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.