Description

Answering clients’ tax questions accurately and on time is a key challenge for tax practitioners. Through simple, plain language explanations and examples, this course will help practitioners perform tax research more efficiently by describing the structure of the primary sources, highlighting the differences between primary and secondary sources, and detailing the steps in the tax research process.

Instructor: Dave Peters, CPA, CFP, CLU, CPCU, MST, MBA

Target Audience

CPAs, Controllers, Accountants, Tax Practitioners, and Enrolled Agents who are looking to improve their research skills and understanding of the composition of the Internal Revenue Code

Course Objectives

Describe the different levels of authority in tax law

Differentiate between the different types of administrative authority in tax law

Identify the different courts that hear cases involving tax law

Illustrate the organization of the Internal Revenue Code, the Treasury Regulations, and Revenue Rulings

Identify the circumstances when a client may want to consider requesting a private letter ruling

Differentiate between primary and secondary pieces of authority

Illustrate the steps to the tax research process and the parts of a tax research memorandum

Subjects

Tax code hierarchy

Organization of an Internal Revenue Code section

Special rules for IRC citation 

Citing other primary authority

Private letter rulings 

Primary vs. secondary authority 

Secondary sources of authority

Steps in the tax research process

Research memoranda

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of tax law