The tax reporter services, or looseleaf services, are highly valuable resources for research in tax law. They include current versions of the I.R.C., regulations, commentary, cases, and rulings on the Code.
1. Commerce Clearinghouse's (CCH) Standard Federal Tax Reporter (Looseleafs, KF 6365 .C6 1994) is a multi-volume looseleaf service covering all aspects of federal income tax law and procedure. It is located in the Reading Room of the Library; copies from previous years are on the Second Floor.
The Standard Federal Tax Reporter is organized by I.R.C. section, and includes (i) the text of the section, (ii) excerpts from some of the legislative reports, (iii) the text of Treasury regulations promulgated under the section, (iv) editorial explanations, and (v) annotations. The annotations include cases, IRS rulings, and IRS procedures. There is an exhaustive topical index at the end of the current year’s volumes and tables of cases and rulings identifying the annotation paragraph numbers where these are cited. CCH materials are also available online through their IntelliConnect platform, an extensive online resource for tax research [Restricted Access]. It is linked from the Law Library’s online resources at http://law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/research/resources/.
2. RIA’s United States Tax Reporter is current to 2003 and is presently held at the Auxiliary Library Facility. RIA is available on Westlaw [Directory RIA-USTR]. It is also on RIA database, RIA Checkpoint [Restricted Access].
3. There are related CCH looseleaf services for other major tax areas, including estate and gift taxes, employment taxes, excise taxes, pension law, tax-exempt organizations, and state taxes. These are located in the Library’s Reading Room.
CCH releases weekly pamphlets which summarize legislative, administrative, and judicial developments. CCH annually republishes the I.R.C. This traces the recent evolution of Code sections and provides some prior years' versions. All these and other related volumes can be found near the Standard Federal Tax Reporter in the Looseleaf Collection.
Tax Management Portfolios [Second Floor, KF 6279 .T3] compile analysis and discussion of tax issues by subject matter and serve as excellent introductions. The Portfolios are divided into five categories: U.S. Income; Estates, Gifts, and Trusts; Compensation Planning; Real Estate; and Foreign Income. There are several hundred spiral-bound Portfolios on different subjects. Each Portfolio also contains a reference list for further reading. There is a separate index for locating Portfolios by topic, keyword, or I.R.C. section. The Tax Management Portfolios are no longer updated in print, but they can be found in the Bureau of National Affairs database, http://law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/research/resources/list.php?subcat=1&id=9&label=BNA+All, [Restricted Access]. They are also available on Bloomberg.
Like Tax Management Portfolios, treatises are an excellent place to begin research. Often in the form of looseleafs, treatises summarize and explain relevant law and provide numerous citations to primary and secondary sources. Tax treatises can generally be found in the KF 6000’s on the Second Floor. The following is a basic list of helpful treatises on various topics concerning federal taxation, but browsing through the shelves will likely yield other helpful sources.
Boris I. Bittker & James S. Eustice, Federal Income Taxation of Corporations and Shareholders (7th ed. 2000) (single volume treatise on corporate taxation, current through 2011) [KF 6464 .B5 2000].
Boris I. Bittker & Lawrence Lokken, Federal Taxation of Income, Estates, and Gifts (3d ed. 1999) (multi-volume set, current through 2010) [KF 6335 .B58 1999].
Boris I. Bittker et al., Federal Income Taxation of Individuals (3d ed. 2002) (current through the present) [KF 6369 .B57 2002].
Joel Kuntz & Robert J. Peroni, U.S. International Taxation (1991) (three volume set, current through 2010) [KF 6419 .K86 1991].
William S. McKee et al., Federal Taxation of Partnerships and Partners (3d ed. 1997) (two volumes, current through 2006) [KF 6452 .M26 1996].
Jacob Rabkin & Mark H. Johnson, Federal Income, Gift and Estate Taxation (1962) (current through 2009) [KF 6335 .A6 R32].
Michael I. Saltzman, IRS Practice and Procedure (2d ed. 2002) (current through 2012) [KF 6300 .S26 2002].
Note that electronic versions of treatises are available on both Lexis and Westlaw.
Journal articles are one of the best ways to keep up with tax issues and, given the nature of legal publishing, they also offer some of the best analysis of intricate tax problems and policies. Articles on taxation appear in specialized tax journals for practitioners as well as academic law reviews. BNA’s Daily Tax Report and Weekly Tax Report are journals for those who need very current information about tax. The Law Library has discontinued its subscription to many journals that are available in full text online. Recent issues of journals to which the Law Library still has a subscription can be found in the Periodicals section behind the Reference Collection, where they are organized alphabetically.
The best online source for journals and law reviews is HeinOnline. When searching for journals it is also an excellent idea to start with IUCAT, the catalog of the Indiana University Libraries.
A. Tax Journals and Weekly Services
The following is a list of selected titles. Many of these are also available electronically. Check IUCAT for more information.
1. Journal of Corporate Taxation (1974 to 2001)
2. Journal of Taxation (1954 to the present)
3. The Tax Adviser (1970 to the present)
4. Tax Lawyer (1967 to 2005)
5. Taxes—The Tax Magazine (1939 to 2005)
6. Tax Notes (a weekly service that publishes articles and reprints new cases, rulings, committee reports, and proposed regulations, among other materials)
B. Law Reviews
The following law reviews, also available on HeinOnline, deal solely with taxation:
1. Akron Tax Journal
2. American Journal of Tax Policy
3. Boston University Journal of Tax Law
4. Florida Tax Review
5. Tax Law Review (faculty edited publication from New York University School of Law)
6. Virginia Tax Review
C. Proceedings of Tax Institutes
Several tax institutes linked to universities conduct annual seminars and publish their proceedings. Unlike periodicals and law reviews, institute proceedings are located in the stacks. Some examples include:
1. Major Tax Planning for Tax Institute (University of Southern California) (current from 1956 to the present) [Second Floor, KF6289 .T23].
2. Proceedings of the New York University . . . Annual Institute on Federal Taxation (current from 1942 to the present) [Second Floor, KF6289.A2 I48].
D. Finding Articles
There are numerous aids for locating articles on federal taxation. LegalTrac and the Index to Legal Periodicals, links to which are available at the library's Online Resources page, are the best sources for finding legal articles on any topic. There are two finding aids specifically for articles on taxation. The Index to Federal Tax Articles [Indexes, KF6335 .G64] allows for searching by subject and by author and contains brief descriptions of each article. It is current through 2010. CCH publishes Federal Tax Articles [Looseleafs, KF6335.A6 C58], a looseleaf service that also contains brief descriptions of articles but is organized by I.R.C. section. It is current as of 2015.
