City Tax Representative - City of Bellingham

City Tax Representative Print (https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/cobwa/jobs/newprint/4698370) Apply ? City Tax Representative Salary $27.00 Hourly Location City of Bellingham, WA Job Type Full Time Job Number 24-CITY TAX REPRESENTATIVE Department Finance Opening Date 10/25/2024 Closing Date 11/12/2024 8:30 AM Pacific FLSA Non-Exempt Bargaining Unit Local 1937 + Description + Benefits + Questions Nature of Work The City of Bellingham's Finance Department is looking for a City Tax Representative! If you have a strong background in bookkeeping and accounting, with experience in computerized accounting systems and spreadsheets, we want to hear from you. Apply today! The City Tax Representative provides high quality support and service to customers. Prepares financial information and performs reconciliations and analyses. Prepares, maintains and posts complex financial data to citywide financial systems. Independently carries out special projects and technical research. Maintains accounting records and provides support to accounting staff. Responsible for interpretation and enforcement of taxation and licensing ordinances, auditing reportable revenue and collection of business taxes, maintaining awareness of the business community and initiating considerable public contact in carrying out responsibilities. This position will start at Step 1 ($27.00/hour). Employees receive step increases annually in accordance with the Guild of Pacific Northwest Employees, Local 1937 Collective Bargaining Agreement (https://cob.org/about/employment/labor-agreements-pay-schedule) and City policy. The full hourly range for this position is $27.00 - $33.18. For internal candidates, placement within the range is based on City Pay Placement Procedures. City of Bellingham employees receive medical, dental, and vision insurance as well as life insurance and long-term disability. Additional benefits include flexible spending accounts, a medical insurance opt-out program, and access to our employee assistance program. All eligible City employees are enrolled in a Washington State Department of Retirement Systems (https://www.drs.wa.gov/) pension plan. Additionally, employees may elect to participate in the City's 457 deferred compensation retirement savings plan. Employees will receive 12 paid holidays in addition to one paid floating holiday each year. Employees accrue 8 hours total of contract and state sick leave per month in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement and Washington State Law. At the time of hire, employees will accrue 7.33 hours of vacation per month. Vacation accruals increase based on years of service. Leave accruals are based on 1.0 FTE, accruals are pro-rated if part-time and require employee to be in paid status at least 120 hours/month. For additional information regarding benefits and compensation Information please visit the following: + Labor Agreements, Pay Schedules and E-Team Employee Handbook - City of Bellingham (cob.org) (https://cob.org/about/employment/labor-agreements-pay-schedule) + Employment Benefits - City of Bellingham (cob.org) Closing Date/Time: Tues. 11/12/24 8:30 AM Pacific Time ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE JOB: + Determines licensing requirements for a variety of business such as retailing, wholesaling, professional services, and special events. Monitors new business activities and ensures licensing requirements are met. + Reviews license applications for completeness, coordinates compliance for business requiring special regulations and/or City licenses and expedites processing with appropriate City employees and departments. + Receives and responds to a variety of inquiries, complaints, and concerns regarding City taxes, regulatory licenses and related ordinances through written correspondence, phone, and counter contacts. + Interprets and enforces municipal code taxation and licensing ordinances. Analyzes and recommends improvement to existing policies, procedures, and standards to support the effective and efficient enforcement of the tax and licensing ordinances. + Contacts unlicensed businesses or businesses with reporting problems and/or delinquent payments, to clarify licensing requirement or to develop amendable payment plans. Makes reasoned judgments regarding collection issues. Follows up with businesses to ensure compliance, and initiates revocation of licenses as necessary + Performs audits on reportable revenues of businesses and reviews comparable City records to determine compliance with tax obligations. Develops effective auditing techniques to determine businesses with reporting discrepancies. + Maintains up-to-date knowledge of laws related to business and occupation tax and says apprised of changes to laws and interpretations. ADDITIONAL WORK PERFORMED: + Prepares annual reports and financial reports as required. Compiles data from accounting records and verifies accuracy in order to record balance, revenue and expenditures for statements. + Maintains full set of accounting books by compiling, recording and maintaining all financial data related to a specific fund or operation. Analyzes and prepares statement, financial related reports and other necessary information as required. + Coordinates the billing, receipting and updating of account records. Classifies records and balances income and expenditures to proper accounts in accordance with coding accounting systems and City procedures. + Assists in preparing special reports or projects requiring extensive research, interpretation or auditing of statistical data. + Performs other related duties within the scope of the classification. WORKING ENVIRONMENT: Work is primarily performed in an office environment with extensive work at a computer workstation. Environment includes a normal range of noise and distractions with very low risk working around and operating standard office equipment. Experience and Training + Two years progressively responsible accounting support experience involving the maintenance of complex financial records. + Experience utilizing computerized accounting systems and spreadsheets required. + Demonstrated analytic ability to interpret and apply laws and regulations required. + Accounting experience in a municipal or public sector environment preferred. + 10 key by touch preferred A combination of experience and education which provides the applicant with the knowledge, skills and abilities required to perform the essential function of the job will be considered. Necessary Special Requirements + Employment contingent on passing a criminal background check (See Fair Hiring Practices). Selection Process **You are encouraged to print a copy of this job announcement for your reference as the process moves along** Please ensure your application is complete and all required information has been provided. Standard completeness means all application fields (contact information, personal information, education, work experience, references, and required supplemental questions). Provide as much detail as you believe will fully describe your experience and training. Application Review Process: + Minimum Qualifications: Applicants must provide specific, detailed information so an initial determination can be made regarding your level of qualifications for this position. Applicant status will be updated on or around November 13, 2024. + All applicants that pass Minimum Qualifications will be invited to the Oral Board Interviews, tentatively scheduled for November 22, 2024. + Applicants will be notified via email of Final Scores & Ranks. The final ranking of the register will be based on total scores for the following: Oral Board Interview (100%). Final candidates will be referred to the department for additional examination, assessment, or test. This recruitment process will create a Civil Service eligibility register that will be used to fill current and future vacancies as they become available. There is currently 1 full-time vacancy in Finance. This position is represented by a union. If you wish to claim Veterans' Preference Points, please complete the Veterans Scoring Criteria Declaration Form (https://cob.org/wp-content/uploads/COB-Veterans-Scoring-Criteria-Declaration-PDF.pdf) and upload it to your application with your DD214. Please Note: Candidates will receive updates regarding application status via email. Please be sure to check your email frequently, including your spam folders for messages filtered by your email providers. Equal Opportunity: Our environment is characterized by respect for cultural backgrounds, belief systems, and ethnic diversity. The City of Bellingham is an Equal Opportunity Employer and values diversity in its work force. We do not make decisions on the basis of an individual's race, religion, creed, color, national origin, sex, marital status, age (40+), disability, retaliation, sexual orientation or gender identity, honorably discharged veteran or military status, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking, use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability, or any other basis prohibited by local, state, or federal law. All are encouraged to apply for employment. Fair Hiring Practices + The City provides individuals who have been arrested or convicted of a criminal offense an equal and fair opportunity to obtain employment. + The City will not inquire about an applicant's criminal history until after a conditional job offer has been made. + The City will disregard the prior arrest and conviction record of an otherwise qualified individual unless the offense is directly related to the job position for which the individual has applied. + The City will notify an otherwise qualified applicant about a potentially disqualifying conviction and give the applicant an opportunity to submit information regarding the accuracy of the criminal records as well as evidence of mitigation or rehabilitation, as appropriate. There are many good reasons for working at the City of Bellingham. The work is rewarding and you have an opportunity to serve your community. Another good reason is the great benefits that the City offers its employees. See our benefits section (https://www.cob.org/employment/pages/benefits.aspx) for additional information. This position is represented by The Guild of Pacific Northwest Employees, Local 1937 bargaining unit. Specific benefit information including Holidays, Vacation Accruals, Health, Dental and Vision Plans with cost sharing and Deferred Compensation Match can be found in the Local 1937 labor agreement (https://cob.org/wp-content/uploads/1937-2022-2023-CBA.pdf) . This position is covered by the State of Washington Department of Retirement Systems PERS plan. PERS requires mandatory employee and City contributions. Please visit the DRS website (http://www.drs.wa.gov/) for more information on PERS. Civil Service Information This position is subject to the Bellingham Civil Service Commission. When a vacancy occurs, the top fifteen candidates or the top 25% of the register will be forwarded to the department for further consideration. All new Civil Service employees are subject to a one-year probationary period. A candidate may challenge the scope, content, or method of an examination or test, and a protest may be filed in writing with the Examiner within five (5) days following the date of the challenged examination. A candidate may also challenge the scoring of an examination or test, failure of the candidate on any part of an examination, or clerical error in examination results of any examination or test, and a protest may be filed in writing with the Examiner within five (5) days of notification of the challenged result. The Examiner shall consider all timely filed protests and make appropriate corrections if an error is demonstrated. Veteran's Scoring Criteria Applicants who have been honorably discharged from active military duty may be eligible to receive veteran's scoring criteria points as provided by Washington State Law (RCW 41.04.010). If you wish to claim Veterans' Preference Points, please complete the Veterans Scoring Criteria Declaration Form (https://cob.org/wp-content/uploads/COB-Veterans-Scoring-Criteria-Declaration-PDF.pdf) and upload it to your application with your DD214. 01 Do you have two years of progressively responsible accounting support experience involving the maintenance of complex financial records? (Work experience must be reflected in Work History within application) + Yes + No 02 Do you have experience utilizing computerized accounting systems and spreadsheets? (Work experience must be reflected in Work History within application) + Yes + No 03 Do you have a demonstrated analytic ability to interpret and apply laws and regulations? (Work experience must be reflected in Work History within application) + Yes + No 04 Please describe your experience in supporting the maintenance of complex financial records. 05 Please describe your experience using accounting systems and spreadsheets. What systems have you used and what did you use them for? What formulas are you most familiar with in Excel? 06 Please describe your experience interpreting and applying laws and regulations. Required Question Agency City of Bellingham Address 104 West Magnolia Street Bellingham, Washington, 98225 Phone 360-778-8228 Website http://www.cob.org/employment Apply Please verify your email address Verify Email