1Frame
Frame the position as one question.
Ask it the way the decision will be asked, and choose the collections that can answer it.
For in-house tax teams
Bring the cited record to the decision.
Show the people who sign off the sources behind a position: publisher, page, authority, and what is still open.
Illustrative
The situation
A position needs sign-off. Approvers should see the sources, not a conclusion alone.
Each source arrives with its publisher, its page and its authority status, and the open questions sit beside it.
How the work goes
From a question to an approved position.
Four moves from the question on your desk to a position the approver can read in full.
2Weigh
Sort the support by its authority.
The Code and the regulations are authority. A written determination is labelled nonprecedential, so it is read as the IRS’s answer to one request.
3Open questions
Write down what is still open.
Where your facts differ from the source’s, say so in the record, before the approver has to ask.
4Sign-off
Take the record to sign-off.
The approver sees the position with every source, its location and its authority, and the open question beside it.
Read next
Before you rely on it, read the record.
Other roles
One trail. Different work to do.
Review with the record in hand.
See the source view and talk through the controls your team needs.
Every sentence cites the page it came from.