UA’s Schnee Appointed to AICPA Tax Shelter Task Force

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Edward Schnee, professor of accounting at The University of Alabama, has been appointed to the Tax Division’s Tax Shelter Task Force, a group formed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Schnee is one of two new members appointed to the standing task force, and his appointment comes at a time when Congress is looking at ways to restrict the use of offshore tax havens and abusive tax shelters to inappropriately avoid federal taxation.

“The task force is charged with looking at how the AICPA wants to respond to the proposed legislation on tax shelters and the codification of the economic substance doctrine,” Schnee said.

The economic substance doctrine says that a transaction must have a meaningful economic purpose or present risk to the investor to be legitimate. The question of whether to codify, or make into law, an economic substance law is at the center of controversy over legislative efforts to take care of the abusive tax shelter law.

Schnee is the Culverhouse Professor of Accounting and director of the Master of Tax Accounting Program. He received the School of Accountancy Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award in 1990. His articles have been published in leading tax journals, including Tax Adviser, Journal of Accountancy, Journal of Taxation, Journal of the American Taxation Association, Trusts & Estates, and CPA Journal, among others.

He is the editor of the American Taxation Association’s Journal of Legal Tax Research and a past president of the American Taxation Association. Schnee is active in the AICPA, having served on or chaired several committees and task forces.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is the national professional associations of CPAs with about 330,000 members, including CPAs in business and industry, public practice, government and education. It sets ethical standards for the profession and U.S. auditing standards for audits of private companies, federal, state and local governments, and non-profit organizations.

Schnee received his bachelor’s degree from City College of New York and his M.B.A. and doctorate from Michigan State University.

The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration was established in 1919, and in 1929 it became the 38th school to earn admission into the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. The excellence of the UA business school has been acknowledged on a national level.

The undergraduate program is ranked 38th among public universities by U.S. News and Culverhouse School of Accountancy is ranked 15th among public universities by U.S. News. The graduate accounting program is ranked 15th and the undergraduate program 14th by Public Accounting Report.