If it's Cherry Blossom time, TEI's midyear conference must be poised to bloom: tax reform, financial reporting issues combine with technical tax issues to create "can't miss" program.

• Position: Tax Executives Institute

For five-and-a-half decades tax executives have traveled to Washington, D.C., in the early spring to review tax developments, renew acquaintances and friendships with their colleagues in industry, government, and the consulting community, and preview what might lie ahead on the tax policy, tax planning, and tax administration fronts. For many of the past 55 years, Tax Executives Institute's Midyear Conference in Washington has coincided with the city's Annual Cherry Blossom Festival, and that will be the case in 2006. TEI's 56th Midyear Conference will convene at the Grand Hyatt Washington on March 26, amidst festivities to commemorate Japan's 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees. While the overlap puts a premium on TEI members making their hotel reservations early, it is unlikely they will find much time to enjoy the blossoms. Instead, they will find themselves fully occupied with legislative and accounting updates as well as a full complement of sessions on U.S. and foreign audit issues, partnership taxation, and tax shelter developments.

The program will kick off with a keynote address and panel on legislative developments, including an update on the tax reform proposals expected to be included in the Bush Administration's FY2007 budget.

"Nearly all legislation is the result of compromise," TEI President Michael P. Boyle noted. "And TEI's Midyear Conference will give registrants an opportunity to hear from government officials and leading experts about the compromises that may be in store for taxpayers in the next year or two. Will fundamental tax reform advance or will Congress and the Administration just pick around the edges? Will the tax system be reshaped to make the United States more competitive in the global market or will business taxpayers find themselves, as they did in 1986, paying the bill for individual tax reform."

He invited all TEI members to "Come to Washington this Spring to see."

Another topic that will be explored in depth during the conference is how to prevent material weaknesses in internal controls and manage the tax-audit relationship. "These issues are becoming more and more significant to tax professionals," Mr. Boyle explained. "We will also hold concurrent sessions on financial and tax accounting developments as well as FAS 109 issues at the state level." Closely related will be a session focusing on the "public part" of IRS audits, including statement disclosures and the release of tax reserves. Another session...