Treasury Regulations are the tax regulations issued by the United States
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory t ...
(IRS), a bureau of the
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...
. These regulations are the Treasury Department's official interpretations of the
Internal Revenue Code
The Internal Revenue Code (IRC), formally the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, is the domestic portion of federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 2 ...
and are one source of U.S. federal
income tax
An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Ta ...
law.
Authority and citations
Section 7805 of the
Internal Revenue Code
The Internal Revenue Code (IRC), formally the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, is the domestic portion of federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 2 ...
gives the
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
the power to create the necessary rules and regulations for enforcing the Internal Revenue Code.
These regulations, including but not limited to the "Income Tax Regulations," are located in Title 26 of the
Code of Federal Regulations
In the law of the United States, the ''Code of Federal Regulations'' (''CFR'') is the codification of the general and permanent regulations promulgated by the executive departments and agencies of the federal government of the United States. ...
, or "C.F.R." Each regulation is generally organized to correspond to the Internal Revenue Code section interpreted by that regulation. Citations to the Treasury Regulations may appear in different formats. For instance, the definition of gross income in the regulations may be cited to as "26 C.F.R. 1.61-1" or as "Treas. Reg. 1.61-1." Both citations refer to the same regulation, which interprets Internal Revenue Code section 61, "Gross income defined."
John Zachman
John A. Zachman (born December 16, 1934) is an American business and IT consultant,Elizabeth N. Fong and Alan H. Goldfine (1989) ''Information Management Directions: The Integration Challenge''. National Institute of Standards and Technology (N ...
(1982) ''Business Systems Planning and Business Information Control Study: A comparison'' in IBM Systems Journal 21(1). p32.[Svyatoslav Kotusev (2016). ''The History of Enterprise Architecture: An Evidence-Based Review''. In: Journal of Enterprise Architecture, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 29-37.]
Final and Interpretive Regulations
Under this authority, the Secretary of the Treasury can promulgate final regulations. In the process of enacting final regulations, the Treasury issues proposed or temporary regulations. Proposed regulations do not become effective until after comments and testimony are received ("notice and comment"), and a final regulation is issued. Proposed Regulations may offer guidance for a specific section of the Code, and are useful in determining a taxpayer's liability for the given year, although they have limited precedent value.
[Samuel A. Donaldson, ''Federal Income Taxation of Individuals: Cases, Problems and Materials'', 3 (2nd Ed. 2007)] Interpretive Regulations may be dismissed if they are determined to be at variance with the statute; it is not unknown, however, for courts to accord interpretive regulations with "force of law" status. In 2011, the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...
decision in ''
Mayo Foundation v. United States'' effected a shift away from the distinction between "Interpretive Regulations," under 7805 and regulations specifically authorized by their corresponding Internal Revenue Code sections. Courts now evaluate Treasury Regulations based on the standard laid out in the 1984 decision ''
Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
''Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.'', 467 U.S. 837 (1984), was a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court set forth the legal test for determining whether to grant deference to a government agency's inte ...
''.
Temporary regulations are effective upon publication in the
Federal Register
The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every weekday, except on fede ...
and may be valid for no more than three years from their date of issuance.
[ Because the notice and comment process can take several months or even years, if the Treasury wants a regulation to become effective more quickly, it will often issue a proposed regulation simultaneously as a temporary regulation.
]
Publication
Proposed Treasury Regulations are drafted by the Internal Revenue Service and published in the Federal Register
The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every weekday, except on fede ...
. Proposed Treasury Regulations are published so that taxpayers may submit written comments or speak at hearings before final regulations are published.[ After the notice and comment period, the Final Treasury Regulations are then published first in the Federal Register before final publication in the ]Code of Federal Regulations
In the law of the United States, the ''Code of Federal Regulations'' (''CFR'') is the codification of the general and permanent regulations promulgated by the executive departments and agencies of the federal government of the United States. ...
.[ Temporary regulations are effective immediately upon publication in the Federal Register.][ Temporary and final regulations are initially published as Treasury Decisions ("TD"). TD's include an explanatory preamble, which can be a helpful source for ]legal research Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. In its broadest sense, legal research includes each step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a prob ...
.[ In addition, the IRS publishes TDs in the ]Internal Revenue Bulletin
The ''Internal Revenue Bulletin'' (also known as the ''IRB''), is a weekly publication of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service that announces "official rulings and procedures of the Internal Revenue Service and for publishing Treasury Decisions, Execu ...
.[{{cite web, title=Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2012-23, url=https://www.irs.gov/irb/2012-23_IRB/ar08.html, publisher=Internal Revenue Service, accessdate=7 June 2012, date=4 June 2012]
Parts
Title 26 has the following parts:
Part 1—Income Taxes
Part 2—Maritime Construction Fund
Part 3—Capital Construction Fund
Part 4—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under Section 954 of the Internal Revenue Code
Part 5—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under the Revenue Act of 1978
Part 5c—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981
Part 5e—Temporary Income Tax Regulations, Travel Expenses of Members of Congress
Part 5f—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982
Part 6a—Temporary Regulations under Title II of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1980
Part 7—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under the Tax Reform Act of 1976
Part 8—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under Section 3 of the Act of October 26, 1974
Part 9—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under the Tax Reduction Act of 1975
Part 11—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
Part 12—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under the Revenue Act of 1971
Part 13—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under the Tax Reform Act of 1969
Part 15—Temporary Income Tax Regulations Relating to Exploration Expenditures in the Case of Mining
Part 15a—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under the Installment Sales Revision Act
Part 16—Temporary Regulations under the Revenue Act of 1962
Part 16A—Temporary Income Tax Regulations Relating to the Partial Exclusion for Certain Conservation Cost-Sharing Payments
Part 18—Temporary Income Tax Regulations under the Subchapter S Revision Act of 1962
Part 19—Temporary Regulations under the Revenue Act of 1964
Part 20—Estate Tax; Estates of Decedents Dying after August 16, 1954
Part 22—Temporary Estate Tax Regulations under the Economic Recovery Act of 1981
Part 25—Gift Tax; Gifts Made after December 31, 1954
Part 26—Generation-Skipping Transfer Regulations under the Tax Reform Act of 1986
Part 31—Employment Taxes and Collection of Income Tax at Source
Part 32—Temporary Employment Tax Regulations under the Act of December 29, 1981
Part 35—Employment Tax and Collection of Income Tax at Source Regulations under the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982
Part 35a—Temporary Employment Tax Regulations under the Interest and Dividend Tax Compliance Act of 1983
Part 36—Contract Coverage of Employees of Foreign Subsidiaries
Part 40—Excise Tax Procedural Regulations
Part 41—Excise Tax on Use of Certain Highway Motor Vehicles
Part 43—Excise Tax on Transportation by Water
Part 44—Taxes on Wagering; Effective January 1, 1955
Part 46—Excise Tax on Certain Insurance Policies, Self-Insured Health Plans, and Obligations Not in Registered Form
Part 48—Manufacturers and Retailers Excise Taxes
Part 49—Facilities and Services Excise Taxes
Part 50—Regulations Relating to the Tax Imposed with Respect to Certain Hydraulic Mining
Part 51—Branded Prescription Drug Fee
Part 52—Environmental Taxes
Part 53—Foundation and Similar Excise Taxes
Part 54—Pension Excise Taxes
Part 55—Excise Tax on Real Estate Investment Trusts and Regulated Investment Companies
Part 56—Public Charity Excise Taxes
Part 57—Health Insurance Providers Fee
Part 141—Temporary Excise Tax Regulations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
Part 143—Temporary Excise Tax Regulations under the Tax Reform Act of 1969
Part 145—Temporary Excise Tax Regulations under the Highway Revenue Act of 1982 (Pub. L. 97—424)
Part 148—Certain Excise Tax Matters under the Excise Tax Technical Changes Act of 1958
Part 156—Excise Tax on Greenmail
Part 157—Excise Tax on Structured Settlement Factoring Transactions
Part 300—User Fees
Part 301—Procedure and Administration
Part 302—Taxes under the International Claims Settlement Act, as Amended August 9, 1955
Part 303—Taxes under the Trading with the Enemy Act
Part 305—Temporary Procedural and Administrative Tax Regulations under the Indian Tribal Governmental Tax Status Act of 1982
Part 400—Temporary Regulations under the Federal Tax Lien Act of 1966
Part 403—Disposition of Seized Personal Property
Part 404—Temporary Regulations on Procedure and Administration under the Tax Reform Act of 1976
Part 420—Temporary Regulations on Procedure and Administration under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
Part 509—Switzerland
Part 513—Ireland
Part 514—France
Part 521—Denmark
Part 601—Statement on Procedural Rules
Part 602—OMB Control Numbers under the Paperwork Reduction Act
Part 701—Presidential Election Campaign Fund
Part 702—Presidential Primary Matching Payment Account
Part 801—Balanced System for Measuring Organizational and Employee Performance within the Internal Revenue Service
References
External links
Code of Federal Regulations, Title 26, Treasury Regulations
(current "Electronic CFR")
Taxation in the United States
Code of Federal Regulations
Internal Revenue Service