Law and Tax Information
on the Web
2002 Edition
Bryan M. Carson
Coordinator of Reference and Instructional Services
Western Kentucky University Libraries
Tax Information | Comsumer
Finance | Law & Legal Information | Local
Law | Search Engines | Accuracy
TAX INFORMATION
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
http://www.irs.gov/
Please note that the forms are available in Portable Document Format
(PDF). To use these forms, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader software
installed on your computer. This software is free and is available
from http://www.adobe.com/
Kentucky Revenue
Cabinet
http://revenue.state.ky.us/
The place to look for authoritative tax information and forms in
Kentucky.
FIRSTGOV
http://www.firstgov.com/
- Federal Benefits and Grants (Social Security, Medicare, Grants)
- Links to government Websites
- Links to tax forms and E-File site
- Link to FEDFORMS site: http://www.fedforms.gov/
IRS
e-file for Individual Taxpayers
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/elec_svs/efile-ind.html
- IRS e-file through a tax professional
- TeleFile using a touch-tone telephone (Form 1040EZ Only)
- Make electronic payments with a debit card or a credit card
- IRS e-file using a personal computer
- Costs vary between $7.95 and $24.95
- Make electronic payments with a debit card or a credit card
- Some companies allow you to also file state taxes at the same
time
State
Tax Information from all 50 States
http://www.sm-b.com/nn/statinfo.htm
About
Taxes
http://taxes.about.com/money/taxes/mbody.htm
Major
tax sites--from LexNotes
http://www.lexnotes.com/sources/subs/taxes.shtml
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CONSUMER FINANCE
BankRate
http://www.bankrate.com/
- Give you the best rates throughout the country for:
- Auto loans
- CDs and Savings
- Credit Cards
- Credit Unions
- IRAs
- Mortgages and Home Equity Loans
- Personal Loans
- Small Business Loans
Property
values for some states
http://domania.homestore.com/homepricecheck/index.jsp
Salary Calculator
http://www.homefair.com/
- Tells you how much money you need to make in another city in
order to have the same standard of living that you have in Bowling
Green.
- On left side under the heading {Research Calculators}, click
on the link that says {Salary Calculator}.
Mortgage
calculators (from Southern Maryland Online)
http://www.somd.com/re/calculators.htm
- Affordability Calculator-- Estimates how large of a mortgage
you can qualify for based on your income and debts.
- Income Requirement Calculator--Estimates how much income you'll
need to qualify for a house based on the cost of the house, the
down payment, the interest rate and the duration of the loan.
- Mortgage Payment Table--Generates a table of monthly payment
amounts for a range of loan amounts and interest rates.
- How will prepaying change my loan?
- This will either tell you how soon your loan will be paid off
when you specify an additional monthly payment or it can tell
you how much additional to pay each month in order to pay the
loan off in "x" number of years.
- Prepayment Mortgage Reduction--Calculates how the length of
your mortgage will be reduced if you pay an additional amount
against the principal every month or every two weeks.
- Convertible Balloon Mortgage Calculator--This calculator tells
you what happens when your Balloon Mortgage comes due if you convert
it to a conventional mortgage.
- Prepayment vs. Investment -- A scenario that estimates whether
you'd be better off prepaying your mortgage or using that additional
money to invest.
Social Security Administration
http://www.ssa.gov/
Insurance
Companies and Corporation Information
http://www.ambest.com/index.html
- Insurance ratings and financial stability information
- Search by name of company
- Requires free registration
Edgar--Securities and Exchange Commission
http://www.sec.gov/
- Contains submissions by companies who are required by law to
file forms with the SEC. This includes the annual report on Form
10-K or 10-KSB, which contains much of the same information found
in annual reports to shareholders. The site maintains publicly
available filings submitted from January 1994 to the present.
EDGAR filings are posted to this site 24 hours after the date
of filing.
Government
Agencies on the Web
http://www.wku.edu/Library/dlps/gov_law.htm
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LAW & LEGAL INFORMATION
Legal comprehensive sites are sites where legally
trained professionals have gathered an extensive number of legal
sources generally organized in a way that is useful to legal professionals.
Depending upon what you are searching for, they are often the best
place to get started.
WKU
Law Collection Website
http://www.wku.edu/Library/dlps/lawlib.htm
Contains Web links to Legal Resource
Washburn University Law
Library
http://www.washlaw.edu
- Wide variety of business and law resources
- Directories
- Federal and State law cases, statutes, etc.
Cornell Legal Information
Institute
http://www.law.cornell.edu/
Findlaw
http://www.findlaw.com/
- Findlaw Guide
- Cases, statutes, and administrative regulations on Findlaw (both
Federal and State)
- Forms (including tax forms)
- Findlaw is searchable by keyword
American Association
of Law Librarians
http://www.aallnet.org/research
- Legal directories
- Law journals
- Law library online catalogs
- Law schools
- Legal organizations
- Law-related discussion lists
'Lectric Law Library
http://www.lectlaw.com/
This site has all kinds of serious legal information, presented
in a humorous fashion.
Kentucky
Legal Research
http://www.louisville.edu/library/law/kyguide2.html
Produced by the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School
of Law Library
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LOCAL LAW INFORMATION
Kentucky
Revised Statutes
http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/statrev/frontpg.htm
- Find by Title and Chapter
- Searchable by keyword
Kentucky
Administrative Regulations
http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/kar/frntpage.htm
Bowling Green Code of Ordinances
http://www.bgky.org/
Seattle
Public Library's Municipal Codes Online
http://www.spl.org/selectedsites/municode.html
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SEARCH ENGINES
FASTSEARCH
http://www.alltheweb.com
- Contains "Advanced" and "Help" options
- Use plus sign + for required words and phrases
- Quotation marks " " needed for phrases
- If no plus signs or quotation marks are used, the search engine
will look for ANY of your terms
Google
http://www.google.com/
- Boolean AND, OR searching
Lawcrawler
Click on link from Findlaw or open http://www.lawcrawler.com
- Boolean AND, OR searching
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ACCURACY
While some look to the Internet as an innovative vehicle
for communication, the Court continues to warily and wearily view
it largely as one large catalyst for rumor, innuendo, and misinformation.
So as to not mince words, the Court reiterates that this so-called
Web provides no way of verifying the authenticity of the alleged
contentions that Plaintiff wishes to rely upon in his Response to
Defendant's Motion. There is no way Plaintiff can overcome the presumption
that the information he discovered on the Internet is inherently
untrustworthy. Anyone can put anything on the Internet. No web-site
is monitored for accuracy and nothing contained therein is under
oath or even subject to independent verification absent underlying
documentation. Moreover, the Court holds no illusions that hackers
can adulterate the content on any web-site from any location at
any time.
--St. Clair vs. Johnny's Oyster and Shrimp, Inc., 76 F.Supp.2d 773
(United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas,
Galveston Divison, December 17, 1999.)
Last updated 3/14/02 |
