TEI midyear conference remarks of the honorable Douglas H. Shulman Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

• Position: Tax Executives Institute - Speech

On Monday, April 7, 2008, Douglas H. Shulman, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, addressed the 58th Midyear Conference of Tax Executives Institute in Washington, D.C. The address was Mr. Shulman's first since becoming Commissioner on March 24, 2008.

Good afternoon and thank you for that kind introduction and that warm welcome.

To begin with, I want to join all of you in congratulating Debbie Nolan [former Commissioner of the IRS's Large and Mid-Size Business Division]. I was not fortunate enough to work with Debbie, but it is easy to see the legacy she left at the IRS. And from what everyone has told me about her, I can't think of a better and more deserving recipient of the TEI Distinguished Service Award.

Her career was certainly distinguished and she dedicated her career to serving taxpayers.

Congratulations Debbie and thank you for your years of service to the IRS.

Also, before I get go any further, I would like to acknowledge and introduce two other people whom you all know well.

For the past six months Linda Stiff served as Acting Commissioner of IRS.

I have gotten to know Linda well during the past few months. I could not ask for a better partner and I look forward to working with her for years to come.

She is an outstanding leader who has done a great job guiding the agency through one of the most difficult filing seasons in memory. She was able to ensure that we could accommodate the late enactment by Congress of the AMT fix, and minimize the impact on taxpayers.

She, together with Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support Richard Spires, has also led the effort to ensure that the IRS could distribute economic stimulus checks to tens of millions of taxpayers beginning in May.

I plan on working closely with Linda during my tenure as IRS commissioner. Please join me in welcoming and thanking Linda Stiff for all of her efforts.

The other person I want to recognize is Frank Ng. Frank took the reins from Debbie last fall as the LMSB Commissioner.

He too is an excellent leader and he is committed to working with LMSB taxpayers in a professional and responsible manner.

Let's welcome and thank Frank Ng, the Commissioner of LMSB.

I have been on the job for two weeks and, frankly it was my intent not to make any public speeches this early in my tenure as Commissioner.

Rather, I wanted to spend my time listening and learning, getting to know the people at the IRS and understanding better the issues facing the institution.

However, one of the things I have come to understand is the critical importance of IRS' relationship with TEI. You are one of our most important stakeholders with a strong relationship that goes back many years.

As a result, it was an easy decision for me to be here today and for you to be the first group I address as IRS Commissioner.

People have described for me the cooperative relationship that we have with TEI even when we do not always agree on the issues. That relationship is premised on mutual respect and the willingness of the leaders of each organization to listen to the other.

I think the basis for that cooperation is the mutual willingness to work with the other to achieve a common objective.

For example, I am told that the level of cooperation between TEI and IRS on the development and implementation of the new Schedule M-3 was a model that illustrates the benefits that can be gained when the public and private sector work together.

This new form, which reconciles book-tax differences...