Will TEI ever run out of things to do? Inconceivable!(Tax Executives Institute)

• Author: McCormally, Timothy J.

One of my family's favorite movies is "The Princess Bride." The film by Rob Reiner, from the novel and screenplay by William Goldman, is wonderfully witty and more than a little ironic. (Any movie that features Andre the Giant and Wallace Shawn, to say nothing of Billy Crystal and Carol Kane, in supporting roles may not appeal to Ivory Merchant fans but deserves the popular appeal that "The Princess Bride" enjoys.) For readers who have been so distracted by the tax law for the past decade and a half that they have missed this gem, "The Princess Bride" tells the story of efforts to stop the evil Prince Humperdinck to compel the beautiful Princess Buttercup to marry him on the occasion of his country's 500th anniversary, murder her, and then blame a neighboring country, as a pretense to war. Oh, and of the Princess Bride's quest to find true love.

The movie is replete is good scenes and memorable lines. What prompted it to come to mind as I was thinking about this column is a comment made by Prince Humperdinck when he is invited by one of his aides to watch him torture Westley, Buttercup's paramour and the hero of the story:

 You know how much I love watching you work. But

I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Guilder to frame for it. I'm swamped.

The TEI Tsunami

While our activities don't rise to the level of Prince Humperdinck's (and our motives are clearly much more laudatory), we too have been swamped here at TEI. The tsunami that has wrecked the most havoc with the Institute's deadlines and priorities has been our new website, which was successfully launched on the last Monday of August. (My thanks to Tax Counsel Jeff Rasmussen, who has ably served as Project Manager, and the other members of the Institute's staff for their efforts.) Even without the tidal wave of tasks associated with the "go live" decision (and the surfeit of post-launch aftershocks), we would have had a momentous, if not tortuous, summer.

For example, our technical committees and legal staff engaged in a full complement of advocacy activities, including the new Schedule M-3, the section 482 services regulations, and the on-again, off-again tax law. Several TEI members also stepped in front of the camera to participate in an IRS training video on the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on tax compliance and administration. The program, sponsored by LMSB and Deloitte & Touche, featured a panel discussion in which...