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Tax Links: Online Tax Resources
By JLP | January 17, 2006
With this post, I have adapted an article that I found in Investment Advisor magazine.
The internet is full of resources for those wanting to learn more about taxes. Below is an extensive list of resources (some for a fee) that financial planners and individuals might find useful.
Most people are probably aware of the IRS website. However many people probably don’t know what all it has to offer. The IRS’s Web site provides several resources. For instance, any federal tax form (from 1992 onward) can be downloaded, with accompanying instructions, as well as the IRS’s publications, Treasury Regulations, weekly Internal Revenue Bulletins (IRB), and the audit technique for various businesses. Users can use the IRS Newsstand feature to subscribe to the IRS Daily Digital e-mail newsletter. The IRS Newsroom provides briefings and recommendations on tax-related topics. The IRS’s Web site can also be searched from the U.S. government’s official Web portal, which allows access to other federal agencies’ Web sites.
Fee-based tax research sites available to paid subscribers include the following:
- Bureau of National Affairs
- Commerce Clearing House
- Kleinrock
- Lexis/Nexis
- Practitioner’s Publishing Company
- Research Institute of America
- Tax Analysts
- Westlaw
Tax Forums:
- Taxsites - has a grid of topics for tax, accounting, and payroll issues.
- Accountants World - is open to anyone, but only members may post questions.
Internal Revenue Code and Regulations:
- U. S. Tax Code Online outlines the code sections in sequential order and has a word and phrase search feature.
- Title 26, the Internal Revenue Code, can also be found within the general legislative site Title 26 or on theCornell Law School site.
- Treasury Regulations can be searched on the GPO Access site.
- There is an IRS Index for the tax regulations and for the plain-language regulations.
Information on proposed tax bills in Congress:
Tax-related legislative information pending in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate can be found at the House Ways and Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee, and the Library of Congress’s “Thomas” legislative portal. Because the two houses of Congress work independently, differences in proposed legislation will be forwarded to the Joint Committee on Taxation for reconciliation. Recent legislative highlights are at tax.cchgroup.com/news/legislation.
Sources that offer access to IRS administrative pronouncements:
- Tax Links - contains links to published IRS Revenue Rulings from 1954 through January 2003 and Revenue Procedures from 1995 on.
- Private Letter Rulings
- Internal Revenue Bulletins.
- Legal Bit Stream
- Small Business Taxes and Management.
Reference resources exist for estate and elder planning:
- EstatePlanningLinks.com
- EstateAttorney.com.
- The U.S. Government Administration on Aging - has published a public service site for elders.
- National Association of Financial & Estate Planning.
Websites for state tax information:
Websites for researching tax strategies for investment and business real estate holdings (if seller financing is involved):
- www.pmstax.com/afr/index.shtml
- Bankrate’s Amortization Calculator
- Florida State University’s Calculator.
- 1031 Exchange Tax - for 1031 exchanges.
Judicial information be research for tax cases:
- The United States Tax Court Website - allows users to search cases from May 1986 to the present.
- U.S. Courts - provides links to different federal and state courts.
- Legalbitstream - features a database to federal tax-related cases.
- FindLaw.com - allows search for U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
Professional accounting organizations:
- AICPA and the NYSSCPA - both have sections devoted to taxation resources.
- National Association of Tax Professionals.
Websites for international tax information:
- International Lawyer - provides foreign government tax information.
- Money Magazine’s Currency Converter.
Law School Libraries:
- Washburn University School of Law
- USC Law Legal Journals Listing
- Villanova University School of Law Library.
- Legal Information Institute of Cornell University.
Information about specific charitable organizations:
- Philanthropic Research, Inc. and CharityNavigator - these two provide specific financial and tax information about charitable organizations to evaluate an organization before donating (see also http://www.charitynavigator.org/.
- The IRS Website.
- Pennies for Charities - a publication from the New York Attorney General’s Office, which outlines the portion of income received by specific charities after administrative expenses.
- Give.org - from The Better Business Bureau
- National Center for Charitable Statistics
Information about asset valuation:
- Bigcharts.com or Yahoo Finance - both offer historical stock price information.
- NADA Guides or Kelly Blue Book - both offer values for tangible assets.
- About.com - Collectibles, Orion Blue Book, or Sothebys.com - for information on collectibles.
Information about the laws affecting the formation and operation of not-for-profit organizations:
- Online Compendium of Federal and State Regulations for U.S. Nonprofit Organizations.
- Nonprofit Law
- NY Charities Bureau.
Online tax resources that are available from the Government Printing Office (GPO):
- The Federal Register - a great place for information on proposed tax regulations from 1994 to the present.
Accounting publications can be read online:
- Journal of Accountancy.
- The CPA Journal.
- The Practical Accountant.
- The National Tax Journal - most articles are only available to members
- FindAritcles.com includes the aforementioned publications and others which contain periodic tax updates.
Great websites for tax-related information:
- Accountants World.
- American Bar Association.
- ELA Web Portal.
- Findlaw).
- Legalbitstream.
- Quickfinder.
- Tax and Accounting Sites Directory.
- Tax Topics.
- Tax World.
- Virtual Chase–Tax.
Topics: Taxes |