TEI liaison meetings: Office of Tax Policy liaison meeting.

• Position: TECHNICAL SUBMISSIONS

On February 27,2015, a delegation from Tax Executives Institute met with Mark J. Mazur, Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy and other officials of the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy. The following minutes were prepared by Tax Executives Institute and, although reviewed by the Office of Tax Policy, they have not been formally approved by the Treasury Department. The agenda for the meeting was submitted in advance and was published in the May/June 2015 issue of Tax Executive magazine and on TEI's website.

Department of the Treasury Delegation

Mark. J. Mazur, Assistant Secretary (Tax Policy)

Robert Stack, Deputy Assistant Secretary (International Tax Affairs)

Danielle E. Rolfes, International Tax Counsel

Tom West, Tax Legislative Counsel

TEI Delegation

Mark C. Silbiger, The Lubrizol Corporation, TEI International President

Charles N. (Sandy) Macfarlane, Chevron, TEI Senior Vice President

Janice L. Lucchesi, TEI Secretary

Robert L. Howren, BlueLinx Corporation, TEI Treasurer

Paul Magrath, AstraZeneca Canada, Inc., TEI Executive Committee

Karen E. Miller, FusionStorm, TEI Executive Committee

Gary P. Steinberg, Level 3 Communications, Inc., TEI Executive Committee

David E. Stevens, Cook Inlet Region, Inc., TEI Executive Committee

Ernest N. Gates, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Chair, TEI IRS Administrative Affairs Committee

Gary P. Hickman, OldCastle, Inc., Chair, TEI Federal Tax Committee

Eli J. Dicker, TEI Executive Director

W. Patrick Evans, TEI Chief Tax Counsel

Benjamin R. Shreck, TEI Tax Counsel

Lee Gillespie-White, TEI Corporate Counsel

Welcome and Introductions

Mr. Silbiger expressed his gratitude for the open dialogue between TEI members and the Office of Tax Policy (OTP) during these annual liaison meetings and thanked Mr. Mazur and the members of his staff for taking the time to meet with the Institutes delegation.

2015 Office of Tax Policy Priorities and Challenges

TEI's delegation invited a discussion of OTP's current tax policy priorities and challenges. Mr. Mazur said that OTP faces budget challenges, but will retain a staff complement of approximately 100 for the foreseeable future. He said that the IRS is much more constrained and is currently under a hiring freeze with very few exceptions. OTP is reviewing the IRS and Treasury priority guidance plan to ensure items placed on the plan are the true top priorities. OTP is devoting resources to business tax reform, he said. Other priorities are implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project

TEI's delegation stated that the BEPS project was of great interest to TEI's membership and asked about progress under the 15 items in the BEPS Action Plan since its publication in 2013 and whether discussions were moving toward consensus among participating states. Mr. Stack thanked TEI for its helpful written comments on BEPS and said that OTP has been forward-leaning on certain issues, such as transfer pricing and the arm's length standard. He added that he did not believe it was possible to achieve consensus on certain transfer pricing issues. Mr. Stack expressed the possibility that certain approaches may be rejected by the United States because OTP disagrees with views expressed on minimal functional entities and certain other transfer pricing positions being advanced by countries at the OECD. In addition, the United States views the refusal of other countries to agree to mandatory binding arbitration in the...