Discussions
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Week6.docxWeek 6
Discussion #1 ($5)
Your reading covered different options for tax research. Which commercial tax service would you choose if you were starting a tax practice and why? Would challenges would you anticipate going forward with using that tax service? What would you expect to spend on that tax service?
Comment #1 ($3) SD
There are three primary ways when searching the annotated tax services, either a key word, code section, or case name. If I was to start a tax practice, I would use the annotated tax service. The annotated tax services allow searches by Code and Regulation, Rulings/IRB. Key words will allow the practice to widen their search such as by RIA and CCH. Related court cases are helpful when using the annotated tax service as well. The Internet and the Worldwide Web provide many opportunities to receive and disseminate tax information (Yancey, Spindle, & Schmidt, 1996). Most tax legislation begins in the House of Representatives. Annotated tax services have compilation volumes. The compilation volumes have editor's explanation and evaluation of the compiled pertinent code section and its extant regulations and clarifying court cases. According to (National Timber Tax, 2020) each of the annotated services (CCH and RIA) provides major division headings on the spine of each volume. The Internal Revenue Service makes rules and regulations to implement the statutes (University of Minnesota Law School, 2020).
References
National Timber Tax. (2020, June). Annotated Tax Services. Retrieved
from https://www.timbertax.org/research/process/services/annotated/
University of Minnesota Law School. (2020, October 6). Federal Tax Law Research: Home.
Retrieved October 07, 2020, from https://libguides.law.umn.edu/c.php?g=201099
Yancey, W. F., Spindle, R. M., & Schmidt, D. R. (1996). Internet uses for tax practice: Certified
public accountant. The CPA Journal, 66(11), 16-23. Retrieved from
https://search.proquest.com/docview/212269084?accountid=35796
Comment # 2($3) FM
The majority of secondary sources used to help study tax issues include tax services. Secondary authorities are useful where there are conflicting primary authorities, where no current primary authority appears to exist, or when an interpretation or clarification of the primary authority is required. We should take care not to rely too heavily on the secondary authority while we are investigating the tax issue, and always read any applicable primary authority referred to in the secondary sources. Several publishers that organize the tax authority into a functional format, making the Internal Revenue Code far more available, have created coordinated collections of reference materials. These commercial tax services are useful because they also include simplified descriptions with citations in the footnotes, as well as examples demonstrating the law's implementation. Through the footnote references, these tax services can lead you to the primary source that is relevant to the question at hand. (Timber Tax, 2020)Big Fours, for example, provides an organized and holistic solution to complex tax problems. For the various jurisdictions and countries in which you do business, business tax services and subject matter specialists provide related assistance. They face global tax challenges and help their clients transform their tax department and make their business more impactful. The range of business tax services, ranging from tax preparation to tax application, conflict and risk management, including research and development, government incentives and tax management consulting, is applicable to public companies and private.To choose which tax practice businesses are the most appropriate we must take into account our expectations and the specific tax issue that we need to address. Tax practice is not only concerned with preparing tax returns. Other matters such as estate planning have significant tax implications. Corporate strategies require the assistance of tax specialists to form the best possible structure that reduces the tax implications. (Deloitte, 2020) Therefore, the decision on what tax practice services we need depends on our specific needs and of course on the cost-benefit ratio.
Discussion #2
Compare and contrast the general organization of an annotated tax service with that of a topical tax service.
Comment #1 (KC) ($3)
Databases are classified in two types: annotated and topical. Annotated tax services are defined as a commercial tax reference collection, that is a secondary source of the federal tax law; it includes codes, regulation, and ruling analyses, judicial case notes, and other indexes and finding lists, organized by Code section number. Topical tax services are defined as a professional tax research reference collection, that is a secondary source of federal tax law; it includes codes, regulation, and ruling analyses, judicial case notes, and other indexes and finding lists, organized by general topic.
By their definitions we can identify some similarities and differences between the annotated and topical tax services. Both are secondary sources of the federal tax law and both include codes, regulation, and ruling analyses, judicial case notes, and other indexes and finding lists. The Commerce Clearing House (CCH) and the Research Institute of America (RIA) offer both annotated and topical tax services.
The main difference between annotated and topical tax services is how they are organized. Annotated tax services may also be called compilations because they compile an editor’s explanation and evaluation with the Code section as well as its recent committee reports and regulations, and they provide annotations of related court cases and administrative rulings (Sawyers, Raabe, Whittenburg, Gill, 2013). In the other hand topical tax services do not include annotations. Annotated are organized by Section number while the topical are organized by general topic. The Commerce Clearing House (CCH) annotated tax service is entitled the Standard Federal Tax Reporter, and the Research Institute of America (RIA) annotated tax service is entitled the United States Tax Reporter (USTR) (National Timbertax, 2020). The Research Institute of America topical service is called the "Federal Tax Coordinator 2d.; the topical service offered by Commerce Clearing House is entitled "Tax Transactions Library" (TTL) (National Timbertax, 2020).
Annotated tax services are organized by the Internal Revenue Code section order. Under annotated tax services there are two services which is Commerce Clearing House (CCH) and Research Institute of America (RIA). CCH products include the Standard Federal Tax Reporter, CCH Research Consultant, U.S. Master Tax Guide and CCH Citator in addition to numerous journals and newsletters (Catanach, 2008). This research resource differs significantly in its appearance and layout from other services (Catanach, 2008). It organizes each of its major databases (for example, Federal Tax, State Tax, Pension and Payroll, Sales/Property Tax) using folder tabs (Catanach, 2008) On the other hand topical tax services consists of The Research Institute of America (RIA), Commerce Clearing House (CCH), and the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA). Topical tax services divide the tax law into its functional components. The topical tax services cut across otherwise arbitrary code section boundaries to present material that you may encounter in your research but are found in various nonadjacent code sections (National Timber Tax, 2020). A few examples of topical services would be RIA’s Federal Tax Coordinator (FTC) and CCH’s Tax Research Consultant (TRC). Each service also contains a section that is devoted to the most recent developments in tax law, including any recent changes to the Internal Revenue Code, relevant court cases, and pending legislation (National Timber Tax, 2020).
References
