U.S. President Barack Obama greets U.S. Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy (C) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (R) prior to his State of the Union address, January 24, 2012. REUTERS/Saul Loeb/Pool

Some important upcoming events in the tax and accounting world: Saturday, March 25 – Wednesday, March 28 - Tax Executives International three-day conference in Washington, D.C.
Monday, March 26 – The first of three days of oral argument the  U.S. Supreme Court will hear on the Obama administration’s healthcare reform. Argument today is  focused on the Anti-Injunction Act, which dates to 1867, and whether taxpayers must actually begin paying the penalty for not purchasing insurance before objections to the mandate can be raised in court. Argument starts at 10 a.m.
Tuesday, March 27 –

The Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure will hold a hearing on renewable tax incentives and whether they have affected the renewable energy industry at 2:45 p.m. The House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee will hold a hearing on President Barack Obama’s proposed 2013 budget for the Treasury Department. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will testify. Starts at 10 a.m. Day two of the U.S. Supreme Court review of the Obama healthcare reform. Argument is scheduled for 10 a.m. and will address whether Congress overstepped its powers under the Constitution by adopting the individual mandate. This is the issue at the heart of the legal battle over the law that aims to provide health coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans.

On the third and final day of U.S. Supreme Court oral argument on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a first session will begin at 10 a.m. focused on whether the entire law must fall if the insurance mandate was found to be unconstitutional, or if the other parts can survive. At 1 p.m. a second session will tackle whether Congress had the authority to require that states expand the number of people eligible for assistance from the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor and disabled. The House Financial Services committee will hold a hearing on accounting and auditing oversight at 10 a.m. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s investor advisory group will meet in Washington to discuss an array of topics including independence, going concern warnings,  and others. 

Government Accounting Standards Board teleconference. The D.C. Bar will sponsor a luncheon program on temporary and proposed Treasury regulations on certain dividend equivalent payments. IRS official Peter Merkel and Treasury official Karl Walli will speak.

Thursday, March 29 – Friday, March 30 - The American Bar Association  and others are sponsoring a two-day conference in Vienna, Austria, on tax planning strategies in the U.S. and Europe, including discussions of cross-border losses in tax planning, tax risk management by multinationals, transfer pricing, and collective investment vehicles.