Individual Tax Professional (CPA / EA)

Mercor is seeking experienced individual tax professionals to help evaluate advanced AI systems on realistic personal tax scenarios. You will work through a series of tax "worlds" built around complex individual taxpayers, completing well-scoped tasks that mirror real return preparation and tax planning work.

What You'll Do

• Apply federal and state (New York and/or California) tax rules to prepare, review, and reason through complex returns.

• Evaluate and correct tax analyses, calculations, and positions for accuracy and completeness.

• Provide clear, structured written explanations of your reasoning and conclusions.

Scenarios You'll Work With

• Technology professionals with ISO equity and company tender offers (AMT planning)

• W-2 employees with a primary residence and multiple rental properties

• Finance professionals with multiple K-1 investments (real estate, private equity, fund of funds)

• Retirees with RMDs and side consulting income

• High-earning W-2 employees with backdoor Roth IRA, maxed HSA, and NY-to-CA part-year / dual residency

• Business owners reporting income on Schedule C or via K-1

Required Qualifications

• 3–8 years of hands-on experience preparing complex individual (Form 1040) returns, currently or recently.

• Senior Associate to Manager level in individual tax compliance.

• Strong working knowledge of federal individual tax returns plus New York and/or California state returns.

• Excellent attention to detail and clear written communication.

Preferred Qualifications

• CPA or Enrolled Agent (EA) credential.

• Big 4, national, or strong regional firm experience in private client / individual tax.

• Experience with equity compensation (ISOs/RSUs), AMT, partnership K-1s, rental properties, and multi-state residency.

Why Join?

• Apply your tax expertise to shape how AI systems handle real-world personal tax work.

• Short-term, flexible, and intellectually engaging.

• Collaborate with a leading AI research organisation.

We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.

Contract and Payment Terms

• You will be engaged as an independent contractor.
• This is a fully remote role that can be completed on your own schedule.
• Projects can be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on needs and performance.
• Your work at Mercor will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution.
• Payments are weekly on Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.
• Please note: We are unable to support H1-B or STEM OPT candidates at this time.

About Mercor

Mercor partners with leading AI labs and enterprises to train frontier models using human expertise. You will work on projects that focus on training and enhancing AI systems. You will be paid competitively, collaborate with leading researchers, and help shape the next generation of AI systems in your area of expertise.