TEI's Washington liaison meetings cover numerous topics.

• Position: Tax Executives Institute

Despite the rise of Facebook and Twitter, in-person meetings offer one of the most effective means of establishing rapport and strengthening relationships with colleagues in the tax profession. For decades, TEI has fostered important relationships with decision-makers at the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of the Treasury through its annual liaison meetings. That tradition continued February 29 and March i when members of TEI's Executive Committee and its key committee chairs sat down for separate meetings with (a) the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and many of his top advisors; (b) officials from the IRS's Large Business & International Division; and (c) representatives of the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy.

"These regular meetings with policymakers and administrators represent a key component of TEI's relationship with the government. They give participants an opportunity to observe and assess how policies and procedures are being implemented--what's working well and should be maintained and, as important, what is not working well and can be improved," said David M. Penney, the Institute's International President.

The first day of meetings began with a trip to the Mint Building for a meeting with officials from LB&I. Deputy LB&I Commissioner (Operations) Paul DeNard welcomed the TEI delegation and noted the value of this ongoing dialogue between TEI and LB&I. Teri Wielenga of the Orange County Chapter (and TEI's Secretary) began a discussion of LB&I efforts to enhance its transfer pricing practice, which has included transferring administration of the advance pricing agreement program from the Office of Chief Counsel to the LB&I Division, and combining it with the mutual agreement process to form the Advance Pricing and Mutual Agreement program. Samuel M. Maruca, Director, Transfer Pricing Operations, noted that combining the two processes will streamline decision-making and negotiation with treaty partners and eliminate hand-offs between Chief Counsel and LB&I; the changes should make the whole system more efficient. Additionally, Mr. Maruca mentioned that LB&I had added 35 people to the unit representing a 50-percent increase in resources with new personnel hired in offices across the country, including economists assigned to New York and Chicago.

The discussion shifted from reorganization efforts to projects designed to enhance transparency--specifically, the IRS's preliminary findings from the first...