Customize westlaw.com. Explore KPMG Tax Interface in westlaw.com®. Tax Research on Westlaw® Basic Federal Applications and Searches 60 Minutes The KPMG Tax interface provides you with quick and easy access to tax content on Westlaw. The left frame provides you with shortcuts for locating documents (when you know their citation or title), databases, and services. The right frame provides you with more dynamic search capabilities as well as your result once you have initiated a find or a search. To use the KPMG Tax page, complete the following steps: 1. Click My Westlaw at the top of the page. 2. Select the check box for KPMG Tax in the Topical section and click Next. 3. Click the circle next to KPMG TAX to select as your default page, then click Save. The KPMG Tax interface is customizable! You customize the KPMG Tax page by adding the content and services you use most often and by removing the features or databases you use infrequently. Click Edit in the Shortcuts section to display the options available for the left frame. Click Edit in the Search for section to display the search tools available for this section. Click Edit in the In the following database(s) section to display the available database options. Search Scenario A few questions regarding S-Corporations have been presented, and you need to conduct some additional research regarding the following issues: • When can an S-Corporation deduct bad debts? • How do S-Corporations compare to limited liability companies? • Are foreign taxes passed through to shareholders of an S-Corporation? • What are the employer and employee pension and profit-sharing plan contribution limitations? Page 1 of 16 4/2002 Perform tax research. Application Quickly retrieve a federal statutory provision with a known citation (Find a document by citation). Statutes on Westlaw Research note: United States statutory provisions are enacted via legislation introduced and passed by Congress. As legislation is introduced it will carry a Senate or House bill number, which may be cited as S.B., Senate Bill, H.B. or House Bill. Upon passage by Congress and the signing of the President the legislation will acquire a public law number, which may be cited as P.L. or Pub. Law. These public laws are codified to the United States Code, which may be cited by USC or USCA (West’s annotated version of the USC). Tax provisions are typically codified to Title 26 of the USC, which is also called the Internal Revenue Code, which may be cited by IRC. We will refer to these provisions using USC, USCA, and IRC interchangeably. Page 2 of 16 Access this database or service Click Find a Federal Tax Document in the left frame and locate the IRC text box in the right frame. Type 166 in the IRC text box and click Go. Features and highlights You can quickly retrieve documents (statutes, regulations, cases and administrative materials) with a known citation using the Find service. Use the Find templates available to assist you with the proper format to retrieve the document. Review the format of the retrieved document. The standard annotated federal statutory document in Westlaw includes the substantive provision of the statutory section as well as additional information to facilitate your legal research. The document begins with the citation to the section, followed by the title and text of the provision. West enhances the document by providing information and analysis including statutory credits, historical and statutory notes, revision notes, legislative reports, amendments and other information that may be significant to its construction and application. Research and practice aids provide cross-references and library references that lead you to relevant Key Numbers as well as treatises, law reviews, and administrative code provisions. Case annotations provide abstracts of court opinions that interpret and clarify the meaning of the legislation. With Enhanced readability, the statute layout now matches the formatting and readability of statutes in print, using printequivalent indent patterns, spacing, italics and bolding The indenting of subsection, in particular, now makes it easier to understand the relationships between those subsections! The Preliminary field information cascades 4/2002 Determine the status of IRC § 166, which was retrieved with the previous search. Has it been amended or is there pending legislation that may impact this provision? We see a yellow flag in at the top if the Links Tab indicating Pending Legislation. Click the History link to see the statutes status in the left frame. inward for easier understanding of the context of the code section within the organization of the code. Westlaw StatutesPlus has a centrally located, visually distinct KeyCite area (in white box at the top of the Links tab) so you can key in on the statute’s status, history, and citing references immediately. KeyCite is now front and center! New explanations for the KeyCite status flags in the white box provide short descriptions of each symbol, letting users know at a glance what KeyCite is telling them – this is particularly helpful for the more occasional user. The red flag indicates that the statute section has been amended or repealed by a public or session law. The red flag will remain until the legislation has been codified to the section. A yellow flag indicates that there is pending legislation that may affect the statute section (currently available on USCA and for all 50 state statutes) or that a section has been re-codified or renumbered (USCA and all states). Review of the additional content in the Links Tab in the left frame After you find and verify a statute, hone in on all the additional resources provided in the clean, streamlined two-tab display tailored specifically for the statute retrieved. The Links tab gathers - in one spot - quick links to all resources needed for browsing, verifying and expanding research on the statute, saving valuable time and effort and, perhaps most importantly, ensuring thorough research by providing links to documents you may have otherwise missed. Now everything you need to verify Page 3 of 16 4/2002 and interpret your statute comes to you, instead of you having to go searching for it. The links on the tab are dynamic – they won’t appear unless documents of that type applicable to your statute are available on WL. If you select any of the links displayed on the Links tab, the target will display in the right pane. Click on Table of Contents in the Full-Text Document portion of the Links tab for IRC 166. The Full-Text Document portion of the Links tab will provide us with tools to help us navigate the statute and understand its context Access to the Table of Contents here allows the researcher to browse in a glance the section headings of neighboring (and potentially relevant) code sections within a chapter or subchapter, just as you would do in print. What’s new is that the Table of Contents, when selected, now populates the larger right pane for much easier reading!. Notice that the blue arrow indicates what is displayed in the right pane and will move as you select different links in the Link tab. Click on Versions link allows you to carry your search into an historical statutory database to view earlier versions of this code section. Click on the Section Outline link to navigate the subsections of a statute with ease. Page 4 of 16 Simply click on the highlighted link to the code from the relevant year for a Search Center, allowing you to run a search in the selected historical statute database. If you have run a search to arrive at your main statute, your search will be preserved to run in the historical database Not only can you link to a subsection by its number, but you can also identify the content in each subsection by its caption. The Section Outline also allows you to link to other parts of the statutory document in addition to its text, such as the Credits, 4/2002 Click on Notes of Decision in the Cases portion of the Links tab. Let’s move to the next portion of the Links tab – Analysis – by clicking on its first category, Law Reviews. One source is KeyCite, which electronically identifies law review articles, ALRs or treatises that directly cite the code section. Now let’s move to the next category – Legislative History – by clicking on its first category, Text Amendments. Let’s move to the next category – Statutes – by clicking on CrossReferences. Page 5 of 16 Historical Notes, References, and Notes of Decision The Notes of Decisions link to identify the headnotes from cases that the attorneyeditors have identified as significantly interpreting or applying your statute. Also note the link to Additional Citing Cases. Only Westlaw allows researchers to access additional citing cases straight from an integrated statute display. The Analysis portion of the Links tab collects law review articles, ALR articles, and treatises and forms relevant to the code section all in one readily accessible spot. Now it is easy for you to find the information you need gain a deeper understanding of your statute. The Treatises and Forms category includes a wide variety of additional secondary sources such as links to the RIA Federal Tax Coordinator, All WG&L Treatises and Journals, Mertens, BNA Daily Reports and Portfolios, checklists, AmJur articles, etc. Text amendments (Credits) provide citations to the act originally enacting this code section and all acts thereafter that amended it. New to the Editor’s Notes is the hypetext linking to the cited congressional committee reports related to the enactment or amendment! Legislative history research on your statute just became easier! Westlaw gathers access to all related statutes in one place (here in the Statutes section of the Link tab), including statutes citing statutes. 4/2002 Next, let’s move to the Administrative category by clicking on Administrative Code. Print IRC § 166. Hover over the up arrow next to Print Doc on the bottom left corner of the right frame. Select Current Document. Select the destination and click Send Request. Page 6 of 16 When you retrieve a document using the Find function, you can print the entire document or the citation list where your Find provided more than 1 document. You can send your print request to a number of destinations, including forwarding your document to an e-mail address. Note, under the range, current document you now have the option to print the KeyCite results (history and citing references) at the same time. Also, you can print just the statutory text by selecting Statutory Text under content. Often your statutory research will begin with an idea or issue without the benefit of a specific statutory citation. Researching under these circumstances you have the option to select a database that includes the statutory code that you need to review. Descriptive word searching using a Terms and Connectors or Natural Language query allows you the ability to locate the provisions within the statutory code relevant to your idea or issue. Searching statutory databases when you don’t have a citation to a specific provision. Search the United States Code for provisions that address the deductibility of worthless debts. Retrieve administrative code sections related to the statute you’re viewing! The Administrative portion of the Links tab may also include linked citations to Federal Register provisions citing your code section, in a separate category after the Administrative Code category. Also you can quickly identify all other Agency Opinions and Administrative Decisions that that have cited to our statute. From the KPMG Tax tab, in the right frame under Federal Tax Primary Sources click the blue link In the Headings/Titles box type bad or worthless /s debt. Click Go. The Internal Revenue Code database searches tax statutes and annotations from the United States Code. Searching the annotations included with the statutory 4/2002 provisions allows you to locate relevant statutory provisions that did not include your search terms within the substantive document portion of the section. to search the Internal Revenue Code. Click on the Table of Contents link on the left side of the screen. From the TOC, Click the blue hyperlink to 167. Retrieve Internal Revenue Code provisions that discuss when foreign taxes are passed through to shareholders of an SCorporation From the KPMG Tax tab, click the blue title Internal Revenue Code on the right side of the frame. (Using a Natural Language query type) When are foreign taxes passed through to shareholders of an SCorporation in the Terms text box. The Table of Contents feature, an enhancement of the earlier Westlaw Documents in Sequence capability, provides a table of contents view of the statutory provision, allowing you to see the provision in its sequential order in the state statutory code. Viewing the document in sequence allows you to quickly review the titles of the provisions that proceed and follow your document. The Internal Revenue Code (FTX-USCA) database contains documents from the United States Code Annotated that relate to federal taxation including the Internal Revenue Code (Title 26), federal court rules applicable to proceedings under Title 26, and provisions from any other title of the USC that pertain to the practice of federal taxation. Note that your results display in a fullscreen search result. This layout gives you a better snapshot of your search result. As you see, it displays the words before and after your search terms for each document, so you can determine a document’s relevance at a glance. Also, ResultsPlus is available. ResultsPlus is a Westlaw feature that automatically suggests additional information related to your statute (or case law) search. As when searching cases, your search in statutes will also suggest applicable secondary materials via ResultsPlus. The suggested materials are accessible by a set of links that appears to the right of your search results. Page 7 of 16 4/2002 ResultsPlus creates a total research solution by linking you to all the other on-point resources you need to complete your research. As with statutory provisions, federal regulations may be retrieved by citation through the Find function or by way of a Search in a database. Click Find a Federal Tax Document in the left frame and locate the Treasury Regulations text box in the right frame. 1.166-1 in the Treasury Regulations text box and click Go. Review the format of the retrieved document. The standard federal regulatory document in Westlaw includes the substantive provision of the regulation, citation to statutory authority, with crossreferences to information contained in the Federal Register. Quickly retrieve a federal regulatory provision with a known citation (Find a document by citation). Regulations on Westlaw Click on the Table of Contents link on the left side of the screen. Research note: United States regulatory provisions are created by federal agencies under authority granted to them by Congress. These provisions are collected and published in the Code of Federal Regulations. Regulations created by the Internal Revenue Service are collected at Title 26 of the Code of Federal Regulations and may be referred to as Treasury Regulations, which includes Final IRS Regulations and Temporary IRS Regulations. From the TOC, Click the blue hyperlink to 1.166-2. Click the History linnk in the left frame Page 8 of 16 You can quickly retrieve federal regulation documents with a known citation using the Find service. Use the Find templates to assist you with the proper format to retrieve the document. The KeyCite result is displayed. The TOC feature, an enhancement of the earlier Westlaw Documents in Sequence capability, provides a table of contents view of the regulatory provision, allowing you to see the provision in its sequential order in the Code of Federal Regulations. KeyCite® for regulations will alert you to activity that affects your regulation and is available for federal regulations. 4/2002 Information included under the History link includes cross-references to the Federal Register that documents the creation of the regulation. Click the Green C or Citing References link in the left frame. The KeyCite result is displayed. Under the Citing References link on the left side of your screen you will find a listing of cases, administrative, and secondary materials that cite to the regulation. Reference to citing cases, administrative and secondary materials are added to KeyCite as soon as they are added to Westlaw Searching regulatory databases when you don’t have a citation to a specific provision. From the KPMG Tax tab, place a check mark in the box to the left of Final & Temporary Regulations. (Using a Terms and Connectors query type) “worthless debt” /s deduct! Click Go. The Final & Temporary Regulations searches United States tax regulations. Search United States Treasury Regulations for rules governing the deductibility of worthless debts. From the KPMG Tax tab, place a check mark in the box to the left of Proposed Regulations & Preambles (Treasury Decisions). (Using a Terms and Connectors query type) Click the down arrow to the right of recent searches and click “worthless debt” /s deduct! Click Go. Westlaw provides coverage for proposed Federal regulations. Review proposed United States Regulations for proposed rules governing the deductibility of worthless debts. From the KPMG Tax tab, click the Scope information link (green i) next to Proposed Regulations & Preambles (Treasury Decisions). Click Contents and Searching and Fields in the left frame. Scope provides a detailed description of a database or service. It may also include search tips, copyright information, and references to related databases and services. As with statutory and regulatory provisions, federal cases may be retrieved by citation through the Find function. Click Find a Federal Tax Document in the left frame and locate the SCT text box. 83 S. CT. 1168 in the SCT text box and click GO. You can quickly retrieve cases with a known citation using the Find service. Use the Find templates available to assist you with the proper format to retrieve the document. Page 9 of 16 4/2002 Quickly retrieve a Federal case with a title of party name(s) (Find a document by title). Click Find by Title in the left frame. Whipple and Commissioner of Internal Revenue in the party name blocks in the search template, select U.S. Supreme Court, click GO. You can quickly retrieve cases with known parties using this Find feature. Use the template to assist you in with the format to retrieve the document. Retrieve cases regarding the determination of the sales factor when the throwback rule applies. From the KPMGtab, place a check mark in the box to the left of Combined Federal Tax Cases. (Using a Terms and Connectors query type) "worthless debt" /s deduct! /p "subchapter s" The Combined Federal Tax Cases database allows you to search tax cases from all Federal courts. Review the format of the retrieved document. The standard case document in Westlaw includes the substantive case decision as well as additional information to facilitate your legal research. The document begins with the citation to the decision followed by a listing of the court that issued the decision, the parties to the case, and docket information. West enhances the document by providing the Synopsis, Topic and Key Numbers, and Headnotes. These West provided enhancements are written exclusively by West attorney editors and available only through Westlaw and West Cases. These enhancements provide a description of the decision and the issues involved and provide ready access to cases involving similar issues and conclusions. Cases on Westlaw Determine the status of Clemens v. C. I. R. 453 F2d 869, which was retrieved with the previous search. Has it been reversed or overruled? Has any case cited to it? Click the Blue H or the History link in the left frame KeyCite for cases provides you with the tools to determine whether the case is still good law and the ability to retrieve citing references. KeyCite covers every case in West’s National Reporter System. The KC History tab provides the direct Page 10 of 16 4/2002 history of the case and includes both prior and subsequent history. Any negative indirect history will be listed under this tab and includes cases outside the direct appellate line that may have a negative impact on the precedential value of your case. Click the Citing References link in the left frame The Citing References link allows you to view a list of all cases on Westlaw (including unpublished opinions), administrative materials, and secondary sources that cite to your case. The first portion of the citations lists all negative citing cases (also listed under the History link), followed by a list of other cases, administrative materials and secondary sources citing your case. KeyCite uses symbols to enhance the service. A red flag warns that a case is no longer good law for at least one of the points it contains. A yellow flag warns that the case has some negative history but hasn’t been reversed or overruled. A blue H indicates that the case has some history. A green c indicates that the case has citing references but no negative indirect history. KeyCite categorizes citing cases by the depth of treatment they give your case; citing cases that discuss your case in depth are listed under the Citing References link before cases that only mention your case. The depth of treatment is symbolized through the use of stars with one star applied to cases that provide a brief reference to the cited case through four stars that are applied to a case that contains an extended discussion of the case, usually more than a printed page. Page 11 of 16 4/2002 Disagreements between the IRS and taxpayers may result in disputes that are decided in a formal court setting. Procedurally, there are alternatives available to taxpayers that may cause the dispute to be heard in a Tax Court, Federal District Court, or the Court of Claims with rights of appeal through to the United States Supreme Court. Westlaw provides coverage for the tax decisions of these courts, which you may access from your KPMG Tax tab. Retrieve Revenue Ruling 93.36, which addresses the bad debt deduction for SCorporations. Click Find a Federal Tax Document in the left frame and scroll down the right frame to the Revenue Ruling text box. 93-36 in the Revenue Ruling text box. Click Go. You can quickly retrieve documents with a known citation using the Find service. Customized templates help you format your Find requests correctly. Note: That you have an alternative point of entry from the left side of your KPMG Tax SALT tab from which you can perform a Find to a tax document with a known citation. Determine the status of Revenue Ruling 93-36, which was retrieved with the previous search. Click the Yellow Flag or the History link in the left frame Click the Citing References link in the left Page 12 of 16 KeyCite® is currently available for revenue rulings and revenue procedures. The History link provides the direct history of the item and includes both prior and subsequent history. Any negative indirect 4/2002 frame history will be listed under this tab and includes items outside the direct appellate line that may have a negative impact on the precedential value of the item. The Citing References link allows you to view a list of all cases on Westlaw (including unpublished opinions), administrative materials, and secondary sources that cite to the item. When you retrieve a document using a search, you can print the entire document or the citation list where your search provided more than 1 document. You can send your print request to a number of destinations, including forwarding your document to an e-mail address. Continually monitor federal tax cases that discuss the deductibility of worthless debts by Subchapter S corporations. From the KPMGtab, Click Research Trail and scroll down to the search that you ran in the FTX-CS database. Click the blue query. Hover over the Results Options and click Add Search to WestClip. Enter a Name of Clip, select Email as your destination, provide an E-mail address and designate the file and delivery format via the properties function and click Save. Click Additional Options and select Frequency: Weekly Document Format: List of All Citations, click Save. From the last screen click Run. WestClip® allows you to easily and quickly monitor the most current developments in the legal, political and business fields. WestClip is a powerful tool with which you can track new legislation, regulations and standards; stay on top of a particular issue; and monitor settlements and verdicts relating to your practice area, and more. So far our review of the KPMG Tax tab has focused on the Federal Tax Primary Sources. These materials include substantive federal tax documents including statutes, cases, and regulations. West adds editorial enhancements and KeyCite capabilities to the Page 13 of 16 4/2002 documents to facilitate your research. In addition to these enhanced primary materials the KPMG Tax tab provides ready access to RIA, WG&L, PLI, and tax focused law review materials to further enhance your research capability. These materials created by leading tax experts provide critical secondary source resources to assist you in your understanding of tax issues. In many cases they will serve to provide an initial understanding of the concepts presented by a tax issue. In others they will serve to provide reference to primary materials that provide the rule of law on a tax issue. Utilizing the capability of the RIA tax library, determine the limitations on employer and employee contributions to defined pension and profitsharing plans. Retrieve explanations, Page 14 of 16 From the KPMG Tax tab, Click Table of Contents on the tool bar on the right side of the screen. Click the (+) sign next to RIA on the left side of the screen: Tax Materials on the left side of the screen. Double click RIA Federal Tax Coordinator 2d. Click the plus symbol next to Chapter H-5001 Pension and Profit– Sharing Plans Part I, click the plus symbol next to H-6000 Limitations Upon Annual Contributions to Defined Contribution Plan Accounts. Click H-6000 Limitations Upon Annual Contributions to Defined Contribution Plan Accounts to review the text. The RIA-Federal Tax Coordinator 2d database contains full-text coverage of the RIA’s Federal Tax Coordinator. The FTC provides topical analysis of federal tax issues. The authoritative analysis of federal tax laws is supported by citations to official authorities, such as the IRC and the tax court, and citations to unofficial authorities, such as technical advice memoranda and private letter rulings. Each RIA numbered paragraph addresses one tax issue, concisely written in business English. From the KPMG Tax tab, click the blue link to RIA Type 166 under the related to IRC section box. Check The RIA-United States Tax Reporter database contains full text coverage of the 4/2002 regulations and annotations concerning IRC § 166. Retrieve articles from the Warren Gorham & Lamont federal tax treatises discussing whether an scorporation can treat nonbusiness bad debts as ordinary losses. Access the database containing the Warren Gorham & Lamont treatise Bishop & Kleinberger: Limited Liability Companies Page 15 of 16 United States Tax Reporter. the boxes for annotations, regulations and explanations. Click Go. From the KPMG Tax tab, select Natural Language, then put a check mark in the box to the left of WG&L Combined Tax Treatises. (Using a natural language query) can an scorporation treat a nonbusiness bad debt as an ordinary loss Note: that when you search using West in Natural Language (WIN) you are provided with the option to use the Best feature, which will take you to that specific portion of the document that the search believes best meets your natural language query. From the KPMG Tax tab, type Bishop & Kleinberger in the box Search these databases on the left side of the screen Click Go. Place a check mark in the box to the left of Bishop & Kleinberger: (Using a terms and connectors query) limited liability Click OK. USTR’s annotations, explanations, and versions of U.S. committee reports, as well as federal tax regulations and the Internal Revenue Code. RIA’s highly experienced staff of exerts ensures you have consistent high quality analysis and commentary. The explanations are clearly written and contain citations to authorities; the commentary is in the form of Observations, Tax Tips Recommendations, Cautions, and Examples. They provide professional insights above and beyond the explanation of the law. The annotations are arranged by tax issue, not alphabetically by subject. The WG&L Combined Federal Taxation Treatises database is a combination database containing more than 20 WG&L treatises that focus on federal taxation. WG&L federal tax treatises provide expert answers to virtually any question about federal taxation. With Westlaw.com, you don’t need to memorize or look up database identifiers ever again! The Smart Database feature allows you to access a database by typing all or part of a database name or identifier, or a description of the database, in the Search these databases text box. A list of up to 20 databases that most closely match 4/2002 Limited Liability Companies that appears on the right side of the screen. Click OK. Using the database containing the Warren Gorham & Lamont treatise Bishop & Kleinberger: Limited Liability Companies, retrieve articles comparing Limited Liability Companies and SCorporations. Search tax related law review articles for discussion of the issue addressed in the proceeding example. Browse the most recent issue of the Federal Taxes Weekly Alert. Then monitor the news for references to capital gain treatment and the deemedsale election. Page 16 of 16 On the left side of the screen click the Edit Search command. From the KPMG Tax tab, type place a check mark in the box to the left of Taxrelated Law Reviews From the KPMG Tax tab, click on the title RIA Federal Taxes Weekly Alert the concepts in your description is displayed. Another feature that assists you in finding a database is the Database Wizard. Just follow the on-screen prompts to access a database. (Using a terms and connectors query) l.l.c. “limited liability company” /p compar! /p s-corp! Click Go. The Bishop & Kleinberger: Limited Liability Companies database contains the full text of Limited Liability Companies: Tax and Business Law, a treatise by Carter G. Bishop and Daniel S. Kleinberger that provides a comprehensive analysis of the tax rules for limited liability companies (LLCs) and limited liability partnerships (LLPs), including issues involved in forming, operating, transferring, and dissolving these business entities. (Using a terms and connectors query) s-corp! /p terminat! /s trust Click Go. The Tax-related Law Reviews contains tax related articles from law reviews, texts, legal encyclopedias, and other practice oriented periodicals. Drawing from a breadth of sources, this database may serve as a starting point for your legal research or as a valuable source of supporting secondary materials. (Using a terms and connectors query) “capital gain”/p deemed-sale Click Go. The RIA-Federal Taxes Weekly Alert database contains current legislative and administrative news regarding federal taxation issues. The “In Brief” portion of the Weekly Alert has developments arranged by code section. 4/2002