ABA Tax Section Hybrid 2022 May Meeting

This week's ABA Tax Section hybrid 2022 May Meeting (program) kicks off today. One of the highlight of the meeting is Saturday's luncheon and plenary session:

Keynote Speaker: Lily Batchelder, Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury
Roundtable: Tax Data Transparency: Changes Coming to a Post-Pandemic Tax Code? On January 20, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 13985, which, inter alia, established an Interagency Working Group on Equitable Data prompted by a growing recognition that the absence of demographic data in federal datasets, including tax data, results in inequities across federal programs. In addition, Treasury is undertaking a comprehensive research initiative to study the relationship between the U.S. tax code and racial inequities, in response to research identifying inequities in tax enforcement. Congress, too, is making demands for more transparency in tax data, with Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) calling for the IRS to “collect and disclose more information relating to the effect of the tax code on different demographics [because] it makes no sense to blind lawmakers to the key data that would illuminate injustice in our tax laws.” This roundtable will provide new insight on the tax policy implications of greater tax data transparency in a post-Pandemic tax code. Discussion will focus on the role of tax data transparency in tax expenditure oversight; the implications of the absence of demographic data on current tax administration and policy; and how tax expenditures included in Pandemic- related legislation have created an opportunities for new data.

Moderator: Caroline Bruckner, Sr. Professorial Lecturer & Managing Director of the Kogod Tax Policy Center, American University Kogod School of Business

Panelists: Steven Dean, Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law, Brooklyn Law School; Mark Mazur; Danny Yagan

• Steven Dean, Filing While Black: The Casual Racism of the Tax Law, 2022 Utah L. Rev. __ 
• Steven Dean, Filing While Black: How Our Racially Biased Tax System Hurts All of Us, 175 Tax Notes Fed. 466 (Apr. 18, 2022)

Other Tax Profs with speaking roles include:

• Combining Opportunity Zone Benefits with Other Tax and Non-Tax Programs: Roberta F. Mann (Oregon) (moderator)  
• Determining and Measuring the Early Termination of a QPRT: Donald T. Williamson (American; Google Scholar) 
• Digitally Remastering Debt vs. Equity for Corporations and Partnerships: Steven Dean (Brooklyn) 
• Ethical Considerations in Drafting and Reviewing Tax Opinions: Linda Galler (Hofstra) (moderator)
• Oh, The Places Your Examination Will Go!: Leslie Book (Villanova; Google Scholar), Samantha Galvin (Denver) (moderator)
• “Pleading” For Better Petitions and Answers in Tax Court: Christine Speidel (Villanova; Google Scholar) (moderator), Elizabeth Maresca (Fordham)
• Racial Disparities and the Income Tax System: Karen Brown (George Washington) 
• The Constitutionality of the Global Tax Deal and DSTs: Christine Kim (Utah, moving to Cardozo; Google Scholar) (moderator), Julian G. Ku (Hofstra; Google Scholar), Leopoldo Parada (Leeds; Google Scholar), Fadi Shaheen (Rutgers; Google Scholar), Adam Thimmesch (Nebraska)
• Virtual Currencies (Part One): What are they and how are they taxed?: Annette Nellen (San Jose State; Google Scholar)