Federal Tax Law Research: Updating and Validating Tax Cases

Updating and Validating Tax Cases

To ensure that a tax case is still valid and remains authoritative, and to find cases that cite a tax case, use Shepard’s on Lexis or KeyCite on Westlaw. Click here for more information on using Shepard's and KeyCite. You can also use the "Check Citator" feature on CCH Tax Research NetWork or the "Citator 2nd" feature under Find by Citation within RIA Checkpoint.

Although we recommend using online sources such as Shepard's or KeyCite for updating, there are also several print citators available for tax cases. Shepard’s produces the Federal Tax Citator and several looseleaf publishers produce citators as well:

Shepard’s Federal Tax Citator KF 6280.5.S46
You can find citing references to federal tax cases as well as the following documents: Treasury Decisions, many IRS documents, the Internal Revenue Code, and the Code of Federal Regulations. It also provides parallel cites to the USTC and the AFTR.
Federal Taxes Citator by RIA KF 6282.5.P7
Cases are listed alphabetically by the taxpayer’s last name and not arranged by citation.
The Federal Taxes Citator provides treatment codes, as well as the syllabus numbers of the cited case. The citing cases are arranged by the syllabus numbers of the cited case, then by rank of citing court, and then in chronological order. It indicates acquiescence or non-acquiescence by the IRS and includes IRS pronouncements as citing material.
Citator Volumes of the Standard Federal Tax Reporter KF 6285.C67
These volumes are not very useful because there are no treatment codes. In addition, the citation is to the first page of the case and not to where the citing language appears. Once you have found your case and looked at the list of citing cases, you must also check the current Case Table and the Latest Additions to the Case Table located in volume 19.