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Preface
Many government and academic institutions provide access to their tax-related databases via the Internet. Although the cost of this access is considerably less than that of the commercial databases, the scope of the information is considerably narrower.
Most sites are equipped with their own "search engines". A search engine is a software device for locating documents by keyword, citation, subject, author, or other attribute. The basic features of the various search engines differ with the various sites. Some sites serve as "gateways" to other Web sites. A gateway is a central location for hyperlinking to other sites maintained by other service providers. It is analogous to an index, electronically connected to reference material. Still other sites supply data for download. These data require special software to decode. Because of this diversity, care should be exercised in conducting research on the noncommercial sites. Access is nonuniform. The scope, breadth, and currency of the underlying databases vary. On the other hand, they provide a new and fairly reliable source of tax-related information on the World Wide Web.
In "tax-surfing" the Internet, the researcher might find it worthwhile to first visit the IRS site located at http://www.irs.treas.gov. Though oriented to laymen, this site contains a wealth of information useful to tax professionals. Such information includes guidelines for electronic filing, IRS forms and instructions, the full text of Treasury Regulations, and recent issues of the Internal Revenue Bulletin. Other sites useful in tax research are those maintained by the Library of Congress at http://thomas.loc.gov, the House of Representatives Internet Law Library at http://law.house.gov, and the Government Printing Office at http://www.access.gpo.gov. From these sites, the researcher can access databases consisting of recent court opinions, tax legislation, committee reports, state, federal, and foreign tax laws, and much more.
Surprisingly, every major tax-related primary source recently published, with the exception of Tax Court opinions and certain district court opinions, is available on the Internet. A selected listing of these sources (by order of authority), with their corresponding Internet sites, is presented below. (Locations are in italics; descriptions, in regular print. Hypertext sites ("http") are presented first, in alphabetical order. Nonhypertext ("gopher", "ftp") sites are presented next.)
A. U.S. Constitution
B. Internal Revenue Code
C. Treaties
D. Legislation
1. Bills
2. Congressional Record
3. Committee Reports
A. U.S. Supreme Court Opinions
B. U.S. Circuit Court Opinions
C. U.S. District Court Opinions
D. U.S. Court of Federal Claims Opinions
E. U.S. Tax Court Opinions
F. Tax Court Rules
A. U.S. Treasury Regulations and Decisions
B. IRS Revenue Rulings and Procedures
C. IRS Announcements, Notices, Releases
D. Internal Revenue Manual
E. IRS Forms and Instructions
A. Laws
B. Tax Forms
A. U.S. Constitution
http://law.house.gov/2.htm
"The U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library, U.S. Federal Laws (By Source)". A gateway to hypertext and nonhypertext versions of the U.S. Constitution.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/const.html
The full text of the U.S. Constitution provided by the Library of Congress. Accessible by keyword.
http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html
The full text of the U.S. Constitution provided by the U.S. House of Representatives.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.table.html
The full text of the U.S. Constitution provided by The Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School.
B. Internal Revenue Code
http://www.fourmilab.ch/ustax/ustax.html
The full text of the Internal Revenue Code (annotated) provided by John Walker. Accessible by (1) section number, (2) hierarchical table of contents, (3) "flat" table of contents, and (4) keyword. Contains text hyperlinks to related sections.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26
The full text of the Internal Revenue Code (unannotated) provided by The Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. Accessible by (1) chapter and (2) section number.
http://www.tns.lcs.mit.edu:80/uscode/
http://www.tns.lcs.mit.edu/uscode/TITLE_26/ftoc.html (324K bytes)
Complete text of the Internal Revenue Code (annotated) provided by Telemedia, Networks, and Systems Group, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. Accessible by (1) table of contents, (2) keyword, and (3) directory tree. Contains text hyperlinks to related sections.
gopher://hamilton1.house.gov/11d%3a/uscode/title26
gopher://hamilton1.house.gov:70/11d%3A/uscode/title26
Nonhypertext version of the Internal Revenue Code (annotated) provided by U.S. House of Representatives Information Systems. Accessible by table of contents/section number.
C. Treaties
http://law.house.gov/89.htm
"The U.S. House of Representatives International Law Library, Treaties and International Law". A gateway to the text of selected treaties.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/cong006.html
Full text of Senate, House, and Treaty Documents provided by the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. Accessible by keyword.
http://www.intltaxlaw.com/income.htm
An Introduction to International Taxation from a U.S. Perspective provided by Bradley A. Smith, Esq. Contains the full text of selected tax treaties and protocols between the United States and Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.
gopher://gopher.law.cornell.edu:70/11/foreign/
Nonhypertext version of selected treaties provided by Cornell University Law Library.
D. Legislation
1. Bills
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces004.html
Gateways to Government Printing Office ("GPO") databases of the Congressional Record, Federal Register, bills, bill histories, reports, calendars, and public laws. Underlying databases accessible by keyword.
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c105query.html
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c104query.html
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c103query.html
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c102query.html
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c101query.html
Library of Congress "engines" for searching bills introduced in the 105th to 101st Congresses. Accessible by (1) keyword and (2) bill number.
gopher://wgate.house.gov:70/7waissrc:/USHOUSE_house_bill_text
"Engine" for searching nonhypertext version of House bills (current sessions), provided by the U.S. House of Representatives. Accessible by keyword.
2. Congressional Record
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r105query.html
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r104query.html
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r103query.html
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r102query.html
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r101query.html
"Engines" for searching hypertext versions of Congressional Record (recent sessions), provided by the Library of Congress. Accessible by (1) keyword, (2) sponsor, and (3) index.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces004.html
(See description under Legislation, Bills.)
gopher://wgate.house.gov:70/7waissrc:/USHOUSE_cong_record
"Engine" for searching nonhypertext version of Congressional Record (recent sessions), provided by the U.S. House of Representatives. Accessible by keyword.
3. Committee Reports
http://www.house.gov/jct/
Recent publications of the Joint Committee on Taxation. Site maintained by U.S. House of Representatives.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cp105/cp105query.html
The full text of recent committee reports provided by the Library of Congress. Accessible by (1) keyword, (2) report number, (3) bill number, and (4) committee name.
A. U.S. Supreme Court Opinions
http://law.house.gov/6.htm
"The U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library, Court Decisions and Rules". Gateway to recent opinions of the Supreme Court and the circuit courts.
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/
Recent opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court, provided by Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, under the auspices of Project Hermes. Accessible by (1) topic, (2) keyword, (3) party name. (Current-term opinions also accessible by month of decision.)
http://www.cclabs.missouri.edu/~tbrown/lawmarks/
LawMarks gateway to recent Supreme Court, circuit court, and selected state court opinions. Underlying databases maintained by various institutions. (Note: historical timespan of databases varies.)
http://www.fedworld.gov/supcourt/index.htm
FedWorld/FLITE Supreme Court Decisions. Full text of Supreme Court decisions from 1937 to 1975 provided by the FedWorld Information Network. Accessible by (1) case name and (2) keyword.
http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html
Full text of Supreme Court opinions issued since 1893 and recent circuit and district court opinions provided by Findlaw Internet Resources. Accessible by (1) citation, (2) year of decision, (3) party name, and (4) keyword.
http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDCTS/
"U.S. Federal Courts Finder", provided by Emory University School of Law, Information Technology Services. Gateway to recent Supreme Court and circuit court opinion databases maintained by various institutions. Underlying databases generally accessible by (1) date of decision, (2) keyword, and (3) party name. (Note: historical timespan of databases varies.)
http://www.law.vill.edu/Fed-Ct/
"The Federal Court Locator", provided by the Villanova Center for Information Law and Policy. A gateway to recent Supreme Court, circuit court, and selected district court opinion databases maintained by various institutions. Underlying databases generally accessible by (1) date of decision, (2) keyword, and (3) party name. (Note: historical timespan of databases varies.)
http://www.ljx.com/courthouse/index.html
New York Law Journal gateway to text of recent Supreme Court, circuit court, and selected state court opinions.
B. U.S. Circuit Court Opinions
http://law.house.gov/6.htm
(See description under U.S. Supreme Court Opinions.)
http://www.law.cornell.edu/opinions.html
Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School gateway to text of recent Supreme Court, circuit court, and state court opinions. Underlying federal court databases accessible by (1) date of decision, (2) keyword, (3) party name.
http://www.cclabs.missouri.edu/~tbrown/lawmarks/
(See description under U.S. Supreme Court Opinions.)
http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDCTS/
(See description under U.S. Supreme Court Opinions.)
http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html
(See description under U.S. Supreme Court Opinions.)
http://www.law.vill.edu/Fed-Ct/
(See description under U.S. Supreme Court Opinions.)
http://www.ljx.com/courthouse/index.html
(See description under U.S. Supreme Court Opinions.)
C. U.S. District Court Opinions
http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html
(See description under U.S. Supreme Court Opinions.)
http://www.law.vill.edu/Fed-Ct/
(See description under U.S. Supreme Court Opinions.)
D. U.S. Court of Federal Claims Opinions
http://www.ogc.doc.gov/fedcl/cofc.html
Text of recent decisions of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims provided by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Accessible by keyword.
E. U.S. Tax Court Opinions
(Currently unavailable.)
F. Tax Court Rules
http://www.tns.lcs.mit.edu:80/uscode/TITLE_26/APPENDIX/ftoc.html
Full contents of Title 26--Appendix provided by Telemedia, Networks, and Systems Group, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. Accessible by table of contents/rule number.
gopher://hamilton1.house.gov:70/11d%3A/uscode/title26A
Nonhypertext version of Tax Court rules provided by U.S. House of Representatives Information Systems. Accessible by table of contents/rule number.
A. U.S. Treasury Regulations and Decisions
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/tax_regs/regs.html
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/tax_regs/txts/irs-regs.htm
IRS gateway to selected income tax Regulations available on the FedWorld FTP server. Accessible by a limited number of topics.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/cfrassemble.cgi?title=199726
Title 26 of the Code of Federal Regulations provided by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. Accessible by keyword.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces004.html
(See description under Legislation, Bills.)
ftp://ftp.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-regs/
Nonhypertext version of selected proposed and final regulations (listed by document number) available on FedWorld FTP server. Document description is found at ftp://ftp.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-regs/00-index.txt.
B. IRS Revenue Rulings and Procedures
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/plain/bus_info/bullet.html
"Tax Info for Business". Recent issues of the Internal Revenue Bulletin available for download. Site maintained by IRS.
http://www.fedworld.gov/ftp/irs-irbs/irs-irbs.htm
Recent issues of the Internal Revenue Bulletin available on the FedWorld Information Network. Requires special software to decode.
C. IRS Announcements, Notices, Releases
http://www.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-drop/irs-drop.htm
Recent IRS announcements, notices, and releases available on the FedWorld Information Network. Requires special software to decode.
D. Internal Revenue Manual
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/bus_info/tax_pro/irm-part/index.html
Internal Revenue Manual provided by the Internal Revenue Service.
E. IRS Forms and Instructions
http://nestegg.iddis.com/refctr/tax/taxform.html
"IRS-PDF library - Instructions and Publications". Selected IRS forms and instructions in .pdf format, provided by Nest Egg. Requires special software to decode.
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/forms_pubs/forms.html
Forms and instructions provided by the IRS. Requires special software to decode.
ftp://ftp.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-pdf/
ftp://ftp.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-pcl/
ftp://ftp.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-ps/
ftp://ftp.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-sgml/
Files of IRS forms, instructions, and publications available on the FedWorld Information Network. Requires special software to decode. (Note: file format is indicated by the letters following the hyphen in the URL address.)
A. Laws
http://law.house.gov/17.htm
"The U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library, U.S. State and Territorial Laws". Gateway to text of selected state and territorial laws.
http://law.house.gov/109.htm
"The U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library, Taxation". Gateway to text of selected state and foreign country tax codes.
http://www.cclabs.missouri.edu/~tbrown/lawmarks/
(See description under U.S. Supreme Court Opinions.)
http://www.law.cornell.edu/opinions.html
(See description under U.S. Circuit Court Opinions.)
http://www.lxj.com/courthouse/index.html
(See description under U.S. Supreme Court Opinions.)
http://www.law.vill.edu/State-Ct/
The State Court Locator maintained by the Center for Information Law and Policy at Villanova University. Gateway to selected state and municipal court opinions.
B. Tax Forms
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/forms_pubs/ftaframes.html
Federation of Tax Administrators gateway to state tax agency homepages. Underlying state form databases available for download.
http://law.house.gov/52.htm
"The U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library, Laws of Other Nations". Gateway to text of selected foreign laws.
http://law.house.gov/109.htm
(See description under State Laws.)
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