of Internal Revenue
Tax Administration

The function of the Internal Revenue Service is to
administer the Internal Revenue Code. Tax policy
for raising revenue is determined by Congress.
With this in mind, it is the duty of the Service to
carry out that policy by correctly applying the
laws enacted by Congress; to determine the rea-
sonable meaning of various Code provisions in
light of the Congressional purpose in enacting
them; and to perform this work in a fair and im-
partial manner, with neither a government nor
a taxpayer point of view.

At the heart of administration is interpretation of
the Code. It is the responsibility of each person
in the Service, charged with the duty of interpret-
ing the law, to try to find the true meaning of the
statutory provision and not to adopt a strained
construction in the belief that he is "protecting
the revenue." The revenue is properly protected
only when we ascertain and apply the true mean-
ing of the statute.

The Service also has the responsibility of apply-
ing and administering the law in a reasonable,
practical manner. Issues should only be raised by
examining officers when they have merit, never
arbitrarily or for trading purposes. At the same
time, the examining officer should never hesitate
to raise a meritorious issue. It is also important
that care be exercised not to raise an issue or to
ask a court to adopt a position inconsistent with
an established Service position.

Administration should be both reasonable and
vigorous. It should be conducted with as little
delay as possible and with great courtesy and
considerateness. It should never try to overreach,
and should be reasonable within the bounds of
law and sound administration. It should, however,
be vigorous in requiring compliance with law and
it should be relentless in its attack on unreal tax
devices and fraud.

The Internal Revenue Bulletin is the authoritative
instrument of the Commissioner of Internal Rev-
enue for announcing official rulings and proce-
dures of the Internal Revenue Service and for
publishing Treasury Decisions, Executive Orders,
Tax Conventions, legislation, court decisions, and
other items of general interest. It is published
weekly and may be obtained from the Superin-
tendent of Documents on a subscription basis.
Bulletin contents of a permanent nature are con-
solidated semiannually into Cumulative Bulletins,
which are sold on a single-copy basis. Occasion-
ally an extra volume of the Cumulative Bulletin
is required for publication of legislative matters.
It is the policy of the Service to publish in the

Bulletin all substantive rulings necessary to pro-

mote a uniform application of the tax laws, in-

cluding all rulings that supersede, revoke, mod-

ify, or amend any of those previously published in

the Bulletin. All published rulings apply retro-

actively unless otherwise indicated. Procedures

relating solely to matters of internal management

are not published; however, statements of internal

practices and procedures that affect the rights

and duties of taxpayers are published.

Revenue Rulings represent the conclusions of

the Service on the application of the law to the

entire state of facts involved. In those that are

based on positions taken in rulings to taxpayers

or technical advice to Service field offices, iden-

tifying details and confidential information are

deleted to comply with statutory requirements.

Rulings and procedures reported in the Bulletin

do not have the force and effect of Treasury De-

partment Regulations, but they may be used as

precedents. Unpublished rulings will not be relied
on, used, or cited as precedents by Service per-
sonnel in the disposition of other cases. In ap-
plying published rulings and procedures, the ef-
fect of subsequent legislation, regulations, court
decisions, rulings, and procedures must be con-
sidered, and Service personnel and others con-
cerned are cautioned against reaching the same
conclusions in other cases unless the facts and
circumstances are substantially the same.

The regulations, rulings, decisions, procedures,
Public Laws, etc., published in the weekly Inter-
nal Revenue Bulletins 1976-26 through 1976-52
have been consolidated and are published in
Internal Revenue Cumulative Bulletin 1976-2.

Cumulative Bulletin 1976-3, printed in three vol-

umes, is devoted solely to Public Law 94-455,

the Tax Reform Act of 1976, and related Com-

mittee and Conference reports, which were not

published in the Weekly Bulletin.

The Bulletin Index-Digest System, a research and

reference service supplementing the Bulletin,

may be obtained from the Superintendent of

Documents on a subscription basis. It consists
of four Services: Service No. 1, Income Tax;

Service No. 2, Estate and Gift Taxes; Service No.

3, Employment Taxes; Service No. 4, Excise

Taxes. Each Service consists of a basic volume

and a cumulative supplement that provide (1)

finding lists of items published in the Bulletin,
(2) digests of Revenue Rulings, Revenue Proce-

dures, and other published items, and (3) topical

indexes of Public Laws, Treasury Decisions, and

Tax Conventions.