Largest Business Tax Conference in the Nation Happening in January

The Manufacturers’ Education Council’s 27th Annual Ohio Tax Conference will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, January 23-24, 2018. Attended by 14,224 corporate tax directors, CFOs, tax professionals and taxing authorities over the past 26 years, this event is the largest business tax conference in the nation.

The conference was established in the early 1990’s by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce along with the Ohio Department of Taxation and led by the Ohio Tax Commissioner & former Franklin County Auditor, Roger Tracy. The idea of the conference was to serve as one of the top business tax educational conferences, bringing leading experts on tax issues from across the nation to participate. The annual Ohio Tax Conference has since served as the model for public/private partnership for tax education, inspiring many states to establish their own state tax conference in similar fashion.

A 48-person, blue-ribbon tax conference planning committee, made up of many Ohio Chamber members, meets twice a year to take on the task of selecting topics, keynote speakers and workshop sessions for the annual Ohio Tax Conference. Representing some of the most prestigious national law firms and tax consulting organizations and Ohio’s leaders in corporate taxation, members of this committee attend planning sessions from all over such as New York, Philadelphia, Lansing and Washington D.C. to help put together this event. With hundreds of tax abstracts coming to the table, the planning committee must vote to select the handful of sessions for the speaking opportunities they see fit.

This upcoming tax conference attracts the ‘best & brightest’ in taxation in the nation to come and lead workshops, roundtables, and more at the two-day event. Current Ohio Chamber of Commerce Chairman and President & CEO of Reliable Staffing Services LLC, Larry Kidd, will lead an interactive workshop on employment services. Former Ohio Chamber Chairman and a national guru on taxation policy, Founder & Managing Partner of Zaino Hall & Farrin, Thomas Zaino, will provide a Commercial Activity Tax keynote and lead workshop sessions on municipal income tax centralization as well as lead a roundtable on Ohio tax policy and reform. Leaders of the tax-writing committees in the Ohio Senate and Ohio House of Representatives will also join in on this opportunity.

Several other national tax experts will be featured at the 2018 conference as leaders and keynote speakers. Conference attendees will get the chance to interact with leading tax decision-makers in Ohio as well as top tax officials from other states such as Kentucky, Michigan and Indiana.

Each year the tax conference planning committee establishes “hot tax topics” for the upcoming conference. Featured topics at the 2018 conference include municipal income tax centralization, technology/data/tax automation, amnesty & voluntary disclosure agreements, real property appraisals & valuation, winning at state tax controversies, the new federal partnership audit rule, the elimination of tax appeals from the Ohio Board of Taxation directly to the Ohio Supreme Court, and the enormous nexus wars in the various states.

In addition, this year’s conference will feature two optional ethics sessions for both CPE & CLE credits for Ethics & Professionalism for State Tax Professionals.  The first session, Ten Things I Hate About You, is scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, January 24.  The second, For Your Eyes Only:  Understanding Privileges & Protections in State Tax Practice, is scheduled as a post-conference optional session on that Wednesday afternoon.

With the best line-up of speakers and hot tax issues, the 27th Annual Ohio Tax Conference is invaluable to keep current with significant tax developments at the federal, state & local level. As the largest business tax conference in the nation, attendees will benefit from the continuing education credits they can earn and the valuable information received on major tax and jobs issues.

For more information and to register for this influential event, go to www.mecseminars.com and click on the Taxation & Business tab at the top of the page.