State & Local Tax Conference - Portland

Sonjia joined Perkins & Co in 2022 and leads their State and Local Tax (SALT) consulting practice as a shareholder. With more than 24 years of experience in state and local taxation, she brings deep expertise in multistate compliance, audit defense, and strategic tax planning. She is also a frequent presenter on multistate taxation, regularly speaking to industry groups, trade associations, and professional organizations on emerging SALT trends and complex state tax developments.  Her background includes serving as a lead excise tax auditor with the Washington State Department of Revenue and as a B&O tax program auditor for the City of Kent, giving her unique insight into regulatory expectations and enforcement.

Prior to Perkins, Sonjia spent nine years at BDO USA LLP, where she rose to SALT Managing Director and guided clients through complex projects involving multistate income/franchise and sales/use tax, nexus analysis, due diligence for mergers and acquisitions, and system implementation support. She has advised companies across industries—including technology, software, manufacturing, distribution, retail, and e-commerce—helping them navigate compliance while identifying opportunities for tax efficiency. Recognized as an expert in Washington and other gross receipts and sales/use taxes, Sonjia is a trusted advisor for businesses expanding across jurisdictions.

(12-29-25)

Toshio Kurose

(12-9-25)

A proud lifelong Oregonian, Codi Trudell has over 20 years of public civil service working in Oregon local and state government. In 2021, Trudell became Oregon's first Taxpayer Advocate in the Oregon Department of Revenue. As the Taxpayer Advocate, she works to be a voice and resource for Oregon's taxpayers. A graduate of Oregon State University with a bachelor's degree in political science, Trudell applies her policy background to provide fair and equitable access to Oregonians' economic opportunities, programs and services.

edited 12-15-25

Becky specializes in State and Local Taxation, and has significant experience with the requirements of jurisdictions in all 50 states. She has more than 18 years of corporate and pass-through tax compliance experience as a state and local tax practitioner in public accounting, with an emphasis on direct and indirect compliance for companies operating in the technology, SaaS, rental real estate, professional services and biotechnology industries. With articles published in Bloomberg Tax's Tax Management Real Estate Journal, Bloomberg Tax's Daily Tax Report and YoungUpStarts.com, Becky is passionate about keeping her clients informed in the ever-changing environment of state and local taxation and is focused on assisting start-up companies with managing their interstate compliance risk as well as helping established companies understand the impacts of interstate commerce as they grow.

Withum is a forward-thinking, technology-driven advisory and accounting firm, helping clients to Be in a Position of Strength in today's complex business environment. As a member of HLB, The Global Advisory and Accounting Network, we're able to connect you with trusted, strategic advisors who assist in building and expanding in the global marketplace. #WithumWay.

(12-30-25)

Clint Bentz, CPA, CMA is the founder and managing member of Clint Bentz Consulting, LLC, a family business consulting firm specializing in estate and succession planning for family-owned businesses.  Prior to founding Clint Bentz Consulting in 2018, he worked as a corporate controller and planned giving officer, and then spent 30 years working in public accounting as a CPA at Boldt Carlisle + Smith, becoming a Member of the firm in 1999 and leading the firm's trust and estate group.  Clint also serves as adjunct faculty for Cannon Financial Institute, teaching courses on advising family business owners on succession, fiduciary income tax, estate, gift and generation skipping transfer taxes, and charitable giving, trusts and foundations.  His award-winning "Ties to the Land: Your Family Forest Heritage" succession planning curriculum is published in partnership with the OSU Extension Service and the OSU Austin Family Business Program and has been used in 22 states. As a family forest landowner he and his family were recognized as the 2002 National Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year by the American Forest Foundation.  He is the past chair of the American Forest Foundation and American Tree Farm System and is an OSU Extension Service Master Woodland Manager.  He has served on several Oregon Board of Forestry working groups and is a long-standing member and former chair of the OSCPA Forest Products Committee. He helped rewrite Oregon's estate tax statute in 2011 and Oregon's property tax statutes for woodland owners in 2003.  He is the chairman of the pastoral council for the Archdiocese of Portland and the music director at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

(12-31-25)

Valerie is an attorney with the law firm of Samuels Yoelin Kantor in Portland, Oregon where she heads the firm's tax department. She speaks about topics (usually tax topics) that interest her. She is a fellow of the both the American College of Tax Counsel and the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel. She also co-wrote a very exciting book you should read called Oregon Estate Planning with Forms, which is going into its third edition this January.

(11-10-25)

Daron Prara

Daron Prara is an Oregon Department of Revenue tax policy analyst in the Personal Income Tax and Compliance Division. He has been with the department for over 17 years working out of the Medford and Salem field offices and now the Salem main building. He has been an auditor, senior auditor, and policy analyst in the personal income tax program and an analyst in the corporate activity tax program. Daron graduated from Oregon Institute of Technology with a Bachelor's degree in business management and accounting.

(12/27/21)

Robert Oakes is an Operations and Policy Analyst 3 in the Personal Income Tax and Compliance Division at the Oregon Department of Revenue. Robert spent 20 years in California state government, primarily as a Legislative Director and Communications Director in the State Senate at the California Capitol. He graduated from Lewis & Clark College and attended the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of Oregon.

(9/3/21)

Tim is an experienced public servant and a people leader with nearly 25 years of experience in Oregon local government. He has spent almost 12 years in supervisory and managerial roles. Most of his career has been focused on property tax, and he joined the Portland Revenue Division a year ago, where he is learning the intricacies of its various tax programs.

(12-9-25)

Harriet Strothers has nearly 40 years of experience in providing state and local tax advisory and compliance services to large multi-state and multinational companies. With extensive experience managing tax compliance and audits for all areas of state taxation as well as IRS LMSB "Large Case" audits, Harriet also performs state and local due diligence related to mergers and acquisitions.

Harriet spent almost half of her career in industry with The Ryland Group, a Fortune 500 home builder and mortgage lender that operates in 28 states. Upon her return to public accounting in 2007, Harriet observed that there was a need for business leaders to better understand how State and Local Taxes affected their financial decision making. Rather than developing an industry-specific concentration, Harriet focused on state tax minimization through planning and remediation strategies for taxpayers who operate in multiple states. These strategies include multi-state income/franchise tax refund engagements and reverse sales/use tax audits, as well as state voluntary disclosures to mitigate past tax liability. Harriet's experience in industry included extensive audit defense. She has leveraged that experience into numerous successful audit strategies that she regularly employs when defending clients under audit by taxing authorities.

A frequent presenter on multi-state tax issues, Harriet has managed many large multi-state income/franchise tax refund engagements and reverse sales/use tax audits. She has managed and delivered numerous voluntary disclosure services and audit defense services in almost every state. Harriet has substantial experience advising clients on product sales/use taxability for different types of transactions and on nexus-related issues in 50 states.

After a two-year stint at Schnitzer Steel, Harriet worked with Moss Adams for six years before joining the team at Delap in 2014.

(3/3/21)

Adam Abplanalp serves as Managing Partner & CEO at Cobalt, P.C., a real estate-focused CPA firm located in Portland, Oregon and Honolulu, Hawai'i, which he founded in 2015. Adam's practice focuses on providing tax, accounting, and advisory services, primarily to real estate owners, investors, managers, brokers, and developers. 

As part of his public accounting practice, Adam is a recognized expert in Oregon, Washington, and Hawai'i state and local tax laws, tax planning, and compliance, and he routinely testifies before and works with the Oregon Legislature, Oregon Department of Revenue, City of Portland Revenue Division, and various other state and local tax authorities. Adam is a frequent speaker on real estate and state and local taxation, both for CPAs and for real estate industry professionals. Since 2018, Adam has also served on the City of Portland's Revenue Division Appeals Board. 

In addition to being a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Oregon, Hawai'i, New York, and Washington, he holds a Chartered Professional Accountant license in British Columbia, Canada, is a Certified Fraud Examiner, and is licensed as a Real Estate Principal Broker in Oregon and Managing Broker in Washington. 

Adam has been an OSCPA member since 2010, has served as a leader on various OSCPA committees, and is the 2024-25 OSCPA Board Vice Chair.

(3/19/24)