Mercor is connecting exceptional professionals with leading AI research labs developing the next generation of reasoning systems. We are seeking experienced State & Local Tax (SALT) experts to help evaluate, review, and improve AI models' understanding of complex multi-state tax concepts, regulations, and real-world tax planning scenarios.
Responsibilities
- Analyse and review AI-generated responses involving U.S. state and local tax issues.
- Evaluate model performance on multi-state corporate income tax, sales and use tax, and pass-through entity tax scenarios.
- Create and validate tax research questions, answer keys, and evaluation rubrics.
- Assess AI reasoning related to:
- Economic and physical nexus
- Marketplace facilitator rules
- P.L. 86-272 protections and limitations
- State conformity to federal tax law
- GILTI, Subpart F, §965, and foreign income inclusion issues
- Apportionment and sourcing methodologies
- Throwback and throwout rules
- Combined and unitary reporting
- State tax withholding and mobile workforce rules
- Digital advertising taxes and emerging SALT developments
- Identify factual errors, technical inaccuracies, and incomplete legal analysis.
- Provide written feedback that improves model accuracy and legal-tax reasoning.
- Review edge cases involving conflicting state rules and evolving administrative guidance.
Requirements
- CPA, JD, LLM (Tax), MST, or equivalent advanced tax credential preferred.
- 5+ years of experience in State & Local Tax (SALT).
- Experience at a Big 4 firm, national accounting firm, law firm, state revenue department, or corporate tax department strongly preferred.
- Deep expertise in several of the following:
- Nexus analysis (economic, physical, factor-presence, and remote employee nexus)
- State corporate income and franchise taxes
- Multi-state apportionment and sourcing
- Combined reporting and unitary business principles
- Foreign income state taxation (GILTI, Subpart F, §965, NCTI)
- State conformity and decoupling provisions
- Sales and use tax compliance
- Pass-through entity tax (PTET) regimes
- Nonresident withholding and composite filing requirements
- State tax controversy, audit defence, or litigation
- Strong tax research skills using primary authorities, state statutes, regulations, administrative guidance, and case law.
- Excellent written communication and analytical reasoning skills.
- Comfortable reviewing nuanced technical tax questions and explaining conclusions clearly.
Why Join
- Help shape the next generation of AI systems used for tax research and professional reasoning.
- Work on intellectually challenging state and local tax issues spanning all major SALT domains.
- Collaborate with leading AI researchers and tax experts.
- Opportunity to influence how advanced AI systems understand complex tax law and compliance frameworks.