Advising business clients, particularly startups, requires a general understanding of the tax costs, tax benefits, and filing requirements regarding entity choice (what tax entity the business will be), compensation (either of owners, employees, or independent contractors), and operations (e.g. selling merchandise or purchasing real estate).The purpose of this guide is to provide a roadmap for researching these areas for clinic students who do not conduct tax research regularly. This guide will provide advanced, secondary resources for researching federal and Illinois tax law. Please note that the guide will focus on resources for tax planning as opposed to representing clients in tax controversies before the Internal Revenue Service. However, the secondary sources provided will give you information about tax practice and procedure.
When you start your research it is important to start with a broader source that will provide an overview of the topic. The most useful sources will provide references to the underlying authoritative Internal Revenue Code Sections, Treasury Regulations, and case law.
These resources are a good place to start for students who have no idea about the tax concerns of small businesses. While these sources are a good place to start, follow up this research with other sources.