Change - it's everywhere.

• Author: Macfarlane, Sandy
• Position: Tax Executives Institute advocacy - President's page

No matter who said it first--Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, or someone else--the message remains true to this very day: The only real constant is change. In the tax world, change is everywhere, in international tax policy developments, administrative and regulatory reorganizations, and expansion of financial reporting regimes, not to mention the evolving presidential contest. The constancy of change presents the in-house tax professional and the businesses they serve with the never-ending challenge of sorting through the various rumors, trial balloons, and white papers to identify real changes and, perhaps most difficult, the challenge of preparing for the consequences precipitated by these changes.

Thus, as we move into 2016, TEI's responsibility to monitor developments across a broad spectrum of technical, policy, and management dimensions around the world takes on an even greater import as we strive to provide educational, advocacy, and networking value to our members.

Our upcoming Midyear Conference represents a prime example of our efforts at work. We have built this years conference around the theme of Change and Its Consequences, with particular sensitivity to the numerous and interconnected cause-and-effect relationships that are pervading our tax world. To help make sense of some of them and frame our three-day conference, the opening plenary session will feature a discussion among three of our professions leading tax practitioners: Timothy Tuerff, Mary Bennett, and Joel Williamson. Drawing on their extensive experience in the areas of planning, policy, and controversy, respectively, each will try to help us make sense of many of the key trends and crosscurrents confronting us today, as well as provide their insights about how to effectively cope with them. Within this framework, our program will also feature keynote addresses from four of the leading policymakers whose organizations have direct and ongoing impacts on us and the work we do: Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen, Financial Accounting Standards Board Vice Chairman James Kroeker, U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, and IRS Chief Counsel William Wilkins.

In addition, the educational agendas at the Midyear and Annual conferences and selected seminars will for the first time feature skills-based programming (in contrast to technical tax education). Often labeled enabling or soft skills, these attributes continue to take on greater...