McCombs TODAY

Associate Professor Lillian Mills was elected President-Elect of the American Taxation Association (ATA), a section of the American Accounting Association. Her one-year term as President begins August 2009. She will direct affairs, appoint ATA committees and serve on the AAA Council.

As President-Elect, Mills will serve on the Long-Range Planning Committee of the ATA. This committee is working to address the shrinking tax accounting faculty. The shortage of PhD graduates in accounting has been particularly acute in taxation. In response, Mills spearheaded and chaired the first KPMG/ATA Tax Doctoral Consortium in 2005. This consortium is growing and doctoral 43 students attended in 2008.

Professor Mills plans to help ATA grow as a thought leader in tax practice and tax policy. Her position with the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council and prior work with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis will help her foster connections between the ATA and the federal government. As a former trustee of the National Tax Association, she will strengthen ties between that organization’s tax economists and lawyers and ATA’s tax accountants. Her practice experience with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte, as well as her strong ATA associations with KPMG and Ernst and Young suggest opportunities to increase participation among tax professionals.

Finally, her research in accounting for income taxes makes Mills keenly interested in developments in converging U.S. accounting to International Financial Reporting Standards. She notes that “continued globalization in accounting presents new opportunities for research and conversations about tax policy and the effects of tax on capital markets. ATA members’ expertise will be central to such dialog.”