The IRS issues Notices and Announcements to provide substantive or procedural guidance on an expedited basis, with respect to matters of general interest that would otherwise be covered by a regulation, Revenue Ruling or Revenue Procedure. A Notice is a public pronouncement that may contain guidance involving substantive interpretations of the IRC or other provisions of the law. For example, notices can be used to advance the IRS’s position in situations where regulations are still in the drafting phase and have not yet been released. As such, IRS Notices are often very authoritative and the only guidance available on a particular tax issue. An IRS Announcement has only immediate or short-term value. For example, Announcements can be used to summarize the law or regulations without making any substantive interpretation, or to notify taxpayers of an approaching deadline. A taxpayer may rely on a Notice or Announcement to the same extent as a Revenue Ruling or Revenue Procedure.
Chief Counsel (CC) Notices are directives that provide interim guidance, furnish temporary procedures, describe changes in litigating positions, or announce administrative information. Notices providing interim guidance or instructions to staff are designed to be incorporated into the Chief Counsel Directives Manual (CCDM), but are issued as Notices to provide immediate notification of important policy or procedural changes.
Notices are available on Westlaw and Lexis Advance from 1980 - the present.
In the past, Announcements were not published in the semi-annual Cumulative Bulletin. Since 2009, the CB is simply a compilation of the weekly Internal Revenue Bulletins. Therefore, Announcements are included. When doing research about a tax problem that happened in the past, it can be important to see what Announcements were in effect at that time.
Internal Revenue Bulletin by Announcements are available on Westlaw from 1954- to the present and on Lexis Advance from 1968-to the present.