Working With RIA- Chapter 1
èRecall you
were assigned RP 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8. Of
course, if you want, you can do RP 4
as extra credit and experience!
Let’s
look at the research problem assignments together!
These
problems are designed to give you a taste of the fact that “authority” is not
necessarily cast in stone, that it too can change and waiver in the wind.
Others, however, seem to stay firm and fast no matter what.
Also,
the problems are designed to allow you to “pull out” of the vast code,
authorities, and various data bases information useful to your particular
situation. You may be fortunate and find things that are exactly “on point” or
more commonly, only things that are only vaguely similar. So it goes in the
world of tax! Thus begins the task of
learning how to do all of this!
èIMPORTANT BEFORE YOU BEGIN!!! Recall
you need a password or use the password provided in your book. The initial login sequence through a SHSU
computer is shown on the main Acc 484 web page. Don’t be afraid to “play” with the tax service as
you are using it, particularly with the hypertext connectors/links everywhere!
Your text’s login should work for these problems. But, if not, do what I have already described
and get the full power of the RIA program.
READ THE
CHAPTER DEALING WITH RESEARCH FIRST AND THEN AND
ONLY THEN TRY THESE EXERCISES.
ALSO, READ FIRST MY CITATION PAGE THAT
IS LINKED HERETO.
A LITTLE EXTRA WORK NOW WILL PAY HUGE
DIVIDENDS LATER!!!
Ok,
down to work… notice I might do these out of order for a reason……
Problem one is just saying “Locate the …cited items and give a
brief description…”
What
this question is asking is for you to find the “source” document and tell us what it is, or in these
problems, we want to look up the Code, a Regulation, a ruling, or a Field
Service Memo. (I already gave away the problem.)
Ok,
how do we find it on RIA. After you have logged in, go to the research tab, click it, and then you will see a listing
(on the far left) of “Find by citation”.
Thus, you have to know what type of document you are looking for (i.e, a
code, reg, etc.). Or, do it your way.
After all, it is a learning trip for you, not me.
Say
it was § 59A(a) - we click on Code, and insert 59A(a) into the “current code”
box.. After a moment or two, up comes “Environmental Tax- Imposition of Tax”. Congrats!
Click on the ftc box on the
displayed page, and what do you see?
Play with it a bit, particularly the tabs that show in the left. Cool!
Not
bad, eh? You do the same thing dependant
on what type of reference you are looking for in the problem.
Problem two is asking “for the validity of the following
items”. This is basically asking whether
as to the item noted whether or not this is still good
(i.e., valid and not superceded or overturned) law. Recall the law changes, which means what you are
looking at, particularly the older it is, might be amended or totally
worthless. Notice that item c should
read Rev. Proc. 99-27, 1999-1
C.B. 1186.
Click
“search”
at the top of the page, and this will take us back to our search mode. It
really isn’t good to use on your browser “go back” on this system, but you can.
Now,
we use the Citator-
if you recall from your reading, this Citator gives us the current status of
the case/ruling/whatever. It is
basically the life and times of that particular item through the good times and
the bad, who used it (i.e., did other cases refer to it, etc.) and the like.
Let’s
do Walter F. O’Brien. First, notice I italicized the name. You do the same. Notice
the fact it is a tax court case, 38 TC
707 means Volume 38 of the Tax Court reporter series and found on Page
707.
We
go to the Citator, and notice the page has several “bubbles” as options
(notice, you go down the page for Ruling and procs), and you bubble the example
103 T.C. 605. This doesn’t mean you are
looking for that item (103 TC 605), rather you are looking for a citation that appears like that example (or one of the
various other bubble examples.)
You
go to the bottom of that section and put 38 in the first
box (the T.C. is deemed inserted since you bubbled the 103 TC 605- it merely
notes (format selected)) and 707
in the second box.
NOTICE YOU DO NOT INSERT it as 103 605 or
103 TC 605 in just one of the two box(es).
Assuming
you entered it correctly, that will pull up the case, and now you are on your
own to a degree. Notice how what you
entered in the search is highlighted.
What does affirmed mean?
That is the key to this case’s answer on this question. Read the
text! Play with the hyperlinks and see
what you can get! Amazing!!!!
Ok, we are really feeling heady right now, this ain’t so bad (as long
as RIA keeps coming back to us)- We are now recalling how much work old Klett
is saving us by not forcing us to go down and look this up in the dusty
archives of the library. Plus, we can
click around and find all kinda stuff.
So,
howdoyado problem #3? I suggest you play like it was a problem
#2. But, now you are looking to see what
happened
to these cases. In other words, is it
still valid? Plus, you might have to make a decision on what you are pulling up
when you enter the data, particularly Sargent. You’ll see.
But, you will see that maybe the Sargent case is toast now for the IRS.
So,
you are really hot now! Let’s jump ahead
to Problem 7 and 8 for now, and come back to 5 and 6 later.
Problem 7 is fill in blank time.
So,
how do we do it?
I
would go back to search.
Basically,
look at the type of publication you are looking for. I’ll do one with you. The
first one is an incomplete reference of a Rev. Ruling to the Cumulative
Bulletin page number. What does Cumulative
Bulletin mean? READ THE BOOK!
I would click on the Find by Citation,
Rulings, and then enter in the ruling
Research problem 8: Hee hee!
Gotcha! You do this. There are several ways to do this one, which
is simply asking you to pull up the case and glean information from it. No
biggie here now after doing the above.
See how “simple” it is getting? A
few moments ago you were in terror, now you are actually getting confident!
Now,
lets go back to 5 and 6, which are
the essay answers. First you need to basically do the following:
find and download the research aids that are provided for you via the expertise
you have recently acquired.
èBut, maybe you don’t stop there! Remember, those might just be starting points, maybe
not. Recall, this is an education of how
to do research.
You
might want to keep clicking on the references and/or check their validity or
where they are referenced in *later* cases!!! Just a thought.
Once
you have the basic information, start doing the actual writing in the style
shown on the other web pages (linked
here) and discussed in class, which is basically identifying the issue(s),
locating the law, assessing the validity of the law, coming to a conclusion,
and communicating same to the reader. As
I said before, this is sometimes the hardest thing to do. Understand the example given was a huge
problem, I am only suggesting you follow the format, obviously your answers
will not be as detailed, lengthy or technical as this example was. But, over
time, you will notice your papers looking more like the example!
See?
It’s not as bad as you think. Good luck! Send an email or drop by with any questions.