SALT (State and Local Taxation) Experts

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
  • Water's-edge elections
  • 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)
  • P.L. 86-272
  • 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.