1. Tax Research
Mark Popielarski – Spring 2013

2. Overview
• Structure & Sources of Tax Law
• Tax Reporters & Electronic Tax Research

3. Sources of Tax Law – Statutory Authority
• Title 26 U.S.C. (also known as Internal Revenue Code)
• Three major versions:
• 1939
• 1954
• 1986
• Current I.R.C. is the 1986 version – frequently updated

4. Sources of Tax Law - Courts
• U.S. Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, District Courts, Court of Federal
Claims, and U.S. Tax Court rule on Federal Tax matters
• U.S. Tax Court issues three types of decisions:
• ―Regular‖ decisions – novel legal issue (precedential)
• Memorandum decisions – applying established tax law to specific facts (authoritative,
but less so)
• Summary Decisions – covers small cases (not precedential)

5. Sources of Tax Law – Agencies
• Treasury Department
• Agency charged by Congress with collecting and administering the Federal tax system
• Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
• Part of Treasury Department, most tax authority delegated to IRS

6. Regulations
• Treasury Regulations
• Proposed
• Initial version of regulation submitted for public review and comment (no precedential value)
• Temporary
• Issued when pressing need for regulation on a particular issue—currently issued temporary
regulations expire after three years if not replaced with final version (poses legal authority)
• Final
• Official enactment which carries legal authority

7. Regulations (cont.)
• Treasury Regulations fall into three categories:
• Legislative
• IRS creates substantive tax regulations as authorized by law
• Interpretive
• Used to fill-in gaps in tax law—explains IRS’ understanding of IRC
• Procedural
• Addresses the mechanics of tax collection—for example filing tax returns

8. Publication of Regulations
• Proposed, Temporary, and Final Regulations published in Federal Register
(FR) and Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB)
• Temporary and Final Regulations published in the FR & IRB are known as Treasury
Decisions (TD)
• Tax regulations are codified in Title 26 of the Code of Federal Regulations
(CFR)

9. IRS Rulemaking and Pronouncements
• IRS creates and publishes numerous items related to tax law
• Some carry force of law while others have no legal authority
• Important to know which is which when interpreting and applying tax law
• Examples of important IRS material follows

10. IRS Rulemaking and Pronouncements (cont.)
• Revenue Ruling (Rev. Rul.)
• IRS interprets law based on specific factual scenario—authoritative for all taxpayers so
long as still valid
• Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.)
• Addresses specific technical procedures—authoritative for all taxpayers
• Private Letter Ruling
• Individual taxpayer requests IRS opinion on tax consequences of prospective
transaction—only binding on IRS for specific requesting taxpayer

11. IRS Rulemaking and Pronouncements (cont.)
• Internal Revenue Manual
• Issued to IRS personnel to manage organization and provide guidance regarding taxpayer
matters
• Not mandatory or binding on IRS, but helps tax professionals understand the IRS’ current
mindset
• Forms, Form Instructions, and Publications
• Instruments issued for benefit of taxpayers to help understand tax issues and prepare
returns
• Possess no legal authority—taxpayers cannot claim reliance and use them at their own risk!

12. IRS Publications
• Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB)
• Weekly IRS publication used to keep the public about current and upcoming tax
matters
• Regulations, Rules, and other tax material published in IRB
• Cumulative Bulletin (CB)
• Biannual compilation of IRBs
• Forms & Publications
• Taxpayer guidance issued by IRS

13. Tax Publications – RIA
• RIA owned by Thompson Reuters (Westlaw)
• RIA Checkpoint electronic database
• United States Tax Reporter
• Federal Tax Coordinator 2d
• American Federal Tax Reports
• Warren, Gorham, & Lamont (WG&L) publications

14. Tax Publications – RIA (cont.)
• United States Tax Reporter
• Arranged chronologically by I.R.C. number
• Contains:
• Code Section
• Committee Reports
• Final and Temporary Regulations
• Proposed Regulations
• Explanations
• Annotations

15. Tax Publications – RIA (cont.)
• Federal Tax Coordinator 2d
• Topically organized—all discussion about an issue located in one place
• Avoids using overly technical language
• American Federal Tax Reports
• Collection/publication of tax-related cases, continuously updated with bound versions
of previous years

16. Tax Publications – RIA (cont.)
• Warren, Gorham, & Lamont (WG&L)
• Publisher of numerous tax treatises
• Important names to know in tax:
• Bittker
• Eustice
• Lokken
• Select WG&L treatises available on Westlaw

17. Tax Publications – CCH
• Electronic platform – CCH IntelliConnect
• Standard Federal Tax Reporter – Comparable to U.S. Tax Reporter
• Organized by Code
• Only covers Income Tax, separate series for other tax areas
• Federal Estate and Gift Tax Reporter
• Federal Excise Tax Reporter

18. Tax Publications – CCH (cont.)
• U.S. Tax Cases
• Tax Decisions from Federal Courts
• U.S. Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, District Courts, and Court of Federal Claims
• Tax Court Reporter
• Contains Decisions of the Tax Court

19. Tax Publications - BNA
• Available as standalone product or as part of Bloomberg Law
• Tax Management Series
• Current awareness publications
• Portfolios
• Topic specific publication used for researching specific tax issues

20. Conclusion
• Attorneys encounter tax issues in numerous practice areas
• Tax law constantly changing so maintaining current awareness important
• Many different sources for tax law and guidance
• RIA, CCH, and BNA major sources for tax material