What Are Title 11, Chapter 7, Section 179, and Pub 17?
All the permanent federal laws of the United States called the US Code (USC) are organized into 50 books or “Titles”. Each Title or book is further subdivided into chapters and sections. The Internal Revenue Code is in the 26th book hence it is alternatively known as Title 26 of the US Code. Legal “stuff” pertaining to bankruptcy is found in the 11th book of the US Code, hence Title 11. Provisions, for example, of the specific part of the US bankruptcy law that pertain to individual reorganization of debt are described in Chapter 13 of Title 11, USC. Similarly, Chapter 7 of Title 11 of the USC describes the process of liquidation of assets under straight bankruptcy; Chapter 11, (typical) business reorganization, Chapter 12, family farmer reorganization. In a different example, Section 179 of the US Internal Revenue Code (26 USC ยง 179) is a provision in the tax code that allows a taxpayer to choose whether or not to deduct the cost of some qualified asset from their taxable income as an
