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Federal Tax Research Guide

Tax Analysts' Tax Notes

Tax Analysts is a leading publisher in tax news and analysis.  They have several different publications, including their daily online publications: Tax Notes Today (federal), State Tax Notes Today, and Worldwide Tax Daily.  These are then compiled into their respective weekly formats in Tax Notes, State Tax Notes, and Tax Notes International.  The Tax Notes series contains articles on developments in the practice of tax law, and includes the full text of tax bills, congressional releases, committee reports, and even relevant pages from the Congressional Record.

The Tax Notes series is available by paid subscription through the Tax Analysts website, but you can also find it back to the early 1980s on Lexis.

Searching Tax Notes on Lexis Advance:

 

1. Main Search Bar > type in Tax Notes, wait for it to populate (there will be several choices - recommended: Tax Notes Weekly), and either:

  • Click the title to add the source as a filter to your search
  • Click Table of Contents to access the publication's table of contents (by year)
  • Click Get Documents to access all articles in the publication and apply post-search filters

2. Browse > Sources > search "tax notes"

  • Same choices:
    • Click the title to (a) add the publication to your search as a search filter, (b) get documents, or (c) create a publication alert.
  • Note: By browsing to this document, you can also access the scope note (the little 'i' icon) to find out more information about its coverage in Lexis Advance.

Practitioner Portals on Tax Law

Lexis Advance, WestlawNext, and Bloomberg Law have all begun creating content portals on individual areas of law, to provide a go-to collection of primary and secondary materials on that subject alone.  These portals are popular starting points for practitioners who specialize in a particular area of law, and can be an excellent tool in your research, both as a starting-off point and as a haven if you get stuck.

Use the tabs in this box to find about this feature in each system.

There are a couple of different approaches you can take to find all tax materials in Lexis Advance.

1. Browse > Sources > By Practice Area > Tax Law

  • This should get you to an alphabetical listing of all primary and secondary sources on tax law in Lexis Advance.  You can then filter by category (type of material), jurisdiction, practice area, publisher, or by searching within the sources for keywords.

2. Browse > Topics > Tax Law

  • With this method, you cannot get to all tax law documents at once; instead, you'll be asked to choose a special area of tax (ex: Federal Estate & Gift Taxes, International Taxes, Federal Tax Administration & Procedures).  One option you might find helpful in starting your research is General Overview.
  • Once you select one of these sub-categories, you can (a) Get Documents, (b) Add topic as a search filter, or (c) Create a topic alert.

Here too there are multiple places to find collections of tax materials and news on WestlawNext.

Practice Areas

 

In the Browse box, select the Practice Areas tab, and click on Tax (bottom of third column).

Here you can browse tax materials by type: Tax Cases, Statutes & Court Rules, Regulations, Administrative Decisions & Guidance, Trial Court Orders, Secondary Sources, Forms, Briefs, Trial Court Documents, Expert Materials, Jury Verdicts & Settlements, Proposed & Enacted Legislation, and Proposed & Adopted Regulations.

You can search all of these areas using the search bar at the top, search one collection by clicking the link to it and searching that collection in the page that appears, or search multiple (but not all) collections by clicking the 'Specify content to search' radio button at the top of the page.

Practical Law

 

Practical Law is a practitioner-focused feature in WestlawNext; this service is available for several legal subjects, including Tax.  Instead of providing access to all the primary and secondary sources on tax law in WestlawNext, Practical Law focuses on legal news and developments in tax law, providing access to practitioner materials, such as standard tax documents and clauses, checklists, and more.

You can access Practical Law from the Browse Box, at the top of the third column in the All Content tab.

Practice Centers

 

In Bloomberg Law, you can access practitioner-focused materials on specific areas of law, including Tax, through the Practice Centers tab at the top of the page.

Within a Practice Center, you have access to primary and secondary materials for research, as well as news and other tools to aid in legal practice.

You can also run quick searches from within a Practice Center, either by performing a citation search, a tax portfolio search, or a keyword search of all or select tax resources.