TEC initiatives.

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

Editor's note: Professor Purcell is Vice Chair of the AICPA Tax Division's Tax Executive Committee. DC Currents is designed to heighten awareness of the AICPA Tax Division's work and keep readers apprised of Division activities involving tax policy, technical issues and other practice support matters.

As a senior technical committee of the AICPA, the Tax Executive Committee (TEC) is authorized to speak for it on tax matters, and is also designated by governing Council as a standard-setting body. However, numerous other committees, technical resource panels (TRPs) and task forces initiate and develop proposed solutions to policy issues and technical and tax administration problems, for the TEC's consideration and approval. They also initiate proposals for products and services that add value for members in tax practice.

Since the last cut-off date for this column (Sept. 15, 2003; see Purcell, "TEC Initiatives," TTA, November 2003, p. 693), the TEC met once (Nov. 9-10, 2003) and exercised its review function on several projects. TEC actions taken after Dec. 1, 2003 will be reported in a future column.

Tax Division Administrative Issues

The TEC began implementing the Tax Section strategic plan at its November 2003 meeting The plan emphasizes protecting the public interest, by stressing three elements: (1) ethics; (2) product and service delivery to members; and (3) Washington, De, representation. The final plan was published in the January 2004 issue of the Tax Section Newsletter and is also available at www.aicpa.org/members/div/ tax/index.htm.

Self-Governance Activities

At its August 2003 meeting, the TEC approved the comments received on the exposure draft of Statements on Standards for Tax Services Inter-pretation 1-2, Tax Planning (available at www.aicpa.org/download/tax/ed_021111_interp_1-2.pdf). The Interpretation (together with an explanatory article) was published in the December 2003 issue of the Journal of Accountancy (JOA) and became enforceable on Dec. 31, 2003; see Karl, "Tax Planning Services for Clients or Employers," JOA, December 2003, p. 69. In November 2003, the TEC formed a task force to consider how actions taken by the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility (formerly, the IRS Director of Practice) should be integrated with the AICPA's new "automatic sanctioning" procedures.

Technical Activities

Tax practice: Tax Committees and TRPs continue to publish tax practice guides and checklists for use by tax advisers during...