Learning OutcomesThe Study of Tax Research
A clear understanding of the source and use of primary tax research materials is a prerequisite for success in tax work. The tax practitioner who has a knowledge of the vast quantities of these reference materials, their limitations, their purposes, and their relative significance as authority is best able to accomplish his work. Such a knowledge of the reference materials available in the tax field and of the relationship that they share with each other in the general framework of the Federal tax law will serve as confidence-builder, as a preventive to costly mistakes, and as an assurance that even the fringes of the subject matter have been meticulously examined. (Norwood, et al. 979, P7).
The emphasis of this course will be extensive tax research, both for closed fact, (tax return), and controllable fact, (tax planning), cases. Both types of research will span a wide spectrum of extant tax law for corporations, as well as individuals, at the federal taxation level.
All of your professional skills will probably be under utilized or wasted if you are unable to communicate effectively, both in writing and orally.
By the end of this course, the student should be able to:
1) Understand the sources of federal tax law.
2) Understand the organizations of the internal revenue code.
3) Understand the federal court system.
4) Understand the major electronic and print tax and legal services.
5) Understand citators and citation services.
6) Understand the importance of tax journals, newsletters and other tax periodicals.
7) Understand how to communicate tax research results.
8) Understand the fundamentals of tax planning.