Annual leave increases as follows:
Starting: 4 hours (approx. 14 days per year)
3+ years of service: 6 hours (approx. 20 days per year)
15+ years of service: 8 hours (approx 26 days per year)
Therefore, a new employee will earn approximately 14 days of annual leave and 14 days of sick leave in their first year. Personally, I think the sick leave is very generous. Vacation time is ok but gets much better if you stick around.
- Pension
Yes, there’s a pension under the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS). You can read a lot about it online but in short:
You earn 1% of your “high-3” salary for each year of service. Your high-3 salary is computed as the average of your 3 highest years of compensation. If you work more than 30 years you get 1.1% for each year.
E.g., an employee with 25 years of service who earned a high-3 of salary of 100k would receive a pension of $25k upon retirement.
The most important thing you should know is that they take ~5% out of your paycheck AUTOMATICALLY to “share the cost” of your pension and you can’t opt out of it.
This is a shock to a lot of people and it’s a decent chunk of money. The good thing is you CAN get a refund of any money you paid in if you leave the government before your are eligible to collect.
- Comp time/religious time
Although overtime isn’t mandatory, if you choose to work overtime then you earn compensatory time (comp time). It’s basically extra vacation time. However, you can only accumulate a maximum of 24 hours of comp time. Comp time is calculated separately from annual leave.
You can also earn religious time off. This works very similarly to comp time. For example, you can say you are going to take Good Friday off (8 hours). You tell your manager you are going to work 2 extra hours on Monday-Thursday.
However you can USE religious time off before you earn it. You are just required to work the requisite overtime within 3 months from using it. Religious time is banked SEPARATELY from comp time and annual leave.
- Health/dental/vision
These are pretty standard. An example of a low cost high-deductible plan is one offered through Aetna but branded as GEHA (Govt Employee Health Association). It’s $60 per pay period, has a $1,500 deductible and ~$3k maximum, and the plan contributes $900 per year into your HSA for free (which effectively reduces your deductible).
5. What The Job Is Like
- Starting Out
When you are first hired you go through a 2-year training program. This is split up into 4 sections: 1040 part 1, 1040 part 2, corporate, and pass through. Each section starts with a classroom portion which lasts about 3 weeks and is similar in intensity and knowledge to a summer course in college. You are in class all day for the 3 weeks and have exams throughout.
Once the classroom portion is done you have your on the job training (OJT) period which lasts 2-3 months before the next classroom training starts. During that period you receive a number of real audits to complete that allow you to practice the tax law you learned in class.
- Overview of responsibilities
The job of an RA is very independent. Time management is emphasized throughout the hiring process, and for good reason, because you are the only person responsible for your own work. During training you will be reaching out to your on-the-job instructor (OJI) a lot to ask questions, but once you are fully trained you don’t interact with co-workers for work related issues that much. Unlike public accounting, your manager at the IRS oversees the general progress of your work and makes sure you have enough to keep you busy, not to give minor review notes. Managers only review cases when you finish them, not during the audit process.
Plus, due to the sensitive nature of the audits you are performing you’re actually prohibited from revealing ANY information about your cases except on a need to know basis, meaning only to your manager and certain specialists. You can reach out to coworkers for general/hypothetical questions but they wouldn’t be able to review your work.
On a typical day you might perform case work (e.g., reviewing bank statements, verifying and totaling invoices, analyzing accounting records, creating Excel sheets), call and email representatives, do tax research, reach out to specialists/subject matter experts/IRS counsel for help with complex issues, conduct interviews with taxpayers/reps, perform an on-site tour of a business, or meet with your manager to discuss your case load and how your cases are progressing.
6. Other Resources
https://federalsoup.com/Home.aspx (a forum that discusses hiring announcements)
https://www.jobs.irs.gov/resources/benefits-programs/worklife-programs/use-our-benefits-your-benefit