How I Do Tax Research

An application of my tax research framework using Parker Tax

In my previous post, I provided a breakdown of my practical approach to tax research, based on the Four Cs:

1. Clarify the question

2. Consult appropriate sources

3. Confirm the findings

4. Conclude with confidence

As promised at the end of that article, I recorded an application of that framework, showing how I find an answer to what I think is a good tax research question (with an interesting answer, to me, at least) using Parker Tax Pro Library:

If you’re interested, here’s the text I use in my notes in Markdown format:

Tax research project 2025-11-21 16:37

## Clarify the question

### Client’s question

### Legal question

## Consult

### IRC

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### Regulation

### Court case(s)

### IRS guidance

### Secondary sources

## Confirm

- Do the facts in the authority align with the client’s facts?

- Does the controlling authority actually support the interpretation?

- Is the source still current? Has any new law, guidance, or court opinion superseded it?

## Conclude

### Legal position

### Client response

## Contribute