Tax Return Position Paper

Tax Return Position Paper

Teri Harris

ACC/455

April 8, 2013

Robert P. Goodman

Tax Return Position Paper

What are the primary sources of tax law?

"The primary source of tax law emanates from the legislative, executive, or judicial branch of the government and constitutes as part of the tax law. Some examples of primary sources would be statutory authority which is the Internal Revenue Code, statutes outside the Code, tax treaties, and Congressional reports. Another example would be administrative authority which would be Treasury Regulations and the Internal Revenue Service rulings. The last example would be the judicial authority which is the courts decisions" (Anderson, Kramer, & Pope, 2010).

"Treasury Regulations are rules and regulations that the Internal Revenue Service uses to enforce the laws that have been written by the Internal Revenue Code. Treasury Regulations can be proposed, final, or temporary. The Internal Revenue Service has developed other rulings and regulations that are to help support the code such as the treasury decisions, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, private letter ruling, technical advice memoranda, IRS publications, notices and forms. Because of the frequent IRC changes, the Treasury Department does not always update their regulations in a timely manner. There is another level of primary sources and that is the court decisions which are usually more detailed with taxpayer specific interpretations" (Anderson, Kramer, & Pope, 2010).

"When consulting a regulation, a taxpayer's advisor should check it's introductory or end note to determine when the regulation was adopted" (Anderson, Kramer, & Pope, 2010).

What are the secondary sources of tax law?

"The secondary sources of tax law would be the tax services, newspaper articles, textbooks, publications, and treaties. These are all good places to use in researching the tax laws. Another good research tool to use would be the internet. By using these research tools it will make it easier to understand what the tax laws are and what is required by the Internal Revenue Service. The secondary sources carry less precedential weight of laws as the primary sources do" (Anderson, Kramer, & Pope, 2010).

What is substantial authority?

"Substantial authority exists only if the weight of the taxpayers' authorities is substantial in relation to the contrary authorities. Under the Reg. 1.6694-2 the sources are weighted based on authority, with the primary sources having the most weight. These sources are compared to the weighted sources of the contrary tax position" (Anderson, Kramer, & Pope, 2010).

"The Regulation under 6662 specifies the sources of substantial authority which includes the following" (Major Types of Authority):

 "Provisions of the Internal Revenue Code"

 "Temporary and final Regulations"

 "Court cases"

 "Administrative pronouncements"

 "Tax treaties"

 "Congressional