New Jersey Chapter "goes back to school".

TEI's New Jersey Chapter renewed its focus on continuing education in 2004 and is building upon that foundation in planning 2005 events. Led by current President Lawrence Gugenheim, attendance at chapter educational events has seen a considerable increase from previous years.

Held in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers's Florham Park office, the day-long chapter meeting in November drew a crowd of nearly 200. As the first meeting of the year, it provided timely guidance on the American Jobs Creation Act (AJCA) and featured the plenary session "The Practical Applications of the AJCA of 2004 and Prospects for Future Reform" lead by Oren Penn, former Chief International Tax Counsel for the Joint Committee on Taxation.

During its meeting, the chapter ran concurrent sessions for Federal, International, and State & Local topics, providing a topic of interest for all participants throughout. Other sessions during the day featured: a discussion on Homeland Investment, led by Alan Fischl of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who served as member of the committee that drafted the AJCA; Foreign Tax Credit Planning After the AJCA, led by Jonathan Lindroos of Ernst & Young; and a discussion on Schedule M3 Requirements, led by Robert Kilinskis of Deloitte.

Held in February, the second meeting of the year took place in conjunction with sponsors, Ernst & Young and drew approximately 150. Attendees participated in sessions covering a wide range of topics including: the Section 199 Manufacturing Exemption; State & Local Tax Planning under the AJCA; M&A-Tax-Free Exchanges; and Foreign Tax Desk Updates.

Then in March, with the assistance of Deloitte, the chapter hosted a roundtable meeting on Section 965, which drew approximately 30 attendees. Finally, on May 13th, New Jersey hosts its final all-day program, to be held in conjunction with KPMG, featuring a plenary session on FAS 109.

In an effort to attract new, younger members, the Chapter, with the assistance of Deloitte, has developed "Back to the Basics" training sessions. In December, the half-day course focused on the "Principles of Multistate Taxation" and drew approximately 40 attendees. A similar half-day session is planned for May and will focus on International Taxation.

Finally, the Chapter has "put its money where its mouth is" on the topic of education. In 2004-2005, the chapter increased the number of its annual scholarship awards from 2 to 3. At its February meeting, students from Rutgers University Graduate School, Ramapo College, and William Paterson were honored with $2,000 scholarship awards. The awards were presented at a luncheon hosted by Planitax, which welcomed the honorees, their professors and fellow students.