TEI - an antidote for workload expansion and time compression.

• Author: Bernard, David L.
• Position: Tax Executives Institute

All one had to do to confirm how much FIN 48 and financial reporting issues have transformed the role of the tax executive is to have walked into the Constitution Ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Washington on Tuesday morning during TEI's 2007 Midyear Conference. There you would have seen an ample display of the challenges--and opportunities--spawned by the Financial Accounting Standards Board's pronouncement on accounting for uncertain tax positions.

The two-hour session went beyond the basics to offering conference registrants practical suggestions on dealing with the FIN 48. Top-notch practitioners and highly experienced TEI members exchanged ideas on dealing with the changes FIN 48 has wrought in terms of how TEI members interact with their audit committees and upper management, their auditors, their outside tax advisers, and federal, state, and foreign tax authorities.

The session was at once daunting and reassuring. Daunting because it underscored that FIN 48 is a multi-headed monster, requiring nimbleness, integrated multidisciplinary approaches, and the skill and patience of a three-dimensional chess player. Reassuring because it confirmed (in a "misery loves company" sort of way) that none of us is in this alone; we have lots of company. More important, it was reassuring because it demonstrated that, while we may find the demands of FIN 48 unrelenting, we have plenty of help available.

That help, of course, can come from many sources. The Midyear Conference brought together the best and the brightest of the tax profession--attorneys, accountants, government officials, and software developers. Most important, it brought together nearly 600 tax executives who willingly shared their experiences, ideas, and, yes, frustrations with FIN 48 and all its permutations. For more than six decades, TEI has excelled at providing an environment in which tax executives can network with, and learn from, one another. To be sure, being a tax professional has never been easy, but in the era of FIN 48 and its "transparency cousins," the need for help--for a safety net--is especially pronounced. TEI is that safety net.

I am proud of the multifaceted way TEI's committees and staff have responded to the challenges posed by FIN 48. The Institute moved beyond hand-wringing to solution-finding, and we not only stepped forward to provide our members with training on the what, why, and wherefore of FIN 48, but we engaged--early and often--the FASB on the practical...