U.S. Tax Resources

by Bookkeeping Essentials
(Canada)

Here are my notes on how to find what you need from the U.S. government websites.

Tax Code, Regulations and Official Tax Guidance

On the IRS website you can find links to the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury (Tax) Regulations and Other Official Guidance. It is located at irs.gov> Tax-Professionals> General Information> Code, Regs & Guidance> Tax-Code,-Regulations-and-Official-Guidance .

You will find a link to a brief primer on Understanding IRS Guidance to help you understand the difference between official IRS guidance versus non-precedential rulings or advice.

Also located on this page is a link to the master list of Internal Revenue Bulletins and Applicable Federal Rates (AFR).



The Legal Information Institute of Cornell University Law School (LII) - www.law.cornell.edu

LII is a not-for-profit group that has taken on the task of coordinating all US law accessible for free on the internet. Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) plays a similar role in Canada.

The Legal Information Institute of Cornell University Law School is where you will find the United States Internal Revenue Code (IRC). It is located at law.cornell.edu> Legal Resources> U.S. Code> Text> Title 26 - Internal Revenue Code by subtitle. Subtitle C (SS3101-3510) is on employment taxes.


The Government Printing Office - www.gpo.gov/

The Government Printing Office website has a wealth of free electronic, official, published versions of government information. It contains legislative, executive and judicial resources.

You can click on the GPO Quick Link Ben's Guide to U.S. Government fo Kids (bensguide.gpo.gov) to learn the lay of the land. If you are curious about how laws are made, click on the Grade 9-12 link.

The wesite used to be called gpoaccess.gov. Since then it has been redesigned and is now just gpo.gov. Previously, it was organized into the three sections described below. I couldn't find how to get to these areas under the new website as everything just goes to GPO's Federal Digital System. It was much easier to follow the links in "Ben's Guide" under each section ... so I'm going to leave my information as follows because it is much more logically presented than their new site in my opinion.

The Legislative Branch resources is divided into four parts:

• The Legislative Process - creating laws for the nation


• Congressional Materials - committees, calendars and procedures


• Legislative Resources - from congress and legislative agencies


• Additional Resources - other federal web sites and resources

It is in this section that you can find a link to U.S. economic indicators. The latest I found on the site was at gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/ECONI-2011-01/pdf/ECONI-2011-01.pdf


The Executive Branch resources is divided into four parts:

• The Regulatory Process - implementing laws passed by congress


• Presidential Materials - remarks, speeches, & executive orders


• Executive Publications - reports, investigations, findings, etc.


• Additional Resources - other federal web sites and resources

This is the area where you will find the State of the Union address.

The federal budget of the United States government was found under GPO's Executive resources - Presidential Materials at gpo.gov> GPO's Federal Digital System (fdsys)> Budget of the United States Government (usbudget)> More Information. I think this is where you get the latest first hand information ... not the watered down version presented by the press.


The Judicial Branch resources is divided into three parts:

• Federal Courts - resolve disputes over federal laws


• Judicial Resources - federal publications and procedures


• Additional Resources - other federal web sites and resources

This is where you will find Federal tax regulations. The US Department of Treasury provides the official interpretation of the IRC.


That's it for now.