Stanford University judicial Sources Types of Tax Research Discussion
For this week’s discussion, choose 1 of the following topics and post your initial response in the Discussion Board.Identify and discuss at least 3 of the many factors to consider when determining which level of court to file a tax related claim.Identify and discuss the different types of tax research.When performing tax research, a researcher may encounter conflicting authority. What types of conflicts arise and how should the practitioner handle these conflicts? verett, J. O., Hennig, C., & Nichols, N. (2016). Contemporary Tax Practice: Research, Planning and Strategies (4th ed.). CCH Inc.Posted 1Three factors to consider when determining which level of court to file a tax related claim are: stare decisis, money and technical merits.The first factor is stare decisis. Stare decisis is Latin for “to stand by things decided.”" (Owen, 2017). The case at hand is to be decided according to the decisions of similar cases in the past. If the case contains an issue that has not been addressed by the courts, it is advised to go to U.S. District Court or the Federal Court of Claims because they may be more sympathetic to the taxpayer’s situation than the U.S. Tax Court (Everett et al., 2016). The next factor is whether money is involved. If the dollar amount is less than $50,000, Tax Court may be a great option since there is no money paid until the case is heard (Everett et al., 2016). There are no appeal options in the Small Cases Divisions Court once the decision is made; however, the taxpayer has the option of going to regular Tax Court where appeal options are available. Lastly, if the case appears to involve technical merits the U.S. Tax Court is the best choice because it contains judges that are well-versed tax specialists (Everett et al., 2016).Everett, J. O., Hennig, C., & Nichols, N. (2016). Contemporary Tax Practice: Research, Planning and Strategies (4th ed.). CCH Inc.Posted 2 Identify and discuss the different types of tax research?”There are three different types of tax research tax practitioners perform: planning, compliance, and policy.The first type of tax research is done before facts are known and action is taken by a client or the tax professional. Planning research is done in the front in and allows the tax professional to structure transactions of the company to minimize the amount of taxes paid by the company. Planning research in tax practice is done with all types of taxes: Sales, Property, Federal Income, State Income, Excise, and Payroll taxes. The ultimate goal of tax planning is “ to identify the optional set of facts to achieve the client’s desired business and tax outcomes” (Everett, Henning, & Nichols, 2016).The next type of tax research is compliance research. Compliance research is performed after-the-event. The research is generally done during the preparation of tax returns and or during a tax audit. Compliance research is also the most common type of tax research being performed by tax professionals today. Since the facts are certain when completing compliance research, the tax professional’s goal is “to find the optimal solution based on the given facts” (Everett, Henning, & Nichols, 2016).The final type of tax research is policy research. Policy research is done by analyzing the different policy’s and legislation and determining the best approach a company/client to develop a tax position to the policy and or legislation. To be successful in performing policy research, the tax professional must be able to find the answers to the questions using all the tools he or she has and their disposal. The tax professional also must be willing to say, “I don’t know, but I can find out” (Everett, Henning, & Nichols, 2016). I have used all three types of tax research in all the areas of tax I have worked. However, I would agree with the author that the most common is compliance research. The goal within my department is to attempt to get as mush tax research done during the planning phase, since you can be proactive than reactive. I have found this will allow you to save the company/client more tax savings and generally will lead to audits with little to no change in the taxes.