The American Institute of CPAs has named Thomas J. Purcell III to a two-year term as chairman of its Tax Executive Committee, the tax policy and standards-setting body of the AICPA.
Purcell, the first educator to lead the committee, is an associate accounting professor and law professor at Creighton University in Omaha, where he has been on the faculty since 1979. Prior to joining the Creighton faculty, he was a tax consultant for Touche Ross & Co.
The tax executive committee represents AICPA members on tax matters being considered by Congress, the Internal Revenue Service, the Treasury Department and other public groups, and oversees the work of the institute's Tax Division.
Purcell has served as a member of the AICPA Council, the Tax Executive Committee, the Pre-certification Education Executive Committee, the Tax Accounting Committee, the Tax Policy Committee and on numerous AICPA tax task forces. He has also chaired the board of directors of the Nebraska Society of CPAs and served twice as a board member.
Separately, the AICPA honored Robert M. Rosen as this year's recipient of the Arthur J. Dixon Memorial Award, the profession's highest award in the area of taxation.
The annual award, named for the chair of the AICPA's Tax Executive Committee from 1977 to 1980, was established in 1981 after Dixon's death to honor outstanding CPAs in the area of taxes. The award, given by the AICPA Tax Division, was presented to Rosen at the institute's National Conference on Federal Taxes in Washington.
Rosen, a CPA, attorney and noted author in the area of consolidated tax returns, is a retired partner of Ernst & Young, where he practiced with the firm's national tax office for 28 years. At E&Y, Rosen served as an expert in consolidated tax returns, as the national director of tax education and as national director of tax quality control. He has served as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown Law Center, where he received the school's Dicennial Medal.
Rosen served as chair of the AICPA Task Force on Consolidated returns and as chair of the Corporations and Shareholders Committee. He also chaired the AICPA Tax Curriculum Task Force, its Tax Education Subcommittee, and its Tax Education Symposia Steering Committee, in addition to serving on the institute's Continuing Professional Education Executive Committee, its Curriculum Subcommittee and its Task Force on Graduate Tax Education. He also served as a member of the Tax Strategic Planning Implementation Task Force and was co-editor for many years of the "Tax Clinic" column in The Tax Adviser.
