Senior Tax Auditor

Most weeks involve leading the most complex audit examinations and supporting administrative and judicial proceedings. You'll often own examinations involving transfer pricing, complex partnerships, large corporate consolidations, or specialty areas (employment tax, exempt organizations, international); defend findings through IRS Appeals, U.S. Tax Court, or comparable state forums; and contribute to audit policy, examiner training, or examination strategy. The work tends to be increasingly cross-functional.

What's harder than people expect is the litigation-defense pressure — senior tax audit findings face skilled taxpayer representation, often from former IRS attorneys or top tax counsel, and the case file must hold up under structured review and possible testimony. Variance is significant between IRS Large Business and International (complex multinational examinations, transfer pricing emphasis), IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities (specialty examination work), state revenue department income tax audit (state-specific issues), and specialty units (employment tax, estate, criminal investigations).

People who tend to thrive here are technically rigorous, comfortable in adversarial settings, and patient with both detailed regulation and structured negotiation. If you want fast-paced industry work, government audit pace continues to feel slow. If you find satisfaction in applying technical tax rules on the most consequential cases, the work tends to be intellectually challenging, mission-meaningful, and a strong path into senior tax administration leadership, IRS Counsel, or private-sector tax controversy consulting.