Victoria Sukhol, Assistant Director for Cataloging at NYLS, was recognized recently by the American Association of Law Libraries for her work cataloging the website of the Joint Committee on Taxation. The AALL selected the Joint Committee’s website as its website of the month in December, and thanked Ms. Sukhol for her work cataloging this rich source of tax legislative information for the past century. The Committee recently posted to its website all of its publications back to the 1920s.
The Joint Committee on Taxation is a nonpartisan committee of the U.S. Congress, originally established by the Revenue Act of 1926. The committee operates with a professional staff of economists, attorneys, and accountants, who assist members of Congress of both parties with tax issues. The committee staff is involved with every aspect of the tax legislative process, including:
- Assisting Congressional tax-writing committees and Members of Congress with development and analysis of legislative proposals;
- Preparing official revenue estimates of all tax legislation considered by the Congress;
- Drafting legislative analyses for tax-related bills; and
- Investigating various aspects of the Federal tax system.
Perhaps best known of the Committee’s publications are their “Bluebooks,” which provide explanations of tax legislation enacted in each congress. The explanation follows the chronological order of the tax legislation as signed into law. For each provision, the document includes a description of present law, explanation of the provision, and effective date. The analysis provided in the Bluebooks is often cited in tax cases. For more information please see the committee’s website at http://www.jct.gov/. You may review Victoria’s catalog record at http://lawlib.nyls.edu/record=b1676785~S0 .