Midyear conference highlights TEI's strengths ... and opportunities.

• Author: Boyle, Michael P.
• Position: Tax Executives Institute - President's page

TEI's 56th Midyear Conference drew more than 600 tax executives. While the bulk of registrants live and work in the United States, the conference attracted members from Canada, Europe, and Asia. Those who travelled to Washington saw first hand the attributes that make Tax Executives Institute the premier association of tax professionals in the world.

First, there is nowhere else a Vice President of Tax or any other in-house tax professional can go to network with more peers than a TEI conference. The depth and breadth of "TEI talent"--and the extraordinary willingness of our members to share their insights and experiences (both good and bad)--are at once gratifying and inspiring. Whether you're talking about the moderators of our technical sessions or the give-and-take that exemplifies the 21 separate industry sessions, the effectiveness of the network (on topics as varied as section 404 material weaknesses to particular audit issues to motivating staff) is amazing.

Second, there is nowhere else a tax executive can go to learn from "the brightest and the best" of the practitioner community or, for that matter, from the most important government tax officials. At this year's Midyear, we benefitted from having Treasury Secretary John Snow, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas participate as keynote speakers. We may not always agree with what these senior officials say, but it is better to be informed and perhaps a bit uncomfortable than to be uninformed and (foolishly) content. Indeed, "content" is hardly the word that most tax executives would use to describe themselves in 2006--not with the vagaries of FAS 109, Sarbanes-Oxley, recent IRS enforcement thrusts, and a raft of other issues confronting them. For more than six decades, TEI has been a preeminent provider of in-house tax education because in-house tax professionals always leave our conferences more informed and able to cope with the challenges of the day than they were when they arrived. And they do so at a cost that is always competitive and often is as little as half or even a third of other programs.

Third, there is nowhere else a tax executive can go to participate, with a minimum of folderol and bureaucracy in top-flight advocacy efforts. At the Midyear Conference, the Institute's committees and task forces held meetings on several important projects, including Notice 2006-34, relating to cross-licensing arrangements; tax reform; and...