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local and community services associated with all
citizens in the state of Washington. All people who
sell there [sic] homes are uniformly assessed this
excise property sales tax. This is in effect a
property tax that is collected on the sale of every
home in the entire state of Washington and should be
able to be deducted the same as any other state who has
a State Income Tax that would be recognized as
deductible and would be allowed on the Schedule A 1040
form.
In support of their contention, petitioners rely on the Internal
Revenue Service’s Form 1040 Instructions for Schedule A, Line 6,
Real Estate Taxes, which state in relevant part:
Include taxes (state, local, or foreign) you paid on
real estate you own that was not used for business, but
only if the taxes are based on the assessed value of
the property. Also, the assessment must be made
uniformly on property throughout the community, and the
proceeds must be used for general community or
governmental purposes. * * *”
As a preliminary matter, however, we observe that
Instructions are not authoritative sources of law in the tax
field. Casa De La Jolla Park, Inc. v. Commissioner, 94 T.C. 384,
396 (1990). Taxpayers must look to authoritative sources of
Federal tax law such as the statutes, regulations, or judicial
decisions. Green v. Commissioner, 59 T.C. 456, 458 (1972).
Thus, we begin our analysis by looking to State law to
determine whether Washington State’s real estate excise tax
satisfies the definition of a real property tax for Federal
income tax purposes; i.e., whether it is a tax imposed on an
interest in real property. If the Washington State real estate
excise tax does not constitute a State real property tax for
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