1. Rules of tax law do not include Revenue Rulings and Revenue Procedures.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: Rules of tax law do include Treasury Department pronouncements.
2.
A tax professional need not worry about the relative weight of authority within the various tax law sources.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: Quite the contrary.
3.
In recent years, Congress has been relatively successful in simplifying the Internal Revenue
Code.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: Each year the Code becomes more and more complex.
4.
A taxpayer
should always minimize his or her tax liability.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: A taxpayer
should maximize the after-tax return in conjunction with the overall
economic effect.
5.
The first codification
of the tax
law occurred
in 1954.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: The first codification of the tax law occurred
in 1939.
6.
The Code
section citation
is incorrect:
§ 212(1).
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: Some Code sections omit the subsection and use paragraph designation as the first subpart as does § 212.
7.
Subchapter D refers to the “Corporate Distributions and Adjustments” section of the Internal Revenue Code.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: The correct subchapter for “Corporate Distributions
and Adjustments” is Subchapter C.
8. Regulations
are generally issued immediately
after a statute is enacted.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: The reverse is true. Regulations require time to be issued and may never be issued on a particular statutory change in a Code section.
9.
Temporary Regulations are only published in the Internal
Revenue Bulletin.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: They are published in the Federal Register
and the Internal Revenue Bulletin.
10. Revenue
Rulings issued by
the National Office of
the IRS carry the
same legal force and
effect as Regulations.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: They do not contain the same legal force as Regulations. That is, the legal force is less.
Internet
Website.
85. Distinguish between the
jurisdiction of the
U.S. Tax Court
and a U.S. District Court.
ANSWER: The U.S.
Tax Court hears
only tax
cases and is
the most popular
tax forum.
The U.S. District
Court hears
a wide variety of nontax cases, including drug crimes and other Federal violations, as well as tax cases. Some Tax Court justices
have been appointed from IRS or Treasury Department positions. For these reasons,
some people suggest that the U.S. Tax Court has more expertise in tax matters.
86. How
do treaties
fit within tax
sources?
ANSWER: The
U.S signs certain
tax treaties
(sometimes called tax
conventions) with
foreign countries to
render mutual assistance in tax
enforcement and to
avoid double taxation.
Tax legislation enacted in
1988 provided
that neither a tax law nor a tax treaty takes general precedence. Thus, when there is a direct conflict with the Code and a treaty, the most recent item will take precedence. A taxpayer
must disclose on the tax return any position
where a treaty overrides
a tax law. There is a $1,000 penalty per failure to disclose for individuals and a $10,000 per failure penalty for corporations.