Choosing a Path Forward in a Changed World.

• Author: Kennedy, James
• Position: Tax Executives Institute

It has been a year since COVID-19 changed our everyday lives in ways we never could have predicted.

As the vaccination effort intensifies and leads us to our "new normal," much is still uncertain. Although the nation understandably still focuses on the effects of the pandemic, we should not ignore the significant advancements that already have occurred in the United States and globally. At the same time, we need to look ahead, attempt to understand the potential implications to businesses and our role in them, analyze alternative scenarios, and choose a path forward in a changed world.

In our realm as corporate tax professionals, we're seeing new technology that enables corporate taxpayers to file tax returns more efficiently, game-changing developments in the federal, state, and international arenas, and innovations in business operations that already affect all of our members.

Just take a look at recent evolutionary changes in the corporate tax space:

* Digital taxation initiatives. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the G20 are grappling with the initiatives under the Pillar One and Two reports to determine how and where multinationals are taxed and how global minimum tax rates will be established. In addition, countries such as Canada are pursuing federal legislation addressing the taxation of foreign sellers and digital goods to ensure that our new economy does not disadvantage domestic companies. Ensuring that these approaches can be administered fairly and equitably remains an important priority for TEI's advocacy team.

* Post-tax reform implementations and regulation. There can be no doubt that the confluence of tax reform and remote work made 2019 and 2020 two of the most challenging filing seasons for corporate taxpayers. The United States continues to refine and implement tax reform measures, as evidenced by regulatory guidance regarding FTC, GILTI, FDH, and IRC 163(j). After weighing in on the substance of these developments, TEI is committed to helping members digest and understand the issues and opportunities they present.

* State reactions to tax reform and nexus expansion. In the United States, states continue efforts to assess whether and how they implement federal tax reform at the state level; the parameters of the economic nexus doctrine and marketplace facilitator laws; and whether to expand their sales tax bases and increase sales tax rates. Such mechanisms will no doubt be at the center of...