Federal Tax Law Research Guide: Tax Legislative History

Legislative History Documents Checklist

• Text of Statutes
• Text of various versions of bills
• Technical Corrections
• Committee Reports (House Ways and Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee, Joint Conference Committee)
• Blue Book (Occasionally the Joint Committee on Taxation's staff prepares a post-enactment "General Explanation" referred to as the Blue Book.)
• Hearings
• Debates - Congressional Record

Compiled Legislative Histories: Arranged chronologically

HeinOnline - Tax Legislative Histories 1909-current
ProQuest Congressional Legislative Histories (1789- present) Most comprehensive source for legislative history.
Proquest Legislative Insight (1927- present) coverage varies.

Language of Previous Tax Acts

Westlaw: 1954 Internal Revenue Code 
1939 Internal Revenue Code

Free Legislative History and Bill Information

Congress.gov Full text of bills (1989- current)
Congressional Record (1994- current)
Committee reports (1995- current)

House Ways and Means Committee (includes hearings)

Senate Finance Committee (includes hearings, bills and reports)

Joint Committee on Taxation (full text of JCT documents, 1920- present)