The Treasury Department has statutory authority to interpret and administer the Internal Revenue Code and has delegated to the Internal Revenue Service (herein, “IRS”), a division of the Treasury Department, the authority to oversee the implementation of the Internal Revenue Code. There are four key pronouncements promulgated by the IRS and the Treasury Department: regulations, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, and letter rulings.
Regulations are laws made by an executive branch agency under the authority of a statute passed by Congress. Regulations are first published in the Federal Register. The Treasury Department issues three types of administrative regulations: proposed, temporary and final. Temporary regulations are issued to provide guidance to tax payers on new tax provisions. They do not require a comment period and are effective immediately upon publication. Final and temporary regulations are first published as Treasury Decisions, which are recognized by a four digit citation, i.e. T.D. 8860 and a description of the purpose and content of the new regulation. Upon codification, regulations are assigned a prefix corresponding to the type of tax provision as indicated.
1 |
Income Tax |
20 | Estate Tax |
25 | Gift Tax |
26 | Generation Skipping Tax |
31 | Employment Tax |
301 | Procedural Tax |
601 | IRS Procedural Rules |
General Counsel Memoranda are declarations made by the Chief Counsel explaining reasoning used for revenue rulings, private letter rulings and technical advice memoranda. They hold no precedential authority but are guides to understanding the intent behind IRS positions.
To find online from IntelliConnect navigate to Federal Tax->Federal Tax Primary Sources->Letter Rulings & IRS Positions (including TAMs and FSAs)->General Counsel Memorandum