This is one of a series of research guides produced by the Thomas J. Long Business & Economics Library at the University of California, Berkeley.
Tax resources are available in both the Law Library and the Business & Economics Library. Search the UC catalog, Melvyl, for tax titles - a search in UCB's Pathfinder will not show the holdings of the Law Library. Some of the listings in this guide are available only in the Law Library.
Last updated 11/2005.
Campus Resource: for access, you must either be on campus, or connect through the Library Proxy Server.
Tax Research
Karlin, Barbara H.
This guide to the how, what, and where of tax research is particularly recommended for newcomers to the process.
KF241 T38 K37 2003 (on the 2nd floor in Book Stacks, not in the Tax Collection in Reference)
Tax Research Techniques
KF241 .T38G35 2000 (on 2nd floor in Book Stacks, not in Tax Collection in Reference)
Lexis/Nexis - Academic - Legal-Tax Law database is a comprehensive electronic source for tax law materials. Contents include all primary tax law sources and some content in the following: annotated services, topical services, treatises, journals, and newsletters. Available are federal tax case law, Internal Revenue Code, Internal Revenue Bulletin, IRS actions and Memos, General Counsel, Actions on Decisions, Technical Memos, Private Letter Rulings, and more. Descriptions of sources.
Internal Revenue Bulletin (cited as IRB), with selections available in Lexis/Nexis - Academic Universe - Legal-Tax Law, is a weekly publication containing the Treasury Dept.'s final rulings on tax statutes that have been passed by Congress. Until final rulings are issued in the IRB, the appropriate Congressional committee reports can be used as guides. These can be found in the Congressional Record. IRB also contains IRS Announcements, Revenue Rulings and Procedures, Proposed Rulings, Court Decisions, Treasury Decisions and Notices, Supreme Court decisions, and IRS interpretations of the Internal Revenue Code as passed by the Treasury Department.
Law Library KF6301.A35 A192 - current issues only
Cumulated bulletins are in the Tax Collection of Long Business & Economics Library.
United States Code Title 26 - Internal Revenue Code - complete text and Title 26 Appendix
Tax codes enacted by the U.S. Congress.
Factiva provides access to the complete text for a number of accounting and taxation journals.
Lexis/Nexis - Academic - Legal-Tax Law indexes and abstracts a number of accounting (in Business subsection) and taxation (in Law/Tax section) journals. The complete text is available for many of these.
The end rows of the Reference Section contain "Tax Collection" materials and presently consist of tax cases (proceedings and decisions), annotated tax research services, and IRS Cumulative Bulletin.
Cumulative Bulletin.
Bi-annual cumulations of the Internal Revenue Bulletin and issues from 1969 onward are in the Business & Economics Library's Tax Collection. Earlier issues can be found in the Main Library.
Standard Federal Tax Reporter (and Citator in separate volumes)
by Commerce Clearing House (CCH)
Tax Collection - Reference
1958, 1960-1963, 1995-1999-
earlier volumes in storage at NRLF
Research service dealing with federal income taxation. Assists in locating statutory, administrative, and judicial authority, and provides editorial interpretations of tax law also. Updated regularly.Organized by the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section number.Citator available also.
Tax Court Memorandum Decisions by Commerce Clearing House (CCH)
Cited as TCM
Tax collection - Reference
Vols: 1(1942/43)-68(July/Dec 1994), 73(Jan/June 1997)-80(2000)-
In cases where well-established conclusions already exist, the Tax Court issues these memo decisions to serve to delineate facts only. These can be used as precedent.
Tax Court Reporter Regular Decisions by Commerce Clearing House (CCH)
1982 -
Decisions of Tax Court cases dealing with new or significant questions regarding tax law. Used as precedent.
United States Tax Court Reports.
U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO)
Tax Collection - Reference
Vol. 51 (1953) - (v. 21 - 50 are called Tax Court of the U.S. Reports)
Regular decisions of the U.S. Tax Court. Available in full text (1994+) in Federal Register. Cited as T.C.
U.S. Tax Cases by Commerce Clearing House (CCH)
Tax collection - Reference
Vols: 50(1950)-2001:1
Proceedings of court cases involving tax issues from U.S. District Courts, Court of Federal Claims, U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Cited as USTC.
All States Tax Handbook
Prentice-Hall, Inc. Annual.
Contains tax charts, rates, and calendars covering income, sales and use, property and other taxes for the states in the U.S.
KF6750 .P75 Latest issue in Reference
Selected earlier issues to 1980 in 2nd floor Book Stacks.
Guidebook to California Taxes
Commerce Clearing House. Annual.
Designed as a quick reference source for California state tax information.
HJ2395 .C63 Latest issue in Reference
Earlier issues to 1989 in 2nd floor Book Stacks.
U.S. Master Tax Guide
Commerce Clearing House. Annual.
Includes tax rate schedules and a topical index to the IRS tax code. Serves as a handy, one volume summary to Federal taxes.
HJ3252 .C55 Latest issue in Reference
Earlier issues upto 1977 in 2nd floor Book Stacks - issues prior to 1977 are available from storage in NRLF or at Main Library.
California Franchise Tax Board
California. Franchise Tax Board.
Contains current and past forms and instructions in addition to information about the F.T.B.'s operations.
U.S. Internal Revenue Service
A primary source of forms and instructions for filing Federal returns as well as information about the operation of the I.R.S.
83 -1 USTC 9401
United States Tax Cases
This citation is for a case in Volume 83, Part 1, of United States Tax Cases (by Commerce Clearing House), on paragraph 9401. This citation also says that the case was decided in 1983.
Long Library Tax Collection
AFTR or AFTR 2nd
American Federal Tax Reports or American Federal Tax Reports 2nd. Contains all tax case decisions from federal courts.
Law Library KF6280 .A24 and in Lexis/Nexis - Academic Universe - Legal-Tax Law.
Announcement 99-23, 1999-1 C.B. 498
Announcement is about the 23rd Announcement issued in 1999. It can be found in volume 1 of the Cumulative Bulletin on p. 498.
Tax Collection at Long Business Library and Lexis/Nexis - Academic Universe - Legal-Tax Law.
BTA
Reports of the U.S. Tax Board of Appeals from 1926-1942 (prior to formation of U.S. Tax Court).
Main Library HJ10 .H26.
CB
Cumulative Bulletin
Tax Collection at Long Business Library and Lexis/Nexis - Academic Universe - Legal-Tax Law. Bi-annual accumulations of Internal Revenue Bulletin weeklies. Cumulative Subject Indexes 1953-1964 are in Main Library at HJ10.H215.
F2d
Federal Reporter. Contains federal appelate courts' tax-related court decisions.
Law Library KF105.W5 and Lexis/Nexis - Academic Universe - Legal-Tax Law.
F Supp.
Federal Supplement
Contains decisions of tax related federal cases from district courts.
Law Library KF105 .W6 and Lexis/Nexis - Academic Universe- Legal-Tax Law.
IRB
Internal Revenue Bulletin.
Law Library KF6301.A35 A192 - current issues only
Earlier issues, see Cumulative Bulletin.
Notice 99-23, 1999-1 C.B. 498
Cited like Revenue Ruling, except prefixed with Notice instead of Rev. Bul. For notifying public of new IRS policies and positions.
Available in Standard Federal Tax Reporter in New Matters section (Long Library Tax Collection) and Lexis/Nexis - Academic Universe - Legal-Tax Law.
P.L.R. 199209115
Private Letter Ruling is the 5th ruling issued the week of Sept. 11 (0911) in 1992. Non-legally binding decisions, persuasive only.
Available on Lexis/Nexis - Academic Universe- Legal -Tax Law.
Rev. Proc. 99-23, 1999-1 C.B. 498
Revenue Procedure is the 23rd Revenue Procedure. It can be found in volume 1 of the Cumulative Bulletin on p. 498. Rulings on procedural issues. Can be cited as precedent.
Available in Cumulative Bulletin (Long Library Tax Collection) and Lexis/Nexis - Academic Universe - Legal-Tax Law.
Rev. Rul. 99-23, 1999-1 C.B. 498
Revenue Ruling is the 23rd revenue ruling issued in 1999. Rulings on particular fact issues. Can be cited as precedent.
Available in Cumulative Bulletin (Long Library Tax Collection) and Lexis/Nexis - Academic Universe - Legal-Tax Law.
Treas. Reg. Sec 20.552-2(a)(1)(ii)
Treasury Ruling Citation
The prefix 20 before the dot stands for a specific type of tax. (For example, Income Tax ruling would be prefixed by 1, Gift Tax with 25, etc.). (a) is the paragraph number, (1) is the subparagraph number of subdivision (ii) of the 2nd regulation under Section 552 of the Internal Revenue Code, thus Treas. Reg. Sec 20.552-2(a)(1)(ii). Proposed and temporary regulations are prefixed with Prop. or Temp.
Available in Cumulative Bulletin (Long Library Tax Collection) and Lexis/Nexis - Academic Universe- Legal-Tax Law.