Tackling Tax Research

1. Tackling Tax Research Research Refreshers Amy Taylor April 2, 2009

2. Roadmap • What is tax law? • What are the sources? • Where do you find the law? • How do you know if it’s current?

3. Tax Authorities • Legislative • Administrative (executive) • Judicial

4. Sources of Tax Law • Legislative • Internal Revenue Code (IRC) • Located in Title 26 of the U.S.C. and as a stand-alone code • Administrative • Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in conjunction with the Treasury Department • Judicial • Federal court opinions • US Tax Court • US Courts of Appeals

5. Sources of Tax Law, cont. • Agency interpretative regulations (executive authority– written by IRS & Treasury), including: • Final, Temporary and Proposed Regulations promulgated under IRC 7805 • Treasury Notices and Announcements • Public Administrative Rulings (IRS Revenue Rulings) – official interpretations of the tax consequences of the Code’s application to a hypothetical factual situation. • Binding on all taxpayers and are not general statements. • Can provide clues to the IRS’ litigation strategy. • About 60 per year, 1-3 pages each • Sources: taxpayer inquiries, court decisions, perceived need for additional guidance • Published in the Weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin and semi-annually in the Cumulative Bulletin • Must check its currency with a citator volume • Citation: Rev. Rul. 99-40,1999-48 IRB 5; Rev. Rul. 99-40, 1999-2 CB 60

6. Persuasive Authority • Legislative history • Private Administrative Rulings (private parties may approach the IRS directly and ask for a Private Letter Ruling on a specific issue– these rulings are binding only on the requesting taxpayer) • See irs.gov for how to make this request

7. Westlaw: Add a Tax Tab

8. Westlaw: Add a Tax Tab

9. Westlaw Tax Tab

10. Westlaw Tax Tab

11. Find a Tax Document

12. Find a Tax Document

13. KeyCite for Tax

14. KeyCite for Tax

15. KeyCite for Tax

16. RIA Tax Citator Only 31 citing documents

17. Current Awareness

18. Current Awareness

19. Secondary Sources: TMP

20. Federal Income TMP

21. Federal Income TMP

22. Federal Income TMP

23. Federal Income TMP

24. Federal Income TMP

25. U.S. Tax Reporter

26. U.S. Tax Reporter

27. U.S. Tax Reporter Browsing by IRC section

28. U.S.T.R. – Annotations to 280A

29. CCH Tax Research Network

30. CCH: Find by Citation

31. CCH: Check Citator

32. CCH: Check Citator

33. CCH: Federal Tab

34. CCH: Federal Tab

35. CCH: Browse by IRC

36. CCH: Browsing by IRC

37. CCH: Browsing by IRC

38. CCH: Searching

39. CCH: Searching

40. IRS.gov

41. IRS.gov

42. IRS.gov

43. IRS.gov

44. IRS.gov

45. IRS.gov

46. IRS.gov

47. Lexis

48. Lexis

49. Lexis

50. Lexis