Virtus helps tax attorneys research IRS primary sources. When generated answers are available, they cite supporting pages or abstain so you can check the source.
What the library covers
The library currently contains IRS rulings — private letter rulings and other IRS written determinations. Other materials, such as revenue rulings, the tax code, regulations, and Tax Court opinions, are not included yet.
What an IRS private ruling is
A private letter ruling is the IRS’s written answer to one taxpayer’s question about how the tax law applies to their specific situation. The IRS publishes these rulings with identifying details removed. They bind the IRS only for the taxpayer who asked, and they cannot be cited as precedent — but practitioners read them because they show how the IRS has actually analyzed an issue.
Where documents come from
Available documents come from official government sources, are kept as unaltered original PDFs, and are checked before becoming searchable. Pages that cannot be read reliably are held back rather than published with guesses. Search results identify their sources, while generated answers cite supporting pages or abstain.
What you can do
- Search rulings by document number, code section, or topic
- Read the official text page by page and download the original PDF
- Compare up to five documents side by side
- Organize documents into matter folders shared with your workspace
- Ask AI questions that are answered from the document pages, with citations
IRS rulings are issued to one taxpayer and cannot be cited as precedent. Always verify against the original document and current law.
AI summaries and answers are generated text. A supported answer cites the pages it uses; otherwise the product should abstain. Check the original before relying on generated text.
Text transcribed from scanned pages is marked as a transcription. The original PDF is the official text.
This product is a research tool. It is not legal advice.