Click & learn: as internet tax research evolves, here's your guide to getting around.

• Author: Santuccl, Danny C.
• Position: Internet research - Website list

While internet use has grown tremendously, online tax research is still evolving. There's great potential, but a long way to go before the internet can be fully utilized. In some areas, it's not ready to compete with commercial online services like Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw, or with CD-ROM products like Lawdesk, OneDisk and Kleinrock's.

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Some critics believe that the internet will never be a complete replacement for traditional paper research sources.

Still, tax and legal researchers can find plenty of good information--for--free--and often updated daily on the internet. In addition, quick and efficient access to online fee-based services, such as Tax Base by Tax Analysts, can be obtained.

Let's Start with the Basics

* http://thomas.loc.gov: This Library of Congress site offers a firsthand look at pending federal legislation. Moreover, that legislation is organized by underlined, cross-referenced keywords that automatically move you to the topic you've clicked on.

* www.gpoaecess.gov/cfr/index. html: This site of the National Archives and Records Administration offers regulations underlying the Internal Revenue Code.

* www.irs.gov/taxpros/content/ 0,,id=103728,00.html: IRS listing of selected regulations.

* www.irs.gov/businesscs/lists/0,,id=98230,00. html: Here you can find issues of the Internal Revenue Bulletin dating to 1996.

* www.law.cornell.edu: Cornell University offers this well organized site as a good jumping-off point, for learning about legal resources on the web.

* www2.onu.edu/~rhaight/tax_sites.html: Ohio Northern University--Pettit College of Law's excellent tax site, which contains tax law gateways, access to Tax World (University of Illinois, Chicago), Links to tax law pages and a tax and accounting site directory, among other features.

* www.ll.georgetown.edu/federal/judicial/index.cfm: The Edward Bennett Williams Law Library Federal Resources Page is a service provided by the Georgetown University Law Library and provides links to information concerning the federal judiciary, slip opinions that can be viewed or downloaded, a searchable index of all U.S. Circuit, Court of Appeals Opinions and related federal sites.

* www.taxanalysts.com: TaxAnalysts News is a daily e-newsletter covering various areas of tax law.

* http://taxtopics.net: This site, known as Tax Resources on the Web, by Alan G. Kalman of internet sites of interest to income tax preparers, taxpayers and students. The site is a detailed...