Departments and Columns

TEI Launches New Brand to Connect, Engage, and Impact

The Pros and Cons of Flexible Staffing
The Expert: Nancy Barrett

Question: Is Flexible Staffing the Best Option for Your Firm? Answer: Tax directors often request my input into how to structure their departments around their most valuable and limited resource—people. My response is always nuanced, cautioning that the answer is highly dependent on a defined core mission and the intended… Read more »

States Adopt Varying Approaches to Federal Tax Reform

It has been an exciting year in the state and local tax world, with tax authorities and legislators racing to interpret and respond to federal tax reform.1 Businesses facing looming filing deadlines spent the first part of the year making sense of their reporting requirements for the 2017 tax year.… Read more »

An Open Letter to the IRS
Re: The next chapter of U.S. tax administration—observations and recommendations

Dear Commissioner [Charles P.] Rettig and Chief Counsel nominee [Michael J.] Desmond: As you assume your new roles, we would respectfully like to convey our recommendations for the improvement of tax administration. These recommendations are based on our own experiences interacting with the agency, as well as detailed discussions with… Read more »

Don’t Mess With the IRS

Later in this issue of Tax Executive, you will read an article by an Alston & Bird tax professional on the subject of tax evasion, a serious crime. According to the IRS Criminal Investigation Division’s 2017 Annual Report, in 2017 alone 1,811 of the 3,019 investigations it initiated were for… Read more »

Julia Lagun

Some say that practicing tax law is like playing chess. If that’s true, then Julia Lagun, a competitive chess player since age four, has had quite a lot of practice. Lagun, senior vice president and senior tax director at KeyCorp, has always been good with numbers and puzzles and has… Read more »

TEI Launches New Institute Brand

It’s an exciting time for TEI and its members. As the Institute looks toward the future and continues to evaluate how it can best serve members, embarking on strategic initiatives that propel the Institute forward and position TEI as the go-to organization for expert information and advisement is essential. It… Read more »

Emerging Leader: Dina Armstrong

Is there a connection among math, puzzles, and tax? For Dina Armstrong, there just might be. “I have always enjoyed math and puzzles, and the fact that I could work with the two together has been a motivating goal for me,” she explains. And when, in her junior year in… Read more »

The Holiday Season

To most, the holiday season usually means vacations, physical time away from the office (although being fully disconnected is a dream of the past), gatherings among family and friends, Feast of the Seven Fishes, and heated political arguments. Oh, sorry—that’s just my family. For us in the tax world, the… Read more »

Tax Advantages of Family Office Structure
Concept can take many shapes and sizes

As a family grows and transitions toward succeeding generations, not all family members may be interested in or have the skills appropriate to managing the family’s assets. At the same time, the family’s assets may be chunky, or it may be difficult or undesirable to divide the assets to give… Read more »