At the center of the tax world--TEI's Midyear Conference.

• Author: Silbiger, Mark
• Position: PRESIDENT'S LETTER - Conference news

For TEI, Washington, D.C., in the springtime usually means two things: cherry blossoms and our Midyear Conference. Well, this year, Mother Nature's timing was a bit off, and the blossoms showed up about two weeks later than usual. Regarding the second, however, we were right on time--in virtually every way. For the almost 500 tax professionals who joined us, my comments here will help refresh your memories. For those who were not able to join us, I am delighted to provide a complete--and yes, perhaps a little bit biased--report on the proceedings from the Institutes 65th midyear gathering--presidents prerogative.

Styled as Confronting Tax Challenges Around the World, our conference was anchored by four key tax policy decision-makers who served as conference keynoters and delivered remarks about the state of tax affairs from their particular perspectives. Lily Batchelder, deputy director of the National Economic Council and deputy assistant to the president, shared the Obama administrations perspective on the need for tax reform as a means to accelerate the current economic recovery and the need to make investments in infrastructure and education to enhance our economic future. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Developments Centre for Tax Policy and Administration Deputy Director Grace Perez-Navarro explored a broad range of base erosion and profit shifting-related developments and the status of the aggressive timeline for completing various actions. Deputy Assistant Secretary (International Affairs) Robert Stack addressed many of the U.S. positions related to the BEPS project, including country-by-country reporting regime and interest limitations, among others. Finally, we were pleased to welcome back IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, who addressed many of the challenges confronting the IRS as it works to balance its workload and reallocate its resources, all in the face of shrinking budgets. Welcoming senior policymakers is one of the hallmarks of our Midyear Conference, a continuing testament to the importance of TEI as a key stakeholder in the business tax community.

Emerging Tax Professionals

Equally impressive was the range of plenary and breakout sessions that were offered, enabling tax professionals to obtain cutting-edge content in both their areas of expertise or responsibility as well as those of more general interest. Achieving the right balance in subjects and topics is a definite challenge, and our committee chairs...