State of Maryland

A Senior Tax Attorney I is the entry level of work conducting administrative hearings or performing specialized, professional legal staff work involving the analysis and application of state and federal tax laws in the Comptroller of Maryland. Employees in this classification do not supervise.

Employees in this classification receive close supervision from a Managing Tax Attorney, Assistant State Comptroller, or Program Manager.

Positions in this classification are evaluated by using the classification job evaluation methodology. The use of this method involves comparing the assigned duties and responsibilities of a position to the job criteria found in the Nature of Work and Examples of Work sections of the class specification.

The Senior Tax Attorney I and Senior Tax Attorney II are differentiated on the basis of degree of supervisory control exercised by the supervisor over these employees. The Senior Tax Attorney I performs duties under close supervision and the Senior Tax Attorney II performs the full range of duties under general supervision. The Senior Tax Attorney III is differentiated from the Senior Tax Attorney II in that the Senior Tax Attorney III either assigns, reviews and approves the work of and trains lower-level Senior Tax Attorneys or completes work on more complex cases.

Assists the agency’s Assistant Attorney General’s Office in representing a division of the Comptroller’s Office in the lower courts and the Court of Appeals of Maryland;

Prepares opinions, regulations and proposed legislation for the approval of the Attorney General of Maryland;
Conducts informal hearings in contested tax cases;

Conducts hearings and issues final determinations on the return of seized motor fuel cases;

Confers with accountants and attorneys in resolving cases concerning their clients;

Studies proposed legislation concerning the Maryland Tax Laws and advises as to its effect, legal sufficiency, and operational impacts;

Gives legal opinions and advice to the Division and program heads of the Division;

Summarizes and submits briefs on the facts applicable to a given case;

Performs research on the common law, case law precedents, statutory changes and the legislative history of statutes;

Analyzes complex corporate and pass-through entity structures to determine taxability;

Analyzes facts and applies the law to make nexus determinations;

Prepares responses to requests for information, declaratory rulings, and private letter rulings;

Advises the Agency on updates to tax forms to comply with annual law changes;

Prepares formal tax guidance for publication to tax attorneys, accountants, other tax practitioners, and the general public;

Performs other related duties.

Knowledge of trial court procedure, practices and jurisdiction;

Knowledge of the basic constitutional and administrative laws/principles applicable to the rules and procedures of administrative agencies;

Knowledge of the rules and procedures of the Maryland Tax Court, the Circuit Court and the Courts of Appeals of Maryland;

Knowledge of Maryland Tax Laws, of the rules and regulations of the Comptroller’s Office pertaining to revenue collections;

Knowledge of the United States Internal Revenue Code and its applicability to Maryland Tax Laws;

Knowledge of Maryland Business Regulation Article and regulations of the Comptroller’s Office related to the monitoring and enforcement of business licenses;

Knowledge of Maryland Commercial Law Article and regulations of the Comptroller’s Office related to the administration of unclaimed property;

Knowledge of inter-agency agreements applicable to refund offsets and information sharing;

Knowledge of and adherence to federal laws regarding safeguarding federal tax information;

Ability to perform legal research;

Ability to prepare briefs, pleadings, petitions, motions and other legal documents;

Ability to organize, prepare and effectively present evidence, witnesses and other information;

Ability to analyze and evaluate statutes and related cases for their applicability to a given set of facts;

Ability to evaluate evidence and judicial opinions and to determine their relevance;

Ability to draft agency regulations;

Ability to summarize proposed State and federal legislation and analyze the impacts of law changes.

Education: Possession of a Juris Doctor or equivalent degree from an accredited school of law.

Experience: None

Note: Candidates may substitute U.S. Armed Forces military service experience as a commissioned officer in judge advocate classification or judge advocate specialty codes in the tax law specialist field of work on a year-for-year basis for the required education.

1. Admission to the Bar of a US State or Territory or the District of Columbia.

2. Admission to the Maryland Bar within six (6) months of employment.

3. Certificate of Good Standing from the Supreme Court of Maryland upon admission to the Maryland Bar.

4. Employees appointed to positions in this classification may be assigned duties which require the operation of a motor vehicle. Employees assigned such duties will be required to possess a motor vehicle operator’s license valid in the State of Maryland.

Class specifications are broad descriptions covering groups of positions used by various State departments and agencies. Position descriptions maintained by the using department or agency specifically address the essential job functions of each position.
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his is a Professional Service classification in the State Personnel Management System. All positions in this classification are Professional Service positions. Some positions in Professional Service classifications may be designated Special Appointment in accordance with the State Personnel and Pensions Article, Section 6-405, Annotated Code of Maryland.

This classification is not assigned to a bargaining unit, as indicated by the designation of S (Supervisor), M (Manager), T (Agency Head), U (Board or Commission Member), W (Student), X (Used by Agency or Excluded by Executive Order), or Z (Confidential). As provided by State Personnel and Pensions Article, Section 3-102, special appointment, temporary, contractual, supervisory, managerial and confidential employees are excluded from collective bargaining. Additionally, certain executive branch agencies are exempt from collective bargaining and all positions in those agencies are excluded from collective bargaining.

This classification is one level in a Non-Competitive Promotion (NCP) series. NCP promotions are promotions by which employees may advance in grade and class level from trainee to full performance levels in a classification series. In order to be non-competitively promoted to the next level in a NCP series, an employee must: 1) perform the main purpose of the class as defined in the Nature of Work section of the class specification; 2) receive the type of supervision defined in the class specification, and 3) meet the minimum qualifications of the classification.