NJ Chapter's fall & winter 2012 activities.

• Author: Cevoli, Paul
• Position: Chapter News ...

On September 28, 2012, the NJ Chapter held an all-day seminar at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick, NJ co-sponsored by EisnerAmper LLP, an accounting, tax and consulting services provider with U.S. offices in NJ, NY and PA. For the fourth year, this Fall seminar focused entirely on ACS 740/FIN 48; its consistently challenging interpretations and the broad scope of its reporting issues. Following introductory remarks by moderator Paul Dougherty of the firm's Large Corporate Tax Group, the first panel of speakers tackled SOX 404 and tax related material weakness issues. Four additional panels concentrated on federal, international, and state and local issues. The seminar also hosted a key-note speech by Caren Franzini of the NJ Economic Development Agency.

On October 17, 2012, the NJ Chapter of TEI held a Joint Workshop with the IRS at the Becton Dickinson facilities in Franklin Lakes, NJ. The workshop was led by Joe Chirichella, Senior Tax Director at BD and John Mezquita, IRS Team Manager, and was intended to educate TEI members and IRS exam team members on some of the issues facing today's taxpayers in the preparation of corporate tax returns and how, through transparency and cooperation, an efficient IRS exam can be conducted. The session had three key components: 1) a discussion of corporate books and records, led by Joe, 2) a discussion on the Examination Process, led by John, and 3) a discussion on the Financial Statement and Tax Reconciliation process, also led by Joe.

In Joe's sessions, he walked the group through the process from the birth of the financial data in the form of financial statements and general ledger transactions, the tax data collection process, the completion and filing of the income tax return, and ultimately the IRS exam of the return. Issues as simple as trial balance uploads were discussed as well as some of the more controversial areas such as the Schedule UTP and the tax reserve process required under FIN 48. The discussion wrapped up with Joe's contention that a spirit of cooperation and transparency is what is required to achieve a timely, successful closure of the audit, ultimately leading to currency with examinations and an optimization of Company and IRS resources. While Joe spoke mainly from the BD experience and the successes achieved with the current and prior BD IRS exam teams, not all taxpayers present shared similar experiences with their exam teams. However, all clearly recognized that the...