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State and local tax conference provides a comprehensive update to practitioners

SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter

Published: July 31, 2014

For the second year in a row, The University of Akron’s George W. Daverio School of Accountancy and The Ohio Society of CPAs are joining hands to offer a full day’s event designed to update lawyers, accountants, bankers, business owners and others who deal with state and local tax matters on impending and current changes in the law.

The event takes place tomorrow at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cleveland - Independence on Quarry Lane.

“There are a few state tax conferences in Columbus each year, but until last year Northeast Ohio did not have a place where a professional could go for one day and receive a comprehensive update on developments and planning opportunities with respect to Ohio’s major taxes,” said Steven Dimengo, a partner at Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, whose firm is one of the sponsors of the event.

The conference will be broken into a morning and afternoon session, with a luncheon address by keynote speaker, U.S. Representative Jim Renacci, who represents Ohio’s 16th district and is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Renacci will discuss federal developments affecting state and local taxes, including the Marketplace Fairness Act. If enacted, Dimengo said the act would allow states to force foreign vendors to collect sales tax even though they do not have a physical presence in the customer’s state.

The morning session will include three panels. Dimengo, along with attorney David Perry, from KPMG and Certified Public Accountant Kristen Neely from PricewaterhouseCoopers, will provide an in-depth discussion about Ohio’s commercial activity tax, personal income, pass-through entity and sales/use taxes.

Another panel will feature topics such as how to stop illegal increases in property tax as well as multistate tax planning and maximizing Ohio tax incentives. In addition, Anna Davidson from the Ohio Department of Taxation will discuss Gov. John Kasich’s tax initiatives, offer an overview of the state’s mid-biennium budget bill and Ohio’s new Virtual Tax Academy.

“The afternoon sessions will encompass two tracks of breakout sessions,” said Bill Nolan, attorney and CPA at EY (formerly Ernst & Young). “One will focus on larger companies with multistate operations and the other is targeted toward smaller companies who may be seeking more Ohio-specific help with audits and appeals and commercial activity tax issues.

“Larger businesses are more likely to have people in the company to deal with tax issues while smaller companies often have limited resources to deal with their tax concerns,” said Nolan, who is also an executive director at EY, a sponsor of the conference.

Those interested can still register online or at the event. The event kicks off at 8:30 a.m. and the cost is $290. In addition, eight hours of Tax Continuing Professional Education (CPE) are available.

Dimengo said 100 percent of the proceeds will go to The University of Akron and The Ohio Society of CPAs, adding that the intent is to make the conference an annual occurrence.

To find out more go to https://store.ohiocpa.com/product/46395.


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