Research Memo 4 Page , Double space
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TaxResearch-Ch2Powerpoint.pptxTax Research, Practice, and Procedure
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Five-Step Research Method
| 1. Gather the facts and identify the tax issues. |
| 2. Locate and study the primary and secondary authorities relevant to the enumerated tax issues. |
| 3. Update and evaluate the weight of the various authorities. |
| 4. Re-examine various facets of the research. |
| 5. Arrive at conclusions; communicate these conclusions to the client. |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 3
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Classification of Materials
Primary or “authoritative”
Internal Revenue Code (statutory authority)
Treasury Regulations (administrative authority)
Internal Revenue Service Rulings (administrative authority)
Judicial Authority
Secondary or “reference”
Looseleaf tax reference services
Periodicals
Textbooks
Treatises
Published papers from tax institutes
Symposia
Newsletters
Chapter 2, Exhibit 1
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Research Sources for Legislative Authority
| Authoritative Documents | Research Source | Authorship | Binding | Persuasive |
| 16th Amendment | Constitution | Congress | | |
| Internal Revenue Code | CCH, RIA, and West tax services | Congress | |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 4a
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Research Sources for Legislative Authority
| Authoritative Documents | Research Source | Authorship | Binding | Persuasive |
| Tax Treaties (to render mutual assistance between the U.S. and foreign countries in tax enforcement and to avoid double taxation.) | Tax Treaties (CCH) Worldwide Tax Treaty Library (Tax Analysts) International Tax Treaties of All Nations (Oceana Publications) | Congress | (overrides Code if more recent) |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 4b
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Research Sources for Legislative Authority
| Authoritative Documents | Research Source | Authorship | Binding | Persuasive |
| Committee Reports (useful for determining Congressional intent when Code and Regs. are unclear) | Cumulative Bulletins [CB] (U.S. Government.). Internal Revenue Bulletin [IRB] if written within 6 months | House Ways and Means Committee Senate Finance Committee Joint Conference Committee | (no legal effect; only guidance) | |
| Bluebook (interprets new legislation) | Bluebook (a government-issued, blue-covered book) | Joint Committee on Taxation | (no legal effect; only guidance) |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 4c
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Research Sources for Administrative Authority
| Authoritative Documents | Research Sources | Authorship | Binding | Persuasive |
| Final Regulations (Treasury Decisions) | Federal register (U.S. Government.) Tax services (CCH, RIA and West). | U.S. Treasury Department | | |
| Temporary Regulations (issued without opportunity for public comment because timing is critical) | Federal Register (U.S. Government) Cumulative Bulletin (U.S. Government) Tax services (CCH, RIA, and West). | U.S. Treasury Department | (binding if < 3 years old) | (nonbinding if over 3 years old) |
| Proposed Regulations | Federal Register (U.S. Government) Cumulative Bulletin (U.S. Government) Tax services (CCH, RIA, and West). | U.S. Treasury Department | (nonbinding preview of final Regs.) |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 5a
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Research Sources for Administrative Authority
| Authoritative Documents | Research Sources | Authorship | Binding | Persuasive |
| Revenue Rulings (interprets tax laws) | Cumulative Bulletins (U.S. Government) | National office of IRS | (not approved by the Treasury) | |
| Revenue Procedures (addresses internal procedures of IRS) | Cumulative Bulletins (U.S. Government) | National office of IRS | (not approved by the Treasury) | |
| Letter Rulings (explains how IRS will treat a proposed transaction for tax purposes; issued to taxpayers) | IRS Letters Rulings Reports (CCH) Private Letter Rulings (RIA) Daily Tax Reports (BNA) Tax Analysts & Advocates, TAX NOTES | National office of IRS | (only precedent value is for the taxpayer addressed in letter) |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 5b
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Research Sources for Administrative Authority
| Authoritative Documents | Research Sources | Authorship | Binding | Persuasive |
| Technical Advice Memoranda [TAMs] (addresses how IRS will treat a completed transaction for tax purposes; issued to District Office, hence “memorandum”) | IRS Position Reporter (CCH) Tax Notes (Tax Analysts) Internal Memoranda of the IRS (RIA) | National office of IRS | (only precedent value is for the taxpayer addressed in memo) | |
| Determination Letters (mainly deal with pension plans and tax-exempt organizations) | Not published, but available by IRS for public inspection | District Director of IRS | (only precedent value is for the taxpayer addressed in letter) |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 5c
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Research Sources for Judicial Authority
| Authority | Research Source | Binding | Persuasive |
| U.S. Supreme Court (4 of 9 justices needed to grant certiorari – often granted only when there is conflict among the appellate courts or where the tax issue is extremely important) | USTC (CCH) AFTR (RIA) S.Ct. Series (West) L.Ed. (Lawyer’s Co-op) U.S. Series (U.S. Government) | (highest judicial body) |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 6a
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Research Sources for Judicial Authority
(binding to other tax courts in same circuit)
CCH services
RIA services
U.S. Government Printing Office
U.S. Tax Court decisions – regular (deals with novel issues not previously resolved by TC; advance payment of tax not allowed)
(binding to lower courts in same circuit)
USTC (CCH)
AFTR (RIA)
Federal 3d (West)
U.S. Court of Appeal decisions (hears appeals from any of the three lower courts; the Federal Circuit Appellate Court hears all appeals from the Court of Federal Claims)
Persuasive
Binding
Research Source
Authority
Chapter 2, Exhibit 6b
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Research Sources for Judicial Authority
Chapter 2, Exhibit 6c
No precedent authority
Not published
Small Cases Division of Tax Court (informal hearing for disputes of $50,000 or less; appeals process not available)
TCM (CCH)
T.C. Memo (RIA)
U.S. Tax Court decisions—
Memorandum (deals with factual issues necessitating application of established principles of tax law; advance payment of tax not allowed)
Persuasive
Binding
Research Source
Authority
(binding to other tax courts in same circuit)
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Research Sources for Judicial Authority
| Authority | Research Source | Binding | Persuasive |
| U.S. District Court (jury trial available for factual issues but not for legal issues) | USTC (CCH) AFTR (RIA) F. Supp. Series (West) | (binding to courts in same district) | |
| U.S. Court of Federal Claims (hears any claims against U.S. that is based on the Constitution, an Act of Congress, or a Regulation of any executive department) | USTC (CCH) AFTR (RIA) Federal Claims Reporter (West) | (binding to same court) |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 6d
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Commercial Publishers of Comprehensive Services
| Service | Description |
| Standard Federal Tax Reporter (“Standard”), CCH | Comprehensive, self-contained reference service. 25 coordinated and cross-referenced loose-leaf volumes that provide comprehensive coverage of the income tax law. Compiles legislative, administrative, and judicial aspects of the income tax law, arranged in Code section order. Also contains weekly supplements concerning current legislative, administrative, or judicial changes in tax law. |
| United States Tax Reporter, RIA | Comprehensive, self-contained reference service. 18 coordinated loose-leaf volumes organized by Code sections and updated weekly. Similar to CCH. RIA is known for its willingness to take a stand on controversial issues not covered by legislation or tax law. |
| Federal Tax Service, CCH | Contains several volumes of compilation material organized by topic. The Code, Regulations, and Committee Reports are contained in separate volumes. The chapters are prepared by over 250 practitioners. |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 7a
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Commercial Publishers of Comprehensive Services
| Service | Description |
| Federal Tax Coordinator, RIA | 26-volume service organized by topic, rather than Code sections. Popular features include editorial explanations, illustrations, planning ideas, and warnings of potential tax traps. |
| Merten’s, Law of Federal Income Taxation, Thomson West | Useful complement to traditional reference services. In-depth discussions of general concepts of tax law. Often quoted in judicial decisions. Sometimes difficult reading due to its legalistic style. Also, updating is less frequent than most other services and not as accessible. |
| Tax Management Portfolios, BNA | Useful complement to traditional reference services. Each booklet ranges in length from 50 to 200 pages and deals exclusively with a special tax topic covering Code, Regulations, reference to primary authorities, and extensive editorial discussion, including numerous tax planning ideas. Problems of inconvenience may develop when there is no one portfolio squarely on point and the research effort requires reference to many portfolios. Updates are convenient though not extensive. |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 7b
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Commercial Publishers of Comprehensive Services
| Service | Description |
| CCH ONLINE | An electronic research service. Incorporates practitioner-oriented access methods to successfully located the desired tax information and to retrieve documents of special interest. Available in many different “libraries” addressing tax and nontax topics. |
| LEXIS/NEXIS, Reed Elsevier, Inc. | An electronic research service. LEXIS accesses federal statutes, regulations, IRS rulings, and judicial decisions. NEXIS contains the full text of over 500 publications. |
| WESTLAW, West Publishing Co. | An electronic research service. Provides much of the same data as Lexis. Available online or CD-ROM. |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 7c
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Commercial Publishers of Judicial Decisions
| Service | Description |
| CCH Citator, CCH | Two-volume, loose-leaf reference service. Contains alphabetical listing of Tax Court (formerly Board of Tax Appeals, “BTA”) and federal court decisions since 1913. Indicates a paragraph reference where each case is digested in the Compilation Volumes of the Standard Federal Tax Reporter. Each listing outlines the judicial history of a selected case beginning with the highest court to have ruled on that issue. |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 8a
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Commercial Publishers of Judicial Decisions
| Service | Description |
| Federal Tax Citator, RIA | Seven-volume citator service organized in a manner consistent with CCH Citator. Provides an alphabetical list of court cases followed by a descriptive legislative history of each case. |
| U.S. Tax Cases (USTC), CCH | Series of volumes that cover Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, District Courts, and Court of Federal Claims cases since 1913. |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 8b
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Commercial Publishers of Judicial Decisions
| Service | Description |
| American Federal Tax Reports (AFTR), RIA | Comparable to USTC above. |
| Tax Court Memorandum Decisions (TCM), CCH | Publishes memorandum decisions of the Tax Court. |
| TC Memorandum Decisions (TC Memo), RIA | Similar to TCM above. |
Chapter 2, Exhibit 8c
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Commercial Publishers of Current Developments
Description
Service
Monthly tax journal published by the AICPA.
Tax Adviser
Monthly tax journal.
Journal of Taxation
Weekly digests of new tax decisions.
Tax Notes, Tax Analysts
Weekly highlights of latest tax developments
Weekly Alert, RIA
Weekly highlights of latest tax developments
Standard Federal Tax Reports, CCH
Chapter 2, Exhibit 9
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IRS Communications
The IRS issues communications to individual taxpayers and IRS personnel in three primary ways:
Letter rulings
Determination letters
Technical advice memoranda
IRS Publications also address a variety of general and special topics of concern to taxpayers.
Chapter 2, Exhibit 11
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Appeals Administrative Process
If the taxpayer and the agent do not agree, the taxpayer has several options:
Request a conference in the IRS Appeals Office
File a petition in the Tax Court
Wait for the 90-day period to expire, pay the assessment, and start a refund suit in the District Court or the Court of Federal Claims
Chapter 2, Exhibit 13
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Taxpayer Bill of Rights
The Taxpayer Bill of Rights is divided into four major categories:
Taxpayer rights and IRS obligations
Levy and lien provisions
Proceedings by taxpayers
Authority of the Tax Court
Chapter 2, Exhibit 14
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