TEI carries on; 56th Annual Conference opens in Boston.

• Position: Recent Activities

Heeding President Bush's call for carrying on business as usual, more than 500 TEI members and guests gathered in Boston in October to discuss pending tax legislation, effective tax rates, implementation of global systems, tax accounting topics, and international traps such as hovering deficits and sourcing of royalties. The three-day conference was held at the Boston Marriott Copley Plaza on October 22-24.

Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Weinberger opened the conference on Monday morning by congratulating TEI Executive Director Michael J. Murphy on his upcoming retirement. "Mike has done an outstanding job of representing you, "he told the participants.

Mr. Weinberger then turned to the Treasury's business plan, noting that the government has already completed 80 of the 299 projects on the plan. He stated that the research tax credit regulations will be re-issued before the end of the year, adding that Treasury "has taken to heart" the comments received about the regulations, which were suspended earlier this year. We are moving away from the discovery test, he promised, and will revisit the documentation requirements. He noted that the department is also working on ways providing bright-line guidance on capitalization issues.

In the international area, the Assistant Secretary reported that the United States has signed two new treaties with the United Kingdom and Australia. For the first time, he added, the withholding tax on dividends has been reduced to zero under the U.K. treaty. Treasury has also opened negotiations with Japan for the first time in 20 years and is in discussion with Canada, Korea, France, and Hungary.

Mr. Weinberger closed by referring to the economic stimulus package under consideration by Congress. He noted that the Administration is aiming for a broad-based package that includes a 30-percent "bonus" depreciation measure, the repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax, and the acceleration of the rate reductions already enacted.

Economic stimulus was also the subject of comments by Ways and Means Committee Member Richard Neal later that day. The Massachusetts' congressman predicted that the package had a 50-50 chance of passage. He then discussed several bills he has introduced this session, including the extension of the Subpart F exception for active financing income and the expensing of high technology equipment over three years. In his remarks the following day, IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti thanked...