Treasury Regulations are the tax regulations issued by the United States Internal Revenue Service

Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

 (IRS), a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury

United States Department of the Treasury

The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...

. These regulations are the Treasury Department’s official interpretations of the Internal Revenue Code

Internal Revenue Code

The Internal Revenue Code 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 26 of the United States Code...

 and are one source of U.S. Federal income tax

Income tax

An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...

 law.

Authority and citations

Section 7805 of the Internal Revenue Code

Internal Revenue Code

The Internal Revenue Code 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 26 of the United States Code...

 gives the United States Secretary of the Treasury

United States Secretary of the Treasury

The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...

 the power to create the necessary rules and regulations for enforcing the Internal Revenue Code. These regulations, also known as the “Income Tax Regulations,” are located in Title 26 of the Code of Federal Regulations

Code of Federal Regulations

The Code of Federal Regulations is the codification of the general and permanent rules and regulations published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government of the United States.The CFR is published by the Office of the Federal Register, an agency...

, or “C.F.R.” The regulations are organized according to the Internal Revenue Code

Internal Revenue Code

The Internal Revenue Code 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 26 of the United States Code...

 section that a regulation interprets. 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

Internal Revenue Code

The Internal Revenue Code 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 26 of the United States Code...

 Section 61, "Gross income defined."

Final and Interpretive Regulations

Under this authority, the Secretary of the Treasury can promulgate final regulations that become a kind of proliferation of the statute. In the process of enacting final regulations, the Treasury enacts 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 help in determining a taxpayer's liability for the given year, although they have limited precedential value. Interpretive Regulations may be dismissed if they are determined to be at variance with the statute, however it is not unknown for courts to accorded interpretive regulations with "force of law" status.

Temporary regulations are effective upon publication in the Federal Register

Federal Register

The Federal Register , abbreviated FR, or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains most routine publications and public notices of government agencies...

 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

Federal Register

The Federal Register , abbreviated FR, or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains most routine publications and public notices of government agencies...

. 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

Code of Federal Regulations

The Code of Federal Regulations is the codification of the general and permanent rules and regulations published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government of the United States.The CFR is published by the Office of the Federal Register, an agency...

. 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

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 problem and concludes with the application and...

.

External links

• Code of Federal Regulations, Title 26, Treasury Regulations (current "Electronic CFR")