Christians & Lederman: How To Read A Tax Statute

This video provides helpful guidelines for reading a tax statute, focusing on the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. This video isn't about canons of interpretation, it's about how to read the statute itself well, with examples. Check out our 6 simple rules!

Note that this video does not focus on other sources of tax law and guidance, such as regulations and case law. Also, like everything from Break Into Tax, it does not provide legal or tax advice.

Break Into Tax thanks Josh Blank and Bill Popkin for comments on a draft of this video and thanks Connor Hasegawa (McGill Law '23) for editing assistance.

As with everything from Break Into Tax, this video does not provide legal or tax advice. It also necessarily omits a lot of detail. For more on U.S. federal tax procedure, see, e.g., the casebook by Prof. Lederman and Prof. Stephen W. Mazza, Tax Controversies: Practice and Procedure (4th ed. 2018 & Cumulative Supplement).

TaxProf Blog coverage of Break Into Tax videos:

• Christians And Lederman Start YouTube Series Break Into Tax (BiT) (Feb. 16, 2021)
• Christians & Lederman: Should You Get A Tax LLM? (Feb. 24, 2021)
• Christians & Lederman: An Important Tax Tip & #WhyTakeTax? (April 1, 2021)
• Lederman & Christians: Last-Minute Exam Prep (April 24, 2021)
• Lederman & Christians: Tax Papers Unlocked — The Elevator Pitch (May 19, 2021)
• Lederman & Christians: An Overview Of U.S. Federal Tax Controversies (June 21, 2021)
• Lederman & Christians: Tax Papers Unlocked — Rita de la Feria (July 9, 2021)
• Christians & Lederman: How To Read A Tax Statute (July 24, 2021)
• Lederman & Christians: Tax Papers Unlocked — Dan Shaviro (August 2, 2021)
• Christians & Lederman: Tax Careers — The Office Of Chief Counsel And The IRS (August 14, 2021)
• Lederman & Christians: Tax Papers Unlocked — Jon Choi (Aug. 21, 2021)
• Christians & Lederman Launch Season 2 of Break Into Tax (September 18, 2021)
• Lederman & Bearer-Friend: Break Into Legal Academia (September 25, 2021)
• Break Into Tax: Friday The 15th (October 11, 2021)
• Break Into Tax: Talking Tax Careers With The Tax Chick (October 16, 2021)
• Break Into Tax: Tax Papers Unlocked — Victoria Haneman (October 23, 2021)
• Break Into Tax: Exam Tips (November 6, 2021)
• Break Into Tax: Introduction To Deductions (Nov. 20, 2021)
• Break Into Tax: Capital Gains & Losses — An Introduction (Nov. 27, 2021)
• Break Into Tax: The Limitation On Capital Losses (Dec. 4, 2021)
• Break Into Tax: The Capital Gains Preference (Dec. 11, 2021)
• Break Into Tax: The Federal Income Tax Treatment of Debt (Dec. 18, 2021)
• Videos: How To Do Legal Research And Tax Research (Jan. 22, 2022)