Researching Federal Tax Law – Specialized Databases Available to UNC Law Students

Are you interested in pursuing a career as a tax attorney? Taking Income Taxation or one of the advanced tax law classes at UNC Law? If so, this blog post outlines the specialized legal research databases available to you as a UNC Law student. Be sure to familiarize yourself with how these databases operate and what specific resources each has to offer, as you will likely see them in practice!

Why use a specialized tax law research database?

Despite its reputation for being one of the more complex areas of legal practice, the primary law sources utilized in tax law are standard. At the federal level, tax law professionals regularly work with the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”), a statute, and its detailed legislative history. Specific federal agencies are charged with issuing regulations that implement the IRC. As with most regulatory activity, agencies also issue a variety of administrative materials, including advisory letters, to expand and explain the tax law regulatory framework. Finally, individuals dealing with tax disputes with the IRS may find themselves appearing before the United States Tax Court, a specialized federal district court that hears these disputes. Statutes, regulations, administrative materials, and cases – all the major primary law sources – are important for tax law practitioners.

But, as any student of tax law can attest, the devil is in the details. Tax law is a complex area of practice both because it is topically challenging and is subject to frequent amendments and changes by both Congress and federal agencies. Specialized tax law looseleafs, a type of secondary source designed for areas of the law subject frequent updates and changes, are critical for tax law practitioners. Specialized tax law research databases provide you with access to the primary law, but they also offer these unique looseleafs and other secondary source titles that are so important to understanding and applying the primary law.

What are the specialized tax law research databases?

In addition to Westlaw’s Tax Law content page and Lexis Tax, the following specialized tax law research databases are important to include in any tax law student’s research toolbox:

1. Cheetah replaces CCH IntelliConnect and contains specialized platforms for both tax and securities law. Included in this databases are the following tax law looseleafs: Standard Federal Income Tax Reporter, Federal Estate and Gift Tax Reporter. The Standard Federal Income Tax Reporter is one of the seminal looseleafs in tax law and is organized according to the IRC. Within each IRC section, users can access legislative history, analysis of the section, related regulations, and important cases.
2. Bloomberg Law’s Tax Practice Center provides access to the BNA Portfolios in income taxation, estates/gift taxation, and international tax. Each portfolio provides two important research tools: (1) detailed analyses of tax law topics and (2) supplemental “working papers” that provide additional insight into related content, like cases, that relate to those topics. Bloomberg Law also provides access to the Daily Tax Report, one of the major news sources for updates and practitioner insights into tax news stories. 
3. RIA Checkpoint is a Thomson Reuters database that provides users with access to reference sources in federal, state, and local taxation. Included in this database are the following tax law looseleafs: the United States Tax Reporter,  Federal Tax Coordinator 2d, and multiple titles from the Warren, Gorham and Lamont collection of tax law treatises. The United States Tax Reporter is one of the other major tax law looseleafs and is also organized according to the IRC. Within each IRC section, users can access legislative history, analysis of the section, related regulations, and important cases.      
4. TaxNotes is a nonprofit publisher of tax news and analysis, including weekly magazines featuring commentary and daily online journals featuring news and analysis. Content is always hyperlinked for easy access to cited primary law materials, and students can use the “Tax Topics” option to view news stories and updates related to specific tax law issues.

Access Notes : UNC Law students need to proxy into Cheetah and RIA Checkpoint using their ONYEN and password, so be sure to bookmark the law library’s Legal Databases page. Once in either database, you can create your own account to save relevant material tofolders and create alerts/updates. Students can request login credentials for TaxNotes by emailing the reference desk (lawref@email.unc.edu).    

Each of these specialized tax databases offers unique secondary sources that provide detailed treatment of tax law topics, updates on changes to the law, and quick access to related primary law content. This blog post is a very brief introduction to the many titles and resources available in each database, so be sure to check them out for yourself!