You can "unpin" any icon from the Taskbar (right-click on it, unpin). You can also simply delete any icon in the Start menu.
However, once you start a program, an icon typically appears in the taskbar. If that's what you want to hide, then perhaps someone else can help you, I don't know how to do that.
There is nothing special about the IE, its icons work just as any other program's icons.