Panel Set to Submit Reports on Conduits, Tribal Bonds

An advisory committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday and submit five reports to the Internal Revenue Service, including one on the role of conduit issuers in tax compliance and another on tribal economic development bonds, according to members.

The meeting will take place at the IRS' headquarters at 1111 Constitution Ave., NW, beginning at 9:30 a.m.

The IRS has selected 10 new members for the Advisory Committee on Tax-Exempt and Government Entities, including Sue Painter, who will join the tax-exempt bond group, and William "Yaan Yaan Eesh" Micklin and Holly Easterling, who will join the Indian tribal government group. They will serve two-year terms, with possible one-year extensions.

Painter is chief investment officer and treasurer for Providence Health & Services, a nonprofit health care provider based in Seattle. She is responsible for the issuance of more than $3 billion of debt and will join the committee's three-member tax-exempt bond group, replacing Michael Bailey, a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP in Chicago, who will complete his three-year term on Wednesday.

The other two members of the bond group, each serving for a third year, are David Cholst, a partner with Chapman and Cutler LLP in Chicago, and George Magnatta, chairman of the public finance department at Saul Ewing LLP in Philadelphia.

Micklin is first vice president for the Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, and Easterling is administrator of planning and organizational development for the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma.

Wendy Pearson, of counsel at Bennett, Bigelow & Leedom PS in Seattle, will remain on the tribal government group.

During last year's meeting, the committee urged the IRS to make tribal economic development bonds permanent. The bonds were created in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and can be used for any projects that can be financed by state and local government tax-exempt bonds, except for those off the reservation or gambling facilities.

The ARRA removed the "essential governmental function" requirement for bond financings of tribal governments — a hurdle the tribes felt put them at a disadvantage.

Last November, the IRS extended the deadlines for issuing tribal economic development bonds. Tribal government issuers have until June 30 to issue the first $1 billion tranche of these bonds, with a possible additional six-month extension if an issuer submits a written request to the IRS. The second $1 billion tranche must be issued by the end of the year.

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Tax Washington
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