Primary Sources of Law

UNITED STATES STATUTES AT LARGE

Many in the Freedom Movement who are interested in legal arguments too often rely on self-proclaimed “gurus” because of the lack of access to fundamental legal sources. At times, arguments asserted by these gurus (if the argument is not just completely fabricated) cite particular legislative acts for amazing propositions that are readily believed by those who don’t know differently. For example, the “redemptionists” claimed that the 1935 Social Security Act set aside approximately 600,000 bux “on the private side” for everyone having a social security account. But a reading of the act itself reveals this contention to be just another (of the great many) lies of the gurus, who intentionally (like their employer) deceive the masses. One guru presently hitting the weekend seminar circuit alleges that the International Sovereign Immunities Act placed all government offices under the UN. Proof that this is just another big lie promoted by deceptive gurus is proven by simply reading the act itself.

Of course, the United States Constitution is a primary source of legal authority. Another primary source of legal authority is the U.S. Statutes at Large. After ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Congress started meeting in Philadelphia and enacting federal laws. Acts adopted by Congress are presented to the President for signing, and thereafter delivered to the State Department for archival purposes. For the first 50 years of this country’s existence, these federal laws were published and made available to the public by a publishing firm named Bioren and Duane as well as Justice Story. In the early 1840s, Justice Story spearheaded a project to republished these Congressional acts in an official publication, and Congress agreed in 1845. By 1848, another law publishing company, Little and Brown from Boston, published the first official U.S. Statutes at Large, and today this publication constitutes the official source for acts of Congress. Starting in 1875 and continuing ever since, actual printing of the U.S. Statutes at Large has been performed by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Today on the Net, a portion of these U.S. Statutes at Large can be read on an official government website. But the entire U.S. Statutes at Large appear nowhere on the Net, until recently. Years ago, a patriot associated with Truth Attack converted the entire U.S. Statutes at Large into PDF files, converted the images to text, and saved the text conversions beneath the PDF images, making each volume searchable. These files were provided to Jon Roland, who posted them on his website. Now, Truth Attack provides handy links to all these volumes of the U.S. Statutes at Large.

The U.S. Statutes at Large are posted on Jon Roland's Constitution Society website, and are linked below:

Finding a specific act of Congress is easy. For example, a student might run across a reference to the Legal Tender Act of 1862, 12 Stat. 345. To find this act with its citation, one would simply pull Volume 12 of the U.S. Statutes at Large, and turn to page 345. The first number, in this example, 12, is the volume number and the second number, 345, is the page number in that volume.

In 1926 pursuant to a Congressional act, the United States Code was created. Please see this article, Titles of the U.S. Code, for an explanation of how this Code was created. The first U.S.Code was published in a single volume, and it may be downloaded (in a searchable format) here:

1926 US Code

See also Revised Statutes.

HISTORICAL INCOME TAX LAWS AND REGULATIONS

Many students of the federal income tax lack ready access to important government documents related thereto, most significantly the various regulations adopted to implement the prior tax statutes. The purpose of this web page is to make those regulations available.

For those who are unfamiliar with these old tax regulations, a short explanation must be offered regarding the method by which the government in the past published regulations for various prior tax acts. Typically when a new tax law was enacted, Congress granted rule making authority to the Secretary of the Treasury. However before the creation of the Federal Register in 1936, these regulations were simply printed in booklet form and made available to the public. As examples, Regulations 5 concerned bonded warehouses for the distilling of alcoholic beverages. Regulations 6 dealt with the tax on fermented liquors. Regulations 8 related to tobacco taxes, and Regulations 9 concerned the tax on oleomargarine. Regulations 4 concerned the assessment of the 1863 federal income tax, and Regulations 21 concerned the similar income taxes imposed by the 1894 act. Some regulations did not relate specifically to taxpayers, but instead to government employees. Regulations 1 related to tax assessments, and Regulations 3 concerned the assessment of the legacy tax. These and other regulations were simply printed as booklets and distributed to the public. Some sets of regulations were short while others were extremely long, and the voluminous regulations had tables of contents as well as lengthy indexes. Some of the shorter regulations were published as Treasury Decisions in official publications like Treasury Decisions Under the Internal Revenue Laws (“TDIR”). The TDIR series started in 1898 and ended in 1942, and the set contains 36 volumes; most law libraries make it available. Links to many of the volumes in this set appear below.

The income tax regulations which appear here were obtained from several sources. First, the TDIR series contained amended Regulations 33 for the 1917 act, Regulations 45 for the 1918 act, Regulations 45 as amended in 1920, Regulations 62 for the 1921 act, Regulations 65 for the 1924 act, and Regulations 69 for the 1926 act. These regulations published as Treasury Decisions in the TDIR are included here for the purpose showing the reader how the original regulations appeared.

The second source for the regulations made available here is a multi-volume set (approximately 150 in number) named Internal Revenue Acts of the United States, 1909-1950, compiled by Mr. Bernard Reams, and published by William S. Hein & Co., Inc., a prominent law publisher. This set of books reprinted all the various tax acts adopted during the period 1909 through 1950, and the set is very handy for the tax practitioner. Also included in this set are copies of most of the older tax regulations promulgated during this same period. Since these are copies of official government publications, they cannot be copyrighted.

The final source of the below regulations is the Federal Register, the first issue being published in 1936.

But a word of caution is in order regarding the 1936 Federal Register. 1936 was the year that the Federal Register was first published. Some libraries have simply bound together the daily editions of the Federal Register and make that available. But in 1936, there was also an annual edition; this edition published all that appeared in the daily edition of the Federal Register for that year, excepting each daily’s title page which was not reprinted. Hence, page numbers of the “daily edition” are different from the “annual edition” for this year. But having the date of publication makes finding such pages in the annual 1936 edition easy.

Below are identified the various tax acts and the regulations promulgated to implement those acts:

1913 - The October 3, 1913 tax act: "An Act To Reduce Tariff Duties And To Provide Revenue For The Government, And For Other Purposes," 38 Stat. 114, ch. 16. Regulations No. 33, promulgated on January 5, 1914, implemented this act. These regulations were promulgated as Treasury Decision 1944, but they were not published in the TDIR. The copies provided here were obtained from Reams.

1916 - The September 8, 1916 tax act: "An Act To Increase The Revenue, And For Other Purposes," 39 Stat. 756, ch. 463. Treasury Decision 2367, 18 TDIR 168, simply made the Regulations 33 for the 1913 act applicable to this act.

1917 - The October 3, 1917 tax act: "An Act to Provide Revenue To Defray War Expenses, And For Other Purposes", 40 Stat. 300, ch. 63. Treasury Decision 2690, 20 TDIR 126, promulgated revised Regulations No. 33 applicable to this act.

1918 - The Revenue Act of 1918: "An Act To Provide Revenue, And For Other Purposes", 40 Stat. 1057, ch. 18. Treasury Decision 2831, 21 TDIR 170, promulgated Regulations No. 45 for this act. Treasury Decision 3146, 23 TDIR 352, promulgated revised (1920) Regulations No. 45. Included here are copies of these actual Treasury Decisions.

1921 - The Revenue Act of 1921: "An Act To Reduce And Equalize Taxation, To Provide Revenue, And For Other Purposes," 42 Stat. 227, ch. 136. Treasury Decision 3295, 24 TDIR 207, promulgated Regulations No. 62 for this act. Included here is the copy of this actual Treasury Decision.

1924 - The Revenue Act of 1924: "An Act To Reduce And Equalize Taxation, To Provide Revenue, And For Other Purposes," 43 Stat. 253, ch. 234. Treasury Decision 3640, 26 TDIR 745, promulgated Regulations No. 65 for this act. Included here is the copy of this actual Treasury Decision.

1926 - The Revenue Act of 1926: "An Act To Reduce And Equalize Taxation, To Provide Revenue, And For Other Purposes," 44 Stat. 9, ch. 27. Treasury Decision 3922, 28 TDIR 558, promulgated Regulations No. 69 for this act. Included here is the copy of this actual Treasury Decision.

1928 - The Revenue Act of 1928: "An Act To Reduce And Equalize Taxation, Provide Revenue, And For Other Purposes," 45 Stat. 791, ch. 852. Regulations No. 74 were applicable to this act. The booklet form of these regulations is provided here.

1932 - The Revenue Act of 1932: "An Act To Provide Revenue, Equalize Taxation, And For Other Purposes," 47 Stat. 169, ch. 209. Regulations No. 77 were applicable to this act. The booklet form of these regulations is provided here.

1934 - The Revenue Act of 1934: "An Act To Provide Revenue, Equalize Taxation, And For Other Purposes," 48 Stat. 680, ch. 277. Regulations No. 86 were applicable to this act. The booklet form of these regulations is provided here.

1936 - The Revenue Act of 1936: "An Act To Provide Revenue, Equalize Taxation, And For Other Purposes," 49 Stat. 1648, ch. 690. Regulations No. 94 were applicable to this act. These regulations were obtained from the Federal Register:

1 Fed. Reg. 2093, Sat. Nov. 14, 1936

1 Fed. Reg. 2161, Tues. Nov. 17, 1936

1 Fed. Reg. 2244, Wed. Nov. 18, 1936

1938 - The Revenue Act of 1938: "An Act To Provide Revenue, Equalize Taxation, And For Other Purposes," 52 Stat. 447, ch. 289. Regulations No. 101 were applicable to this act. These regulations were obtained from the Federal Register:

4 Fed. Reg. 616, Fri. Feb. 10, 1939

4 Fed. Reg. 700, Sat. Feb. 11, 1939

4 Fed. Reg. 802, Tues. Feb. 14, 1939

1939 - The 1939 Internal Revenue Code: 53 Stat., part 1. Regulations No. 103 were applicable to this act. These regulations were obtained from the Federal Register:

5 Fed. Reg. 348-424, Thurs. Feb. 1, 1940

5 Fed. Reg. 437-560, Fri. Feb. 2, 1940

5 Fed. Reg. 569-588, Sat. Feb. 3, 1940

Regulations No. 111 for the 1939 Code, a revision of the regulations for the 1939 Code, were adopted in November, 1943:

8 Fed. Reg. 14882-14979, Wed. Nov. 3, 1943

8 Fed. Reg. 15002-15175, Thurs. Nov. 4, 1943

8 Fed. Reg. 15205-15239, Fri. Nov. 5, 1943

Regulations No. 118 also revised regulations for the 1939 Code and were published in the Federal Register:

18 Fed. Reg. 5771-6199, Sat. Sept. 26, 1953.

Here are Regulations Nos. 90 and 91, which were regulations adopted for the Social Security Act. Regulations 106, 107, and 116 were adopted to govern wage withholding.

The 1999 and 2003 regulations for the 1986 Internal Revenue Code are posted on this page of Jon Roland's website.

Here is a searchable PDF file of the 1954 Internal Revenue Code. That Code was scanned, converted to Word text and proofed several times before being saved as a PDF file. See also 1986 Internal Revenue Code (Jan. 2002 version). Finally, here is a 1975 Congressional report about activities of the IRS.

Why is it important for students of the tax laws to study the old tax acts? They are interrelated as explained here.

Post Script:

The following are citations to former federal income tax acts:

1861 act: 12 Stat. 292, 309, ch. 45 (§§ 49-51).
1862 act: 12 Stat. 432, 473, ch. 119 (§§ 86-114).
1864 act: 13 Stat. 223, 281, ch. 173 (§§ 116-150).
1865 act: 13 Stat. 469, 479, ch. 78 (amended § 116).
1866 act: 14 Stat. 98, 137, ch. 184.
1867 act: 14 Stat. 471, 477, ch. 169.
1870 act: 16 Stat. 256, 257, ch. 255.
1894 act: 28 Stat. 509, ch. 349.

Treasury Decisions Under the Internal Revenue Laws

The 36 volume set of books mentioned above contains Treasury Decisions from 1898 through 1942. Google Books has scanned many of these volumes that are linked below. When you get to any particular link, you may download the document on that page by clicking on the "download" icon in the upper right hand corner of the page.

TDIR Vol. 1

TDIR Vol. 2

TDIR Vol. 3

TDIR Vol. 4

TDIR Vol. 5

TDIR Vol. 6

TDIR Vol. 7

TDIR Vol. 8

TDIR Vol. 9

TDIR Vol. 10

TDIR Vol. 11

TDIR Vol. 12

TDIR Vol. 13

TDIR Vol. 14

TDIR Vol. 15

TDIR Vol. 16

TDIR Vol. 17

TDIR Vol. 18

TDIR Vol. 19

TDIR Vol. 20

TDIR Vol. 21

TDIR Vol. 22

TDIR Vol. 23

Google has also posted some old tax regulations:

Regs 1

Regs 2

Regs 9

Regs 55

Regs 62

Regs 64

Many Others

STATE CONSTITUTIONS AND CODES

Do you have trouble finding good state codes posted on the Net? Here they are:

Alabama Constitution
Alabama Code

Alaska Constitution
Alaska Code

Arizona Constitution
Arizona Code

Arkansas Constitution
Arkansas Code

California Constitution
California Code & California Code

Colorado Constitution
Colorado Code

Connecticut Constitution
Connecticut Code

Delaware Constitution
Delaware Code

District of Columbia

Florida Constitution
Florida Code

Georgia Constitution
Georgia Code

Hawaii Constitution
Hawaii

Idaho Constitution
Idaho Code

Illinois Constitution
Illinois Code

Indiana Constitution
Indiana Code

Iowa Constitution
Iowa Code

Kansas Constitution
Kansas Code

Kentucky Constitution
Kentucky Code

Louisiana Constitution
Louisiana Code

Maine Constitution
Maine Code

Maryland Constitution
Maryland Code & Maryland Code

Massachusetts Constitution
Massachusetts Code

Michigan Constitution
Michigan Code

Minnesota Constitution
Minnesota Code

Mississippi Constitution
Mississippi Code

Missouri Constitution
Missouri Code

Montana Constitution
Montana Code

Nebraska Constitution
Nebraska Code

Nevada Constitution
Nevada Code

New Hampshire Constitution
New Hampshire Code

New Jersey Constitution
New Jersey Code

New Mexico Constitution
New Mexico Code

New York Constitution
New York Code

North Carolina Constitution
North Carolina Code

North Dakota Constitution
North Dakota Code

Ohio Constitution
Ohio Code

Oklahoma Constitution
Oklahoma Code

Oregon Constitution
Oregon Code

Pennsylvania Constitution
Pennsylvania Code

Rhode Island Constitution
Rhode Island Code

South Carolina Constitution
South Carolina Code

South Dakota Constitution
South Dakota Code

Tennessee Constitution
Tennessee Code

Texas Constitution
Texas Code

Utah Constitution
Utah Code

Vermont Constitution
Vermont Code

Virginia Constitution
Virginia Code

Washington Constitution
Washington Code

West Virginia Constitution
West Virginia Code

Wisconsin Constitution
Wisconsin Code

Wyoming Constitution
Wyoming Code

Finis.

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