Administrative Sources
The Treasury Department is charged with administering the tax laws of the United States, to accomplish this task it makes various pronouncements to explain the Internal Revenue Code. Administrative pronouncements of this type constitute one of the major categories of primary tax authority. The Internal Revenue Service is a division of the Treasury Department and is responsible for the operations associated with administrations of the provisions of the IRC, including the authority to issue binding rules and regulations concerning the IRC. So once a proposed tax law has been codified it it up to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service to interpret Congress's intent and issue regulations.
There are four major types of pronouncements that may be issued including "regulations", "revenue rulings", "revenue procedures", and "letter rulings." Each of these categories of rulings is issued for a different purpose and carries a different degree of authority. The first three are generally published by the IRS, while the letter rulings, and other pronouncements typically are not published by any government agency.
The IRS's official publication for its pronouncements is the Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB). Most Revenue Rulings and Revenue Procedures, and the IRS's acquiescence and nonacquiescence to regular Tax Court decisions are published in the IRB. The Internal Revenue Bulletin also includes new tax laws, committee reports, procedural rules, new tax treaties, treasury decisions (which become regulations) and other notices. The Internal Revenue Bulletin is available from the IRS and may be available in your local library.
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