The Internal Revenue Bulletin is the authoritative instrument of the
Commissioner of Internal Revenue for announcing official rulings and
procedures 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 the policy of the Service to publish in the Bulletin all substantive rulings
necessary to promote a uniform application of the tax laws, including all
rulings that supersede, revoke, modify, or amend any of those previously
published in the Bulletin. All published rulings apply retroactively unless
otherwise indicated. Procedures relating solely to matters of internal
management are not published; however, industry regulations appearing in
internal management documents and 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, identifying details and confidential information are deleted to prevent
unwarranted invasions of privacy and to comply with statutory requirements,
such as 18 U.S.C. 1905 and 26 U.S.C. 7213 concerning disclosure of
information obtained from members of the public.
Rulings and procedures reported in the Bulletin do not have the force and
effect of Treasury Department Regulations, but they may be used as
precedents. Unpublished rulings will not be relied on, used, or cited as
precedents by Service personnel in the disposition of other cases. In applying
published rulings and procedures, the effect of subsequent legislation,
regulations, court decisions, rulings, and procedures must be considered, and
Service personnel and others concerned are cautioned against reaching the
same conclusions in other cases unless the facts and circumstances are
substantially the same.
The regulations, rulings, decisions, procedures, etc., published in the
weekly Revenue Bulletins 1969-27 through 1969-52 have been
consolidated and are published in Internal Revenue Cumulative Bulletin
1969-2.
Cumulative Bulletin 1969-3 is prepared in two parts, as follows:
I. Part I contains the Public Laws pertaining to internal revenue
matters enacted by the 91st Congress on or after June 30, 1969.
II. Part II contains Committee and Conference Reports related to the
legislation published in Part I. House, Senate, and Conference
Committee Reports printed in the Bulletin do not include the portion
entitled "Changes in Existing Law."
The 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 five Services: 1-Income Tax, 2—Estate
and Gift Taxes, 3-Employment Taxes, 4-Excise Taxes, and 5-Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms. Each Service is composed of a basic volume and a
cumulative supplement. The supplements are issued quarterly for Service
No. 1 and semiannually for Services 2 through 5. The system provides finding
lists and topically-arranged digests of the items published in the Bulletin.
The contents of this publication are not copyrighted and may be reprinted freely, a citation
of the Cumulative Bulletin as the source would be appropriate.