TEI 59th annual conference summary.

• Author: Siegmund, Monika M.
• Position: Tax Executives Institute

The following summary of TEI's 2004 Annual Conference was prepared by Monika M. Siegmund, chair of the Institute's Communications Committee.

TEI celebrated its 60th anniversary in style. High-spirited members, all finely decorated in colorful beads and boas, descended on New Orleans. TEI extends its special thanks to the sponsors who hosted a variety of welcoming receptions with true southern hospitality.

TEI worked just as hard as it played in the Big Easy. Lynn Jordan and Judy Zelisko opened the conference with a preview of the Corporate Tax Department Survey results. Members shared their thoughts and suggestions on how the data should be presented. Detailed findings from the survey will be available soon, as the final report is now at the printer. News of the survey's release will be posted on www.tei.org.

President Bush had not yet signed the 2004 tax bill as the conference convened; therefore, the legislative update was devoted more to a question-and-answer session. The provocative questions from Lindy Paull of PricewaterhouseCoopers and Richard Grafmeyer of Capitol Tax Partners (both in Washington, D.C.) were posed to the Treasury Department's Helen Hubbard. Shortly after the conference, the government issued substantial guidance that answered many of the questions.

The presentation by Stephen Boocock of Deloitte & Touche (Chicago) and Louis Carlow of PwC (Washington) was significantly updated from that which appeared in the binders to take into account new legislation. They outlined what actually happened to various proposed penalties and pointed out that there is an extended statute of limitations, which has retroactive effect. (Note: The updated handout was included on the CD-ROM distributed to registrants after the conference.)

LMSB Commissioner Deborah Nolan spoke at Monday's luncheon. In her remarks, she concentrated on the IRS goals of service, enforcement, and modernization, as well as the need for the IRS to balance those goals and ensure they are carried out responsibly. On the enforcement front, the IRS is planning to increase the audit coverage of the non-CIC (large case) group. LMSB's top priorities are the implementation of recent legislation, transfer pricing, and abusive tax transactions.

Tuesday's keynote address by Donald Nicolaisen, Chief Accountant for the SEC, focused on the need for including income tax discussions in the Management Discussion and Analysis. He also stressed the expectation that the tax function...