Navigating Tax Law Research
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Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries (ORALL), October 18, 2018
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Navigating Tax Law Research
- 1. Navigating the Stacks of Tax Law Research on the Internet S U S A N N A M A R L O W E , R E F E R E N C E L I B R A R I A N F R A N K L I N C O U N T Y L A W L I B R A R Y O R A L L C O N F E R E N C E O C T O B E R 1 8 , 2 0 1 8 TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 2. Tax Law Research : Federal and Ohio https://fclawlib.libguides.com/taxlawresearch TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 3. Federal Tax Research TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 4. Primary Sources U.S. Constitution Internal Revenue Code Legislative History Treasury Regulations Case Law I.R.S. Decisions & Guidance TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 5. US Constitution Available at https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution General Welfare Clause Origination Clause – Tax Legislation must start in House 16th Amendment – Income Tax 1913 Commerce Clause TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 6. Internal Revenue Code Title 26 of the U.S. Code Cite as 26 I.R.C. §____ or I.R.C. §____. Cornell’s Legal Information Institute at https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26 TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 7. Federal Legislative History Congress.gov at https://www.congress.gov/ Congressional Record from 1873 at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb_gpo/_crecb TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 8. New Tax Law Congress.gov at https://www.congress.gov/ as H.R. 1 New - shareholders can deduct 20% of income from their pass- through entities (LLC’s) on their individual tax returns. Limits deductibility of state and local income and property taxes to $10,000. Repeals deduction for paying alimony. TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 9. TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 10. TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 11. Treasury Regulations Title 26 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) ◦ Also called Treasury Decisions (TD) Proposed regulations are in the Federal Register (FR) TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 12. CFR & FR CFR Title 26 at https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/ text/26 Federal Register at https://www.federalregister.gov/ TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 13. TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 14. TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 15. US Tax Court Recent Opinions - https://www.ustaxcourt.gov/UstcInOp/OpinionSearch.aspx Rules - https://www.ustaxcourt.gov/rules.htm TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 16. TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 17. Pacer.gov • Unreported Federal District Court decisions • Dockets • No Tax Court opinions • https://www.courtlistener.com/ for easier searching TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 18. Guidance from the I.R.S. •Types: • Public • Taxpayer Specific • Internal TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 19. Internal Revenue Bulletin TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018 • Revenue Rulings • Revenue Procedures • Notices and Announcements • Actions on Decisions
- 20. Where: Current Internal Revenue Bulletins available at https://apps.irs.gov/app/picklist/list/internalRevenueBulleti ns.html TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 21. Revenue Rulings Searchable at http://www.legalbitstream.com/irs_materials.asp?pl=i2 TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 22. Revenue Procedures Searchable at http://www.legalbitstream.com/irs_materials.asp?pl=i3 TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 23. Actions on Decisions IRS signals whether it will follow court decision https://apps.irs.gov/app/picklist/list/actionsOnDecisions.html TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 24. Taxpayer Specific Guidance • Private Letter Rulings •IRS Determination Letters •Information Letters •Technical Advise Memorandums TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 25. Where: http://www.legalbitstream.com/ https://apps.irs.gov/app/picklist/list/writtenDeterminations.html TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 26. Internal Revenue Manual https://www.irs.gov/irm TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 27. Tax Forms https://www.irs.gov/forms-instructions TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 28. Ohio Tax Research TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 29. FCLL LibGuides https://fclawlib.libguides.com/ ◦ Tax Research: Ohio and Federal ◦ Limited Liability Companies in Ohio ◦ Ohio Tax Liens TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 30. Primary Sources Ohio Constitution Ohio Revised Code & Legislative History Ohio Administrative Code Ohio Board of Tax Appeals Cases Ohio Department of Taxation Guidance TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 31. Ohio Constitution Ohio General Assembly Website https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/ TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 32. Lawriter • Ohio Revised Code • http://codes.ohio.gov/ TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 33. Ohio Revised Code Title 3 Chapter 23 ◦ Collection of property taxes, including sale of tax liens TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 34. Ohio Tax Statutes - Title 57, Chapters: 5713 ◦ Assessing Real Property 5721 ◦ Procedure for Collecting Delinquent Property Taxes 5739 ◦ Sales Tax 5747 ◦ Income Tax 5751 ◦ Commercial Activity Tax 5753 ◦ Casino Tax TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 35. Legislative History Ohio General Assembly’s website ◦ https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/ TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 36. Ohio Administrative Code • http://codes.ohio. gov/ TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 37. Ohio Administrative Code ◦ Chapter 5703 ◦ 5703-3 Property Tax ◦ 5703-7 Income Tax ◦ 5703-25 Equalizations and Appraisals ◦ 5703-29 Commercial Activity Tax TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 38. Franklin County Property Taxes Board of Revision - https://www.franklincountyauditor.com/real-estate/board-revision Treasurer- https://treasurer.franklincountyohio.gov/Delinquent-Taxes TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 39. Contesting Property Valuation 1. Auditor determines taxable value of property 2. Board of Revision 3. Board of Tax Appeals 4. District Court of Appeals 5. Supreme Court TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 40. Case Law Ohio Board of Tax Appeals - https://ohio-bta.modria.com/list?id=8 TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 41. Ohio Board of Tax Appeals Rules oOhio Administrative Code oChapter 5717 http://bta.ohio.gov/Rules TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 42. Guidance from the Ohio Dept. of Taxation Information Releases at http://www.tax.ohio.gov/communications/information_releases.aspx Tax Commissioner Opinions at http://www.tax.ohio.gov/legal/tc_opinions.aspx Ohio Business Gateway at http://business.ohio.gov/ TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 44. Tax Crimes Federal ◦ 26 U.S.C. §§ 7201-7217 Both require willful violation. Ohio ◦ O.R.C. § 5747.15 TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
- 45. Questions? Call 614-525-4971 Email FCLL-Info@franklincountyohio.gov Website - https://lawlibrary.franklincountyohio.gov/ TAX LAW RESEARCH SUSANNA MARLOWE 10/18/2018
Editor's Notes
- Bio. Handouts, Evaluations forms and CLE credits have been applied for.
- Everything I say here, is on this research guide, available from the Franklin County Law Library’s website. Links to all the primary sources of law that are freely available on the internet.
- General Welfare Clause – Art. 1, Sec. 8, Clause 1, authorizes Congress to impose and collect taxes. Origination clause – Art. 1, Sec. 2, Clause 3. Commerce Clause – Art. 1, Sec. 8, Clause 3 prohibits state taxation that burdens interstate or foreign commerce.
- The statute dealing with tax law. Links to CFR sections and IRS rulings are included at the Cornell site. Analogous to the old CCH Standard Federal Tax Reporter. Put in a plug for donating to LII.
- Only consult if text of statute is ambiguous. Try to find that elusive legislative intent.
- I am not a tax attorney or a financial adviser. I am only talking about the new tax law as an example of legislative history. Some of the new tax sections, such as the alimony one don’t go into effect until 2019. These old sections still show up in the US Code, but the Notes tab explains that the new tax law repeals them for 2019. Sec. 199A.. After 2019, 26 US Code sec.71 is repealed the spouse paying alimony can't deduct it, but the spouse receiving the money no longer has to pay taxes on it. SALT Repeal – New York v. Mnuchin (interesting historical argument about sovereignty of states vs the federal government in matters of taxation. There has always been a federal deduction for state taxes. Mnuchin has asked for an extension of time to answer until Nov. 2. Some of the sections are temporary.
- Because of the political nature of tax reform, you need to beware of “fake news”. This is Peter Steiner’s famous New Yorker cartoon from 1993. nobody knows you’re a Russian troll. Speculation.
- 1913- when Federal Income Tax first went into effect. The new tax law will definitely increase the number of pages as the Treasury tries to interpret it. From Wolters Kluwer. This graph is somewhat misleading because a lot of these rules are no longer in effect.
- Promulgated by the Internal Revenue Service. Some are temporary; some are final.
- LII again and National Archives
- Regulations are more specific than the statute they are based on. An interpretation. Weight – force of law, but not as great as the code section. Can’t conflict with the code section. If the code section changes, the regulation is no longer in effect. Source – Wolter’s Kluwer Fact Sheet. Goes back to the chart referenced earlier.
- US District Court – must pay the disputed tax first. Also Bankruptcy Courts. US Court of Federal Claims is where statutory claims against the US, such as government contracts. Problem with case law is that the regulation or statute may have changed since the case was decided.
- The United States Tax Court is a court of record established by Congress under Article I of the U.S. Constitution. When the Commissioner of Internal Revenue has determined a tax deficiency, the taxpayer may dispute the deficiency in the Tax Court before paying any disputed amount. The Tax Court is composed of 19 presidentially appointed members. Although the Court is physically located in Washington, D.C., the judges travel nationwide to conduct trials in various cities. They do meet sometimes in Columbus, but there is no permanent court house designated. Rules - Instead of FRCP.
- US federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy courts since 1923 and US Supreme Court cases since 1791.
- Does not have tax court decisions. Check out Courtlistener.com for easier searching. Found New York v. Mnuchin on Courtlistener.
- Different from other legal research? Not really. These are agency decisions. Watch out. They won’t be good law anymore if the underlying statutes or regulations have changed. If the recent tax reform law, a lot of these decisions will not be good anymore.
- Public Guidance from the IRS. Cumulative Bulletins come in print as part of the Federal Depository Library program, but they are no longer paginated and indexed. They are just the IRBs jammed together.
- Just a weekly list.
- Legal Bitstream is the website of Mayfield Publishing
- Because only U.S. Supreme Court cases are binding on the IRS, it is important to know whether or not the IRS intends to follow the holding of a particular case. Decisions made by lower courts, such as Tax Court, District Courts, or Claims Court, are binding on the Service only for the particular taxpayer and the years litigated. (IRM). The IRS sometimes issues Actions on Decisions which say whether the IRS acquiesces to a Tax Court Decision or not. IF the IRS doesn’t agree with a US Court of Appeals Decision, It may appeal or it may just follow it in that US Circuit.
- Taxpayer asking for an advisory opinion from the IRS. Will I get in trouble if I pay this amount of tax?
- Only binding between the IRS and the taxpayer, but can be helpful to other taxpayers. Some are not available.
- The Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) is an official compendium of internal guidelines for personnel of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Made publicly available by a 1996 Freedom of Information Act amendment. Procedures set forth in the IRM are not mandatory and are not binding on the IRS. The provisions are not issued pursuant to a mandate or delegation of authority by Congress and do not have the effect of a rule of law. Nonetheless, IRM offers insights into IRS procedures, and many tax practitioners use the IRM for guidance.
- Has links to commercial free tax software for those taxpayers with lower incomes. There is a law saying that the IRS can’t provide it’s own tax filing software. Ohio has it’s own, which is very easy to use.
- Article 12 of the Ohio Constitution is entitled Finance and taxation and consists of 13 sections. Ohio Constitution says food cannot be taxed in Ohio. When I first moved to Ohio, the “pop” tax was struck down by the Ohio Supreme Court, because “pop” is food.
- Unannotated code. Very up to date. Can link to it in a document. From same company as CaseMaker, which is available to OSBA members. Not official, only Laws of Ohio. Will Ohio’s adoption of Uelma (uniform electronic legal materials act) change that? UELMA designates the Legislative Service Commission as the official publisher of the Ohio Revised Code, whereas the Secretary of State is the official publisher of the Session Laws.
- No Congressional Record. Legislative Service Commission has summaries of important laws.
- Regulations of Ohio Department of Taxation. UELMA also designates the Legislative Service Commission as the official publisher of the Ohio Administrative Code.
- Note that the chapter 5703 corresponds with the Title 57 of the Ohio Revised Code. Equalizations - Oh. Rev. Code Sec. 319.301
- ORC Sec. 5713.03. School districts often appeal valuations of commercial property.
- Use the name of the case to look it up on the Board of Tax Appeals website. Back to 1984. No subject searching. Not available on Google Scholar. Find a Ohio Supreme Court or Ohio Appellate Court decision on your topic on Google Scholar. They will cite BTA opinion by name, they you can look up on BTA website. BTA opinions can be appealed to the appropriate court of appeals, no longer directly to the Ohio Supreme Court.
- BTA doesn’t use Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure.
- Information releases – technical advisories that offer detailed explanations of selected laws, rules and rulings that govern the taxes administered by the Ohio Department of Taxation. The Ohio Department of Taxation may issue an ‘opinion of the Tax Commissioner‘ on how a transaction or activity will be taxed, for any tax type, on a prospective basis. The Department is bound by the opinions as to the requesting taxpayers unless and until the opinion is revoked or expires, or a material change occurs in the applicable facts or law. Taxpayers, however, are not similarly bound. Although the Department does publish some redacted opinions, published opinions provide guidance only and may not be cited as precedent or relied on by other taxpayers. An opinion of the Tax Commissioner is not a final determination of the Commissioner and may not be appealed to the Board of Tax Appeals.
- There are criminal penalties for tax evasion. Credit Wolters Kluwer _ https://www.lowtax.net/tax-cartoons.html.
- The statute of limitations is complicated.
- Questions about the program? Thank you for listening. Please fill out the evaluation forms.