This guide explains how to access federal tax research sources available to QC students. It mainly makes reference to the accessible subscription electronic resources. Links to printed materials and free sources for federal tax research are also provided where available.
Major library databases for federal tax research:
Federal Tax Research by
The Eighth Edition features expanded coverage of electronic sources, both subscription-based (such as Westlaw, LexisNexis, Checkpoint, CCH IntelliConnect, and HeinOnline) and those available without charge (particularly those provided by the government). It discusses factors to be considered in deciding between print and online research; chapters discussing primary sources illustrate several online sources for finding these materials.This book devotes considerable space to publicly available IRS documents and legislative history materials. The introductory materials illustrate solving a research problem, and there are problems for students to solve throughout the text. The Eighth Edition expands the number of illustrations that complement its textual discussions. A teacher s manual will be available.
Federal Income Taxation of Individuals in a Nutshell by
How and when is income taxable? To whom is it taxable? This Nutshell summarizes U.S. federal income tax law, defines income, and identifies the different types of deductions. Explains statutory inclusion and exclusion from gross income, profit-related deductions, mixed deductions, personal deductions, and other allowances.
It's good practice to analyze a tax issue by reviewing the sources in the following order:
You can begin your research process with secondary sources, but you should analyze a tax problem by following the above basic steps.
| Branch | Type | Source |
| Legislative | Code / Statutory Law |
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| Executive | Regulations |
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| Administrative Publications |
IRS Administrative Documents (Rulings, Procedures, etc.) Revenue Rulings are public administrative rulings by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that apply the law to particular factual situations or refer to issues not adequately addressed by the code, regulations, or case law. A revenue ruling can be relied upon as precedent by all taxpayers. Revenue rulings are published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB) which is available in CCH AnswerConnect (formerly CCH IntelliConnect), and Checkpoint Edge (formerly RIA Checkpoint). |
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| Judicial | Case Law |
Case Law: Tax Court Memorandum (TCM) - Court decisions deal with substantive tax matters usually where there is a dispute between the IRS and the taxpayer regarding the code. This is often an area that has not been addressed by the courts. TCM are available in CCH AnswerConnect (formerly CCH IntelliConnect), and Checkpoint Edge (formerly RIA Checkpoint). Federal Cases from: |
| Type | Description |
| Handbooks, Deskbooks & Guides | Handbooks and guides provide short overviews of the tax law, often with simple annotations and cross references. These are geared for practitioners, but can be a good starting point for someone starting out in tax research. |
| Tax Services | Tax services are comprehensive tools that are used to locate all the relevant primary authority related to a particular tax issue. |
| Citators | Citators can be used to track the history of a case, as well as to see which cases subsequently cited it. There are specialized citators for tax law, and in addition to providing the history of a case and the cases that cited it, these also provide citations to all the relevant administrative rulings, decision and other documents by the IRS. |
| Treatises | Treatises are comprehensive publications on specific areas of tax law, including detailed history of the law, analysis and commentary. Like handbooks and guides, these can be a good starting point for research, but they go into much more depth than the handbooks and guides. |
| Journal Articles | Articles written by scholars and practitioners about specific issues in specific areas of tax law. |