One has to be wary of 3rd party sources when it comes to taxes. When one starts out "according to the IRS..." it more often than nought means "the way I read the IRS rules is....". So that's why there should always be a citation in such a highly distributed public publication such as US News & World Report.
While a majority of the IRS pubs that matter to me are pretty clear, there are just as many out there which are more of a "grey area" because they can be interpreted in more than one way. When I run across those (which is rare for me) I usually go looking for case law to see if it's already come up in the U.S. Federal tax court. If it has, then the judges ruling is the one and only correct interpretation. If it has not been addressed in tax court, then I tend to lean more in favor of the IRS in those grey areas, since I don't have the money to take the IRS to tax court over it.
You can check out the website yourself if you want, at https://www.ustaxcourt.gov/ When I'm looking for clarity on something I usually start under the "opinions" tab, as that will usually help me find the keywords I need to find a closed case or docket number on whatever it is I'm needing clarity on.
