Primary sources in tax law are statutes that are legislative or statutory sources. The tax law can
sometimes stem from other legislative activity outside the IRC. Another type of primary source is
administrative sources which include Treasury Regulations, Revenue Rulings, Revenue Procedures,
Other Written Determinations, and Miscellaneous IRS Publications. The last type of primary
sources is judicial sources which include the Supreme Court, U.S. District Courts, Court of Appeals,
U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and the U.S. Tax Court (Sawyers & Gill, 2021). A secondary source is a
source that explains, analyses, or interprets the primary sources. These are sources and
publications that are written by tax professionals, scholars, and legal analysts. Secondary sources
can be journals, textbooks, newsletters, and tax services (Internal Revenue Code).
The Internal Revenue Code is a legislative source. This is because they are passed by Congress and
signed into law by the executive branch through the legislative process, so the code is often
considered the focal point of legislative tax law. The Internal Revenue Code 1939 was the first fully
organized federal tax law. This code was replaced by a more flexible code in 1954. The current
code was enacted in 1986. Most tax statutes are found in the IRC which is Title 26 of the USC. The
U.S. Constitution and Internal Tax Treaties are also considered part of the legislative tax law. The
U.S. Constitution is the source for all federal laws, including tax and nontax provisions. The
Constitution allows Congress to impose import taxes but not export taxes. It also requires that
taxes imposed by Congress are followed throughout the U.S. Tax treaties are agreements that are
negotiated between counties regarding the tax treatment of entities and individuals in each
county. The purpose of these treaties is to eliminate “double taxation” when a taxpayer’s income
could be subject to tax in both countries. These tax treaties are negotiated by the Department of
Treasury (Sawyers & Gill, 2021).
The process of tax research beings with primary sources such as regulations or the code.
Secondary sources are then used to help analyse the code or regulations to determine if the code
section is applicable to the tax scenario that is being researched (Internal Revenue Code). Primary
sources are very important in the tax research process as they are the most authoritative tax
resource. Only government bodies are authorized to generate these primary sources, so these
resources are how researchers base their conclusions. Although secondary sources are very useful
tools in the research process to help interpret a primary source, they are not authoritative (2023).
The primary sources of legislative tax law are statutory source, administrative sources, and judicial
sources (Sawyers & Gills, 2020). b Some examples of primary sources would be the Internal revenue
Code, Treasury Regulation and US tax court decisions. b These primary sources have been passed by
congress and signed by the executive branch thru legislative processes. b Primary sources are the
sources that should be used to defend or support your conclusion when it comes to tax law. The
legislative process has multiple steps from the house of representatives and the Senate coming
together with the same proposal and then they will vote on it.
The secondary sources would be sources of tax information such as journals, tax services, new
letters. Special types of secondary sources would be IRS publications, press releases, tax journals
and newsletters (Dorland, 2023). b These sources are unofficial sources of tax information.
The difference between the primary sources and the secondary sources would be that the primary
sources are official documents stemming from the United States constitution. These sources have
been configured from the appropriate authority like the executive, legislative and judicial branches
of government within the United States. b The secondary source which are journals, publications
and press releases use the primary source as its reliability but is then interpret into what the
writer thinks the primary sources means. This is a easier way as a researcher to start their search
for information. This will give the research some information on what another individual thinks
the tax code or primary source is and come to their own determination. b This plays a very
important role in tax research. b Having the ability to try to understand the primary source by using
a secondary source make the research just a little bit easier. b Once you have grasped the
understanding and move forward within your research you can come to a better determination
and conclusion to help your firm, client or company in the tax matter and be able to stand strong
on your determination. b
Reference:
Roby Sawyers, & Gill, S. L. (2020). Federal Tax Research. (12th ed.). South-Western.
Dorland, A. (2023, March 17). What are the best tax research sources? Tax & Accounting Blog
Posts by Thomson Reuters. https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/blog/what-are-the-best-tax-research-
sources/#:~:text=Secondary%20tax%20authorities%20are%20unofficial,Tax%20journals%20and%20n
ewsletters
H. Review of Tax Research Materials - Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Code. b
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopich87.pdf
Sawyers, R., & Gill, S. (2021). Federal Tax Research (12th ed.). Cengage Learning US.
What are the Best Tax Research Sources? Tax & Accounting Blog Posts by Thomson Reuters. (2023,
March 17). https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/blog/what-are-the-best-tax-research-sources/
