Federal Tax Research: Internal Revenue Bulletin & Cumulative Bulletin

"The Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB) is the authoritative instrument for announcing official rulings and procedures of the IRS and for publishing Treasury Decisions, Executive Orders, Tax Conventions, legislation, court decisions, and other items of general interest." (IRS Website) "The last Bulletin for each month includes a cumulative index for the matters published during the preceding months. These monthly indexes are cumulated on a semiannual basis, and are published in the last Bulletin of each semiannual period.” (Introduction to IRBs)

Until 2008, "[t]he contents of this weekly Bulletin [were] consolidated semiannually into a permanent, indexed, Cumulative Bulletin." (IRS Website)

Types of documents that may be published in the IRB include:

• Actions on Decisions
• Announcements
• Congressional committee reports / Bluebooks
• Delegation orders
• Executive orders
• Notices
• Proposed & final regulations/Treasury decisions
• Public laws
• Revenue rulings
• Revenue procedures
• Select court decisions

"Items published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin are . . . king of the IRS jungle and generally trump other IRS prouncements." (IRS Pronoucements-Overview, 100-3d, Bloomberg BNA)

IRBscontain numerical finding lists towards the back of each issue.

Below are pertinent abbreviations.

• Internal Revenue Bulletin=I.R.B. or IRB

• Cumulative Bulletin=C.B. or CB

Below are links to select sources offering the Internal Revenue Bulletin and/or Cumulative Bulletin.

The following citation resources may be informative.

• Bluebook, T 1.2, Federal Administrative & Executive Materials ("Cite Revenue Rulings, Revenue Procedures, and Treasury Decisions to the Cumulative Bulletin (C.B.) or its advance sheet, the Internal Revenue Bulletin (I.R.B.), or to Treasury Decisions Under Internal Revenue Laws (Treas. Dec. Int. Rev.), in that order of preference . . .")

• IRM § 4.10.7.2.4.2, Citing the Internal Revenue Bulletin ("Items appearing in the Internal Revenue Bulletin that have not appeared in the Cumulative Bulletin should be cited to the weekly Bulletin as follows, Rev. Rul. 96–55, 1996–49 I.R.B. 4. . . )

• IRM §  4.10.7.2.5.1, Citing the Cumulative Bulletin ("A citation to the Bulletin must include the year in parentheses at the end of the citation, as follows: S.S.T. 31, XV–2 C.B. 400 (1936). After 1936, a citation to the Bulletin is as follows: Rev. Proc. 71–4, 1971–1 C.B. 662. Revenue Procedure 71–4 is found at page 662, volume one of the 1971 Cumulative Bulletins (January – June, 1971) . . .")

• TaxCite, Pt. 1, C, 3, IRS Rulings, Treasury Decisions, and Other Administrative Pronouncements