Chapter programs showcase TEI's best: fall travels ... and from the mailbag.

• Author: McCormally, Timothy J.
• Position: Less Taxing Matters

This fall has been an incredibly busy time for TEI and its chapters. During September, I was pleased to attend two very special chapter meetings. The first was the New York Chapter's Fifth Annual Financial Services Conference, which was held in Manhattan the third week of September. The conference, which the chapter hosted in conjunction with the IRS's Large and Mid-Size Business Division, provided TEI members and other tax professionals the opportunity to meet with their IRS counterparts and to attend sessions on Schedule M-3, Corporate E-Filing, LMSB's new Compliance Assurance Process, Reportable Transactions, and Penalty Administration, as well as breakout sessions on banking, securities, and insurance issues. Deputy IRS Chief Counsel Don Rocen delivered an informative luncheon address at which he announced a Chief Counsel initiative to study and revamp the process for providing "case-specific" guidance (such as private letter rulings, technical advice requests, and pre-filing agreements). Congratulations to Chapter President Barry Agranoff, Conference Chair Paul Heller, LMSB Financial Services Industry Director Paul DeNard, and their colleagues in the New York Chapter and LMSB for planning and executing an outstanding conference.

The second meeting was held a week later in Troy, Michigan. Cosponsored by the Detroit Chapter and the Association for Computers & Taxation (ACT), the 2005 Tax Technology Day attracted a near capacity crowd at the Michigan State University's Management Education Center in Troy. Among the topics covered were document management systems, e-filing (again!), managing the human side of change, automating your provision process, and "cool tools"--that is to say, nifty new programs or devices to improve productivity and, just possibly, inject a bit of fun in a tax executive's use of technology. The program also featured a mini-vendor exposition that permitted registrants to view the latest products and services in the tax technology realm. I congratulate Detroit Chapter President Jim Seiwert, as well as Kevin Little, for their efforts in planning the program, and extend TEI's appreciation to our colleagues at ACT for making this "experiment in collaboration" a total success.

While the chapters remain the venue where most TEI members and their staffs receive their training, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Institute's September 22-23 seminar on Financial Reporting for Tax Executives. From beginning to end...