12-25.0056. Applicant Ranking Process

The criteria and definitions established in this rule will be used by the Applicants Ranking Committee to evaluate and rank the qualifications of applicants. (1) Experience in Florida tax law. This term means working directly with the Florida Statutes (tax law), Department rules, and the interpretative decisions, opinions, and rulings relevant to the subject tax. The type of experience can either be: (a) Audit – performing Department tax compliance audits; or, (b) Preparation – assisting a taxpayer in, or preparing tax returns for, clients, or representing clients or others with respect to audit issues during the Department’s tax compliance audit process. (c) Experience means the combined years of experience of the firm members named in the application who will work on the audits. “Working” means performing on-site tax compliance audit work, supervising audit work, reviewing audit work papers, or serving as the engagement partner. The following methodology will be used to score experience: (d) Audit Experience = Score 1 to 4 years = 2 5 to 8 years = 3 9 or more years = 5 Points awarded for experience are based on the sum of the experience of individual team members. For team members who have previously worked on section 213.28, F.S., contracts, one year of audit experience is awarded for each contract worked on. (e) Preparation Experience = Score 3 to 5 years = 1 6 to 9 years = 2 10 or more years = 3 (f) If an applicant has both types of experience, the applicant will be scored on the type resulting in the highest score. (2) Knowledge of Florida tax law. This is textbook/academic knowledge of the application, concepts and issues concerning the statutes, Department rules, and rulings and decisions in administrative and court cases relevant to the subject tax. It is the combined knowledge (i.e., courses attended) of the firm members named in the application who will work on the audits. The methods by which the applicant may have gained this knowledge are: (a) Attended and, where applicable, successfully passed a course that is designed specifically to teach audit applications for the Florida revenue law. (b) Successfully completed a Department course in the Florida revenue laws (each of the Department’s contract audit program and certified audit program courses meet this criterion). (c) The methodology for determining the Knowledge score is: Courses Attended and Passed = Score