Purple!
Concurring Opinions:
This was not a planned blog post, but I’m so excited I just have to share: I just got my 2008-2009 Federal Income Tax Code and Regulations Selected Sections. It’s purple!
It’s not that I love purple so much, but I absolutely love getting the new code and regs. I’m a CCH gal myself, though certainly opinions can differ about whether CCH is the best source for the code and regs, but seriously, opinions cannot differ about whether it’s awesome to get the new code and regs.
It’s awesome in part because it’s necessary; tax law changes all the time, and 2007’s version is actually out of date now. But it’s also awesome because this book and I are going to be very, very close over the next year. By next July, it’s going to be a mess. I will have crossed out the numbers in the sections with inflation adjustments and written in this year’s numbers. The cover will be torn. There will be tabs in odd places (2007’s Selected Sections features a tab by Section 62(a)(4), “Deductions Attributable to Rents and Royalties.” Why? I do not know). There will be once-useful and eventually mysterious notes on the empty pages in the back. (Examples from 2007: Useful: “Discuss 170(f)(8)? Procedural, not substantive.” Mysterious: “Discuss Pascal’s Wager?” Yes, “?” indeed.)
Also, this is the shorter tax law (a mere 2027 pages, as opposed to the far more massive eight-volume full set). While getting the full set is of course exciting, the one-volume version has its own special benefits. True conversation from a recent trip to NY to visit a friend of mine–let’s call him Jeff.
Jeff: “Jeez, why is your suitcase so heavy? You’re only here for three days.”
Me: “Because it has tax law in it.”
Jeff: “You brought the code? Why?” [Note: He…