About Tax Analysts

Tax Notes is the first source of essential daily news, analysis, and commentary for tax professionals whose success depends on being trusted for their expertise.

Tax Notes is a portfolio of publications offered by Tax Analysts, a nonprofit tax publisher. It provides comprehensive and impartial coverage of tax news, while its commentary contributes important voices to the discussion and understanding of tax policy.

Founded in 1970, Tax Analysts was created to foster free, open, and informed discussion about taxation. In 1972 Tax Analysts published Tax Notes Federal, its first weekly journal, featuring news, commentary, and analysis on federal taxation. In 1989 Tax Analysts added Tax Notes International, a weekly magazine focused on international taxation. Tax Notes State rounded out the weekly portfolio in 1991. Each magazine offers best-in-class tax commentary and analysis on the latest changes in tax law and policy, as well as on court opinions, legislative action, and revenue rulings.

Tax Notes has continued to innovate through the years, adding the online daily news services Tax Notes Today Federal, Tax Notes Today International, and Tax Notes Today State between 1987 and 1991. Tax Notes also provides several research and reference tools, as well as specialized services focusing on exempt organizations, state tax audit guidance, and international tax treaties.

Mission Statement

To shed light on tax policy and administration through aggressive, unbiased reporting and informed commentary from the leaders in the field.

Background

Tax Analysts is a non-partisan, nonprofit publisher of news and commentary about federal, state, and international tax issues under the brand Tax Notes. We also hold and sponsor conferences about timely issues of tax policy and administration. Through our investigative journalism and, if necessary, the courts, we shed light on government actions that affect taxes by bringing secretive decision-making into the open. Through our publications, conferences, and other activities, we engage with the broad tax community.

Our customers are respected influencers, decision-makers, and policy makers around the world, including those who write, interpret, and enforce tax law in the United States: the IRS, the U.S. Tax Court, and tax writers in Congress. We are an indispensable resource for those who teach and study tax law in academia, and for those in the nonprofit sector who fight for transparency and fairness and who debate the future of tax law. We are valued by those who practice and provide in-house counsel on tax law in the legal, accounting, and corporate spaces, respectively. These entities all depend on Tax Notes to cut through the noise and focus in on what really matters, with in-depth analysis and insight to simplify complex tax topics and help tax professionals understand the implications for changes in tax policy.

Who We Are

Tax Analysts is a team of inquisitive and provocative tax experts — award-winning journalists, lawyers, accountants, and economists — committed to producing the most accurate, timely, and thorough tax coverage. We are the premier outlet for high-quality tax news and commentary and are committed to improving the transparency of tax systems by covering issues the mainstream press does not and aggressively using the Freedom of Information Act to uncover documents addressing issues of tax policy and administration.

Organizational History

Tax Analysts was founded in 1970 to foster an open and informed discussion about taxes. We began to publish our federal tax magazine in 1972, and we added our international and state magazines in 1989 and 1991, respectively. Each of these weekly magazines provides the best coverage available on the latest changes in tax policy and administration, as well as on court opinions, legislative action, and revenue rulings. We added online daily news services for federal, international, and state taxation between 1987 and 1991, and we produce several research and reference tools as well as specialized services focusing on tax-exempt organizations, state tax audit guidance, and multinational tax treaties.

At the start, we sought to defend the public interest and force tax policymaking into the open. We first sued the IRS in 1972 to gain public access to private letter rulings (PLRs) and technical advice memoranda (TAMs) — crucial documents through which the IRS provided legal advice to specific taxpayers and IRS field agents. The courts gave us access to PLRs, and Congress soon required the IRS to publicly disclose its TAMs. Over the years, we have also used the Freedom of Information Act to force the IRS and state revenue departments to publicly share information about tax assessments and exemptions they have provided in private decisions.

We marked the start of a new era for Tax Analysts in 2006 by moving into a new headquarters building in Falls Church, VA. From our origins as a tiny nonprofit that operated on a shoestring budget, we are now a global publisher, have a full-time headquarters staff of almost 200 employees, and over 250 correspondents spanning more than 125 countries. More than 150,000 tax professionals in law and accounting firms, corporations, government agencies, and academic institutions rely on our in-depth federal, state, and international content every day.

Tax Analysts is a tax publisher and does not provide tax advice or preparation services.

Forms 990 are available on Guidestar.

Tax Analysts is honored to be recognized for its family-friendly workplace, animal-friendly policies, excellent content, and world-renowned tax policy economists, editors, historians and writers.