Exam 5: Tax Research

Which of the following is not a primary authority?

When performing step one of the tax research process:

Novice tax researchers tend to examine less material in the course of a tax research project than experienced tax researchers.

The Internal Revenue Code is the primary source of statutory authority for federal income tax law.

Which of the following is not a primary authority?

The results of the tax research process should be documented in a research memo, in a letter to the client, or both.

Based on the citation Rev. Rul. 89-157, 1989-1 C.B. 221:

In the citation Rev. Proc. 2002-32, 2002-1 C.B. 959, the abbreviation C.B. refers to Congressional Bulletin.

A research memorandum is typically less detailed than a client letter in terms of discussing supporting legal authorities.

Revenue rulings are an example of administrative authority.

Private letter rulings and technical advice memoranda are primary authority for those taxpayers to whom they were issued.

When performing step three of the tax research process:

The Citator is a rarely used, unimportant source of information about the status of judicial and administrative tax decisions.

Which of the following statements regarding secondary authorities is true?

Tax research typically occurs as part of the tax compliance process; however, it is rarely important in tax planning.

Which of the following is not a typical strategy for using a commercial tax service?

Private letter rulings are authoritative only for the specific taxpayer to whom they are issued and cannot be relied on as authority by any other taxpayer.

A taxpayer who loses a case in the U.S. Tax Court may appeal the case directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A keyword search in an electronic tax service:

The first step in the tax research process is to locate relevant tax law authority.