Federal Tax Research

Federal income tax is an important area of the legal field, because it is intertwined with other areas of law, including domestic law, estate planning, bankruptcy, international law, and criminal law. This research guide provides an overview of the vital primary and secondary sources both in print and online. It thoroughly explores the different sources of primary law, including statutes, regulations, case law, and agency decisions, along with the sources that hold them. Secondary sources, which involve practice guides, legal encyclopedias, hornbooks, treatises, nutshells, portfolios, handbooks, and dictionaries, are also discussed. The legislative history of tax statutes is also explained, including the legislative process, various documents produced, their authority, and their sources. Due to the complexity involved in this area, anyone training to be an accountant or attorney, as well as information professionals, regardless of library setting, need to be knowledgeable about sources of tax law and how to conduct tax research.

The Tenth Edition features updated and expanded coverage of electronic sources, both subscription-based (including Bloomberg Law, Westlaw, Lexis Advance, Checkpoint, Wolters Kluwer (CCH), Federal Research Library, 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.

This authoritative and readable survey is a comprehensive historical overview of federal taxation and fiscal policy in the United States, extending from the era of the American Revolution to the present day. Brownlee relates the principal stages of federal taxation to the crises that led to their adoption, including but not limited to: the formation of the republic, the Civil War, World War I and II, and the challenges to government that took hold during the 1980s. In this third edition, Brownlee adds four new chapters covering the colonial era, the American Revolution, the Civil War, the 1920s, and the post-1945 era including the tax policies of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. It features expanded discussion of government expenditures, deficits and debt, public resources, counter-cyclical fiscal policy, and state and local taxation. Its interdisciplinary interpretation makes it perfect for scholars, graduate students and advanced undergraduate students.