TEC initiatives.

• Author: Purcell, Thomas J., III
• Position: DC Currents

Since the last cut-off date for this column (Sept. 15, 2005; see TTA, November 2005, p. 702), the AICPA Tax Division's Tax Executive Committee (TEC) met once (Oct. 31, 2005) and exercised its review function on several projects. TEC actions taken after Dec. 15, 2005 will be reported in a future column.

Tax Policy Advocacy

The TEC plays a major role on behalf of all 350,000+ AICPA members by interacting with tax policymakers. As a senior policymaking committee, its official positions are those of the AICPA, unless the Board of Directors overrides them. These positions cover a variety of forums, including detailed reactions to proposed legislation and other official regulatory guidance. All positions are developed by experts--the volunteer members of the Tax Division's various committees, technical resource panels (TRPs) and task forces, and AICPA staff. Proposed positions are extensively reviewed either by the TEC or a subset of its members, before they are approved as official positions. In contrast to some other professional groups, in which commentary usually represents the views of the individual members of a specific subgroup, the TRPs and committees cannot take official positions without the TEC's endorsement, thus ensuring that positions taken represent the AICPA's official policy.

Policy studies: The TEC has issued a series of tax policy studies, intended to provide a neutral context for analyzing a variety of tax proposals; see, e.g., Tax Policy Concept Statement 1: Guiding Principles of Good Tax Policy: A Framework for Evaluating Tax Proposals, available at http://tax.aicpa.org/NR/ rdonlyres/AC230E51-D650-4D65-B160-C7450A9381F4/0/2I_08a.pdf. It has also undertaken in-depth studies that address specific, broad, tax policy proposals. For example, in March 2005, it issued a Social Security reform study; see Understanding Social Security Reform: The Issues and Alternatives, available at www.aicpa.org/members/soc sec.htm. Last September, fundamental tax reform was tackled; see Understanding Tax Reform: A Guide to 21st Century Alternatives, available at http://tax.aicpa.org; see under "News and other Center Communications." The TEC also conducts joint studies with other professional groups. For example, the report, titled Reform of Federal Wealth Transfer Taxes, was the result of collaboration among the TEC, the American Bar Association, the American Bankers Association and estate planning professional groups. The report is available at...