Chapter 7

Copyright ©2006 Thomson South-Western, Mason, Ohio

William A. Raabe, Gerald E. Whittenburg, &

Debra L. Sanders

Legal Services and Internet Sites

Tax Analysts

• A nonprofit entity organized to provide literary forums for the discussion of taxation

• Federal Research Library– Basic service – many primary sources– Editorial service called “Federal Tax Baedeker”– Complete service contains PLR’s, FSA’s, etc.

• Keyword and citation searches can be used

• State Research Library available

• OneDisc: CD-ROM and DVD versions

Tax Analysts

• Influential set of newsletters that provide analysis & explanations of the law :– Tax Notes Today (TNT)

• Updated continuously throughout the day

– Tax Notes (weekly)– State Tax Today– Worldwide Tax Daily– Others

http://www.taxanalysts.com

Mertens Service

• Mertens Law of Federal Income Taxation– Published by West Group– Available on CD-ROM or through Westlaw

• Three main components1. Mertens Treatise – a comprehensive topical

service2. Mertens Rulings – the Cumulative Bulletin3. Mertens Current Tax Highlights – current

developments

Mertens Service

• Includes Code Commentary– Contextual explanation of Code

• “Snapshot” version of prior years’ Code, Regs, & Rulings

• Very useful - facilitates analysis of evolution of a law

Mertens Footnotes

Bittker and Lokken Service

• Federal Taxation of Income, Estates & Gifts– Published by Warren, Gorham & Lamont

• An affiliate of West

• Less comprehensive (5 volumes) & more conceptual than other services

• Considered to be a leading tax authority• Good starting point to obtain an initial grasp

of a topic

BNA Portfolios(1 of 3)

• BNA Tax Management Portfolios• Bureau of National Affairs

– Over 400 portfolios divided into 4 series:• U.S. Income Tax• Estates, Gifts, and Trusts• Foreign Income• State

– Quite vast but not truly comprehensive– Favorite research tool of many practitioners

BNA Portfolios(2 of 3)

• Tax Management Portfolios (continued)

– Each contains:• Brief overview• Table of contents• Detailed Analysis

– Comprehensive examination of a topic

• Working Papers– Includes primary sources & filled-in tax forms

• Bibliography and References– Contains extensive listing of primary & secondary sources

BNA Portfolios(3 of 3)

• News Reports– BNA Daily Tax Report (DTR)– TaxCore

• Web-based• Full-text primary sources

– Federal, state and local

– Weekly Report• More in-depth than the DTR

http://www.bnatax.com

Internet Sites

• Most primary tax source documents are accessible free of charge

• The Federal Government has numerous sites (see next slide)

• One useful site with many tax links is: http://www.taxsites.com

Selected Primary Source Internet Sites

Web Sites for Commercial Tax Services