Midyear conference: will 2012 set the table for U.S. tax reform?

• Position: Conference news

TEI President David M. Penney announced the opening of registration for TEI's 2012 Midyear Conference with the observation that, "Election-year rhetoric is often dismissed as 'sound and fury signifying nothing,' but the looming expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, the automatic budget sequestrations set for January 1, 2013, and the perennial battle over tax extender legislation for the R&E credit and AMT relief make the coming year one of the most portentous for a tax policy debate since 1985." And that's just on the U.S. federal tax policy side. "State and foreign governments" he added, "are themselves ratcheting up the pressure on business taxes as they deal with austerity measures and debt problems."

Participants in the TEI conference, which convenes at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, D.C., on March 25, 2012, will hear from distinguished panelists about competing visions and proposals for a U.S. corporate tax overhaul and how they clash with budget realities, entitlements, and slow economic growth. In addition to addressing the prospects for tax reform (including the financial reporting implications of a territorial tax system), the conference will cover state and local aspects of cloud computing, the IRS's new transfer pricing operations, and developing a world-class tax department.

The Honorable William J. Wilkins, IRS Chief Counsel, will be one of the conference's keynote speakers. He will be joined by Steven T. Miller, Deputy Commissioner (Services and Enforcement), who will address the group on Monday, March 26. In addition, in a first for a TEI conference, a representative of the United Nations (Michael Lennard) will participate. Other government speakers are not yet confirmed, but Scott Dinwiddie, Special Counsel to Associate Chief Counsel for Income Tax and Accounting, is expected to participate and to report on the IRS's long-awaited "tangible regulations."

Other conference sessions will include:

* Key Financial Reporting Issues in Accounting for Income Taxes in Tax Controversies

* It's All in the Family: Federal Tax Considerations in Intra-group Restructuring

* Unwinding State Structures after FIN 48

* Financial Reporting Developments, including FIN 48 Post-Implementation Review

* Managing the Risks of a Mobile, Global Workforce

* Top 10 Partnership Tax Developments

* An Investor's View of Tax

* Cash Tax Savings--The Government Giveth and the Government...