Traditional trace links are established directly between source and target artefacts. This requires that the target artefact exists when the trace is established. We introduce the concept of indirect trace links between a source artefact and a knowledge organization structure, e.g. a taxonomy. This allows the creation of links (we call them taxonomic traces) before target artefacts are created. To gauge the viability of this concept and approach, we developed a prototype, TT-RecS, that allows to create such trace links either manually or with the help of a recommender system. © 2020 IEEE.