Guide to Researching US Tax Policy

The U.S. Tax Court is a special Article I court that only handles tax cases.  The taxpayer does not pay the tax before filing suit.  Decisions of the U.S. Tax Court are appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Types of opinions:

• Tax Court Regular Opinions officially published in the United States Tax Court Reports (TC)
• Tax Court Memo Decisions (TC Memo) – not officially reported
• Tax Court Summary Opinions (decisions of the Small Cases Division)

Find the decisions online via:

• Bloomberg Law (law students, faculty & staff only)
• CCH IntelliConnect (must authenticate with UC credentials)
• Lexis: US Tax Court
• Westlaw Database Identifier FTX-TCT
• Thomson Reuters Checkpoint (must authenticate): Note that only 1 person at a time can use this database
• Tax Court website, http://www.ustaxcourt.gov/

Taxpayers may dispute tax liability by paying the tax and then filing a refund claim with the IRS.  If the IRS rejects the refund claim, the taxpayer files with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims or the U.S. District Court.  The U.S. Court of Federal Claims is another Article 1 court. authorized to hear primarily money claims founded upon the Constitution, federal statutes, executive regulations, or contracts, express or implied-in-fact, with the United States.

Decisions of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims are appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Decisions Online:

• Bloomberg Law (law students, faculty & staff only)
• CCH IntelliConnect (must authenticate)
• Lexis: U.S. Court of Federal Claims
• Westlaw: FEDCL
•  Thomson Reuters Checkpoint (must authenticate)

Taxpayers may dispute tax liability by paying the tax and then filing a refund claim with the IRS.  If the IRS rejects the refund claim, the taxpayer files with the U.S. District Court or the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.  U.S. District Court decisions are appealed to the appropriate U.S. Court of Appeals circuit.

United States District Court Cases

• Federal Supplement Reporter:  (F. Supp.)
• Federal Supplement Reporter, Second Series:  (F. Supp. 2d)

Find the Decisions online via:

• Bloomberg Law (law students, faculty & staff only)
• CCH IntelliConnect (must be on-campus or authenticate from off-campus)
• Lexis: Search and then use the filters on the left
• Westlaw Database Identifier DCT
• Thomson Reuters Checkpoint (must authenticate)

U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Opinions

• Federal Reporter (F.)
• Federal Reporter, Second Series (F.2d)
• Federal Reporter, Third Series (F.3d)

Find the Decisions online via:

• Bloomberg Law (law students, faculty & staff only)
• CCH IntelliConnect (must authenticate)
• Lexis Advance: U.S. Court of Appeals
• Westlaw Database Identifier: CTA
• Thomson Reuters Checkpoint (must authenticate)

Tax uses additional citators beyond Shepard's and KeyCite.  They work in a similar manner.

•  CCH IntelliConnect Citator (must uthenticate) – Instead of browsing the collection, click on the link for citator.  Note that the CCH citator does not include editorial symbols.
• Thomson Reuters Checkpoint (must authenticate) -- go to Citator2d)