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Tax Research

Use this guide as an introduction to researching federal tax questions, for tax policy research and for finding IRS documents and other tax-related materials.

IRC explanation

The Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is the primary source of Federal tax law.  The Code is found at Title 26 of the United States Code (U.S.C.).   It imposes income, estate, gift, employment, miscellaneous excise taxes, and provisions controlling the administration of Federal taxation.

The Code is divided into different units: subtitles, chapters, subchapters, parts, and sections.

Internal Revenue Code Sources

The Internal Revenue Code (IRC) is in Title 26 of the U.S. Code.  For research, try an annotated version - USCA on Westlaw, USCS on Lexis - or the Tax Practice Center on Bloomberg Law.

State Codes

The Library has the following states' codes in print - NY, NJ and CA.

For all other states' codes, see online sources:

1. check to see if the state has adopted an "offical" online code.  

2.  Check Bloomberg, Lexis or Westlaw

3. For superseded state statutes, browse content for Statutes > your state of interest > Historical Statutes link in column at right.

4. For print superseded state statutes, check the library catalog -  Discovery -  for your state.  Run a keyword search for the state followed by the word "superseded".  For example, Alabama superseded .  All states' superseded statutes through 2014 will be in microform.  You will want to get the Cabinet number for the Microform/microfiche item. After 2014, look on Lexis or Westlaw.