Talk:Internal Revenue Code section 61

Possible merger of articles?
Dear fellow editors: Should this article be merged with Gross income? Just a thought. Yours, Famspear 21:00, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Actually, I think Gross income is currently too U.S.-centric. It's a universal book-keeping concept not limited to this (or any) tax code. Perhaps we should think of better ways to present the vast material in the IRC. bd2412  T 21:04, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Sources of income
A fellow editor inserted the following verbiage:


 * The legal meaning of the term "source" is also explicitly addressed in the Internal Revenue Code section 861 of the US Regulations found in Subchapter N part 1, aptly named "Determination of Sources of Income."

I moved the material here, for the following reason. Section 861 does not really address the meaning of the term "source" as used in section 61. What section 861 does is state which items of income are treated as "income from sources within the United States." The primary import of this treatment has to do with the application of Subchapter N of Chapter 1 of the Code.

It's one thing to say that Subchapter N deals with determination of sources of income; it's another thing to say that Subchapter N addresses the legal meaning of the term "source" itself.

The term "source" as used in section 61 (and in section 861, for that matter) is not really specifically defined in section 861, or in section 61, or in any other place in the Internal Revenue Code.

Further, it's not entirely clear whether the meaning of the term "source" as used in one Code section is necessarily going to be the same as the meaning in another Code section. The Internal Revenue Code is notorious for this kind of complexity, unfortunately.

Section 61, dealing with gross income, is about as all-encompassing as you can get. The Code provisions that pare down the definition of "gross income" (and that is really more important than the meaning of the term "source") are found in sections 101 through about 138 or so, if I recall correctly. Yours, Famspear 21:03, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Organization and merger
I organized the article by section and subsection according to type of income. Then I merged content from the article Income tax and compensation for services. Much of it needs to be better worked in and given context as well expanding the other types of income.EECavazos 02:42, 16 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks to editor EECavazos for this work! Yours, Famspear 04:02, 16 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Looks good, Thanks Morphh   (talk) 12:56, 16 October 2007 (UTC)