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Search tips

Choose words that accurately describes your research issue.
If a keyword search does not find the information you need, consider the following issues.

Using legal or specialized language

As you choose keywords, consider who wrote the material that you seek. Most libraries containing official source material use legal language that makes keyword searching more challenging.

Keywords too specific

Consider whether your topic might be part of a broader issue. Do not get too caught up in specifics. Ask yourself, what else might relate to my particular issue?

Keywords too generic

Stay away from commonly used words such as tax and deduction. Because they occur so frequently, they may not get you any closer to the results you seek.
Additionally, prepositions (for example, to, on) and articles (for example, the, a) will not always be accepted for search purposes, due to the high frequency with which they occur. For example, if you use "the" as your first or last keyword, Checkpoint warns you that your keywords are too common to be searched.
Yet, there is no problem if you use words such as "the" or "and" as part of a phrase. For example, the keyword string "ordinary and necessary expenses" (with quotes) would retrieve documents containing ordinary and necessary expenses, ordinary or necessary expenses, and so forth.

Hyphens and hyphenated compound words

Hyphens are searchable. If you type e-mail, documents containing at least one occurrence of e-mail with hyphens will be retrieved. Additionally, all occurrences of e-mail and e mail will be retrieved.
Using hyphens when searching for compound word search terms will generate the broadest search results possible.

Acronyms

Taxation and finance-related documents are filled with acronyms of names of institutions, government agencies, tax concepts, etc. Checkpoint makes use of "equivalencies" to ensure that, for terms with popular acronyms, searches retrieve both the expanded name and its acronym.
Some examples include Net Operating Loss (NOL), Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

Codes or regulations with parentheses

Type the code section or regulation citation in the Keywords field using quotation marks, for example, "381(c)(4)". Or use Citation Search to find the Code section, Statute, or Regulations Number.
Search tips