LibGuides: Federal Tax Research: Treatises

Starting Place:

Bittker, Boris et. al., Federal Income Taxation of Individuals
Federal law of taxation as it applies to individuals. Chapters examine determination of gross income, business operating income and deductions, capital expenses, tax accounting problems of sole proprietorships, passive loss rules, etc.
Online: Westlaw

These tax treatises are a good starting place for your research. The treatises provide an overview of a tax issue and offer leads to additional key resources. The sources can be searched by topic/keywords or by a citation to a specific statute, case decision, or regulatory material.

HINT: See Kendall F. Svengalis, Legal Information Buyer's Guide and Reference Manual for a complete list of current tax treatises. The manual is located at the Reference Desk.

Bittker, Boris I. & Lawrence Lokken, Federal Taxation of Income, Estates and Gifts
A leading work on taxation, which provides an in depth examination of tax as it relates to individuals, corporations, partnerships, estates and gifts.
Online: Westlaw
Federal Tax Coordinator 2d.
A detailed subject-oriented federal tax service which provides in-depth analysis of federal tax questions.
Online: Westlaw
Federal Tax Guide
Online: Bloomberg Law
Lexis (IRC) Explanations
The Lexis IRC (Internal Revenue Code) Explanations provides in-depth editorial explanations drafted by Matthew Bender for 1,360 Internal key Revenue Code Sections. This includes approximately 6,300 subsections.
Online: Lexis Advance
Merten's Jacob, The Law of Federal Income Taxation
Merten's has been cited by the courts more often than all other tax treatises. The multi-volume set offers analytical commentaries for each section of the income tax code along with references to primary materials.
Online: Westlaw
PLI (Practising Law Institute): Tax Treatises
Online: Bloomberg law
Rabkin & Johnson, Federal Tax Guidebook
A concise, practice-oriented guidebook on federal taxation which covers the entire Internal Revenue Code.
Online: Lexis Advance

Tax Management Portfolios

A good place to start your tax research is with an encyclopedia. A good encyclopedia will provide a detailed, straight-forward discussion of issues, together with references to important statutes, cases, regulations, and other controlling legal authority. The standard encyclopedia for tax law research is the Tax Management Portfolios. The Bloomberg BNA Tax Management Portfolios are the definitive source for in-depth analysis of specific tax topics, and each written by one of the pre-eminent practitioners in the respective topic area.

PRINT
The print version is a large collection of spiral-bound volumes, grouped by broad topic area, with each individual volume covering a specific, narrow set of issues. The portfolios are arranged into three broad groups: federal income taxation, federal estate and gift taxation, and U.S. taxation of international transactions. Use the index to locate the relevant information. The index includes both a general keyword/subject index and an Internal Revenue Code locator. The print Tax Management Portfolios are on the 2nd Floor of the library.

Bloomberg Law: Tax
The online version of Tax Management Portfolios is simply an electronic version of the print portfolios, and available via Bloomberg Law. You can search by keywords and by an Internal Revenue Code section.