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Tax Research

Scope

This research guide is designed to assist students, scholars, and practitioners in researching United States tax law.  Federal tax law is composed of statutes, treaties, regulations, rulings, and judicial decisions from the government’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches.  This guide also offers sources for current awareness in tax law, including updates on case law, legislation, and legal news.  

Comprehensive Research Guides

Research guides are very helpful when researching tax law, as they provide both explanation of the subject matter and direction for locating publications where tax documentation can be found.

Federal Tax Research (Roby Sawyers and Gil Steven, 2020)
This title focuses on hands-on tax research practices while emphasizing the latest versions of today's most popular online tax research tools, including Thomson Reuters Checkpoint, CCH IntelliConnect, and Bloomberg Law.

Federal Tax Research: Guide to Materials and Techniques (Gail Richmond, 2021)
Federal Tax Research lists and describes primary and secondary sources of federal tax law, provides information about finding those materials, and discusses how to evaluate the materials you have found.  The author also devotes a chapter to the process of conducting research, where she covers research methodology and offers a comparison of print and electronic research resources.  For individuals looking to practice their research techniques, the text includes practice problems at the end of each chapter.

Legal Authorities in U.S. Federal Tax Matters — Research and Interpretation (Peter a. Lowy, current, Bloomberg Law password rquired)
This Bloomberg Tax Portfolio explains the fundamentals of federal tax research by describing the many types of authority governing federal tax issues and discussing their precedential value.  It also offers a general methodology for performing tax research, including listing resources available to the researcher from both the government and commercial publishers. The Portfolio is available online via Bloomberg Law (Bloomberg Law password required).