Northwest Federal Tax Conference™ (2 days)

Arthur Auerbach, CPA, CGMA is an independent tax consultant located in Atlanta, GA, specializing in tax consulting and estate and financial planning for individuals and closely held businesses. He is affiliated with the Asbury Law Firm as a consultant. He is a member of the Georgia, Virginia, New York, and Greater Washington CPA societies. Art was appointed to the AICPA Tax Executive Committee for a three-year term beginning February 1, 2018, and ending May 31, 2021. Beginning in May 2021, Art was appointed to be a member of the AICPA Tax Practice and Procedure Committee. He is an active member of the Georgia Society of CPAs and serves on the Georgia Department of Revenue Commissioners Advisory Group, the Financial Literacy Task Force, and Leadership Council, in addition to chairing the GSCPA Federal State Tax Task Force. He is also a member of the Virginia Society's Tax Committee. He has served as an advisor to the District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue and the Tax Commissioners Advisory group in Virginia. Art is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Accountancy. Art is a nationally recognized speaker on a variety of tax topics offered for continuing education for CPAs and financial planners. He has authored several publications and articles. Art is licensed in Georgia, Virginia, District of Columbia, and New York, and he is a life member of the American Institute of CPAs.

(3/18/21)

Larry Brant is a Shareholder at Foster Garvey PC in Portland, Oregon. He focuses his practice on assisting public and private companies, partnerships, and high-net-worth individuals with tax planning and advice, tax controversy, and business transactions. Larry regularly advises clients in entity selection and formation, structuring mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other business transactions.

Larry represents a number of professional services clients in accounting, law, healthcare, behavioral health, dentistry, engineering and architecture. Additionally, he represents a large array of clients straddling several industries, including farming and agriculture, logistics, manufacturing, high tech, recycling, construction, real estate, and maritime.

Larry is a past Chair of the Oregon State Bar Taxation Section. He was the long-term Chair of the Oregon Tax Institute and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Portland Tax Forum. Larry is an Expert Contributor to Thomson Reuters Checkpoint Catalyst. He is a Fellow in the American College of Tax Counsel.

Larry publishes articles on numerous income tax issues, including Taxation of S Corporations, Reasonable Compensation, Circular 230, Worker Classification, § 1031 Exchanges, Choice of Entity, Entity Tax Classification, and State and Local Taxation. In addition, he regularly speaks at national, regional and local tax institutes, including the NYU Tax Institute, the Florida Tax Institute, the NYU Tax Conferences in July, the Portland Tax Forum, the OSCPA Annual State and Local Tax Conference, the OSCPA Annual Real Estate Conference, the OSCPA Annual Forest Products Conference, the IRS Tax Practitioners Forum, the Northwest Federal Tax Conference and the Oregon Tax Institute.

Larry was the 2015 Recipient of the Oregon State Bar Tax Section Award of Merit, recognizing him for professionalism, reputation, leadership, and service to the tax community and the community at large.

He is the Editor and an author for Larry's Tax Law, a nationally recognized tax blog dedicated to providing technical support to tax and accounting professionals. Larry was named a "Top Author" for Tax by JD Supra in its Readers' Choice Awards, 2019-2021.

(11/11/21)

Nicole Elgin is an attorney at Barran Liebman LLP, where she represents employers in a variety of labor and employment law matters. Nicole's employment law practice includes working with employers to adapt workplace policies to the ever-evolving legislative and regulatory changes at the local, state, and national levels. Nicole's labor practice ranges from strategizing employer campaigns during union elections to negotiating collective bargaining agreements and representing employers in hearings before arbitrators and the National Labor Relations Board. Nicole was also a member of BOLI's Rulemaking Advisory Committee for Oregon's Equal Pay Act and has helped numerous employers perform equal pay analyses.

(12/1/21)

Dan Eller assists clients with tax and business law issues in both transactions and controversies. His transactional practice emphasizes choice of entity and formation, mergers and acquisitions, real property development, foreign bank account and asset reporting, and tax-exempt entity formation, qualification and operation. On the controversy side, Dan has handled a wide variety of tax collection and controversy matters, both federally and at the state level in Oregon and Washington. He has litigated cases before both the United States Tax Court and the Oregon Tax Court, where he formerly clerked for the Hon. Henry C. Breithaupt.

Since the enactment of Oregon's Corporate Activity Tax ("CAT") in 2019, Dan has been at the forefront of the implementation of this new tax. Dan is a frequent speaker on the CAT. Additionally, with Alee Soleimanpour Dan has co-authored a number of articles on CAT developments, both from the Oregon Department of Revenue and the Oregon Legislature.

Dan is an adjunct professor at Lewis and Clark Law School and an adjunct instructor in the School of Business Administration at Portland State University.

(8/20/20)

Valerie Sasaki is a partner with Samuels Yoelin Kantor LLP where she chairs the Taxation Practice. She focuses her practice on resolving complex tax matters for clients with state and federal revenue agencies. She regularly speaks and writes on tax topics of interest to her. Ms. Sasaki is a member of the Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Utah State Bars.  She regularly appears on behalf of clients in US Tax Court and the Oregon Tax Court.

She is a "Big-4" accounting alumna who worked as a State and Local Tax Manager for KPMG LLP as well as with the Miller Nash LLP tax department.  Valerie has served as Chair of Portland Tax Forum, The Oregon State Bar Taxation Section, and the Oregon State Bar Business Law Section.  Valerie has served on the laws committee of the Oregon State Bar's Taxation Section since 2003. She is now involved in leading an Oregon Laws Commission Project to modernize and restate Oregon's Limited Liability Company Act.  

Valerie serves and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Taxation with: Portland State University's Masters in Tax Program; Northwestern School of Law, Lewis & Clark College;  Portland Community College; and the University of Oregon School of Law. She is a fellow of the American College of Taxation and has been recognized as an outstanding tax attorney by the SuperLawyers and Best Lawyers in America organizations. 

Valerie received her BA degree, magna cum laude, from Tulane University, earned her JD degree from University of Oregon School of Law and her LLM in Taxation from the University of Washington School of Law.

(7/13/21)

Steve Scranton is the Chief Investment Officer & Economist for Washington Trust Bank and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation with over 35 years of investment and economic experience.

As Washington Trust Bank's Chief Investment Officer, Steve is responsible for management of the Portfolio Management Group and actively participates on committees within the bank to help design strategies and policies related to investments. As the economist for Washington Trust Bank, Steve participates in public speaking engagements, as well as authoring multiple communications, to keep clients and the public informed of economic and investment market conditions. Throughout the Pacific Northwest, Steve is a well-known speaker on the economic conditions and the world financial markets.

(11/11/20)

Edward K. Zollars, CPA-AZ is a tax partner in the Phoenix, Arizona CPA firm of Thomas, Zollars & Lynch, Ltd. He has been practicing since 1982. Ed is also the primary author of updates on the Kaplan Financial Education Current Federal Tax Developments website and hosts a weekly tax update video and audio program.

(10/11/22)