The National Tax Association’s 119th Annual Conference on Taxation was held November 12–14 in Pittsburgh.
Law professors participated in panels across the conference, including sessions on artificial intelligence, wealth taxation, tariffs, and tax administration, among other things. Eric Zwick gave the plenary session on Everywhere Millionaires. It was great to connect with some colleagues, and I wish I’d had a chance to see more.
Law-oriented sessions and speakers for the three days of the 2026 NTA Annual Meeting, below the fold.
Thursday, November 12
1. Policy Options for Taxing the Ultra-Rich
Panelists: Lily Batchelder (NYU) & Brian Galle (UC Berkeley), with Eric Zwick (Chicago) & Kitty Richards (Groundwork Collaborative).
2. Fiscal Institutions in Historic and Comparative Perspective
Jon Endean (Brooklyn), Fiscal Circumvention: Private Money, Public Goods, and Legislative Control of the Fisc
Wei Cui (British Columbia), Treaties Without Soft Law: An Empirical Study of Tax Treaties Before 1962
Chair and Discussant: Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)
3. Retirement Security
Daniel Shaviro (NYU), If Social Security Is the Answer, What Is the Question?
4. Income Taxation and Verifiability
Conor Clarke (Wash. U.), Edward Fox (Michigan) & Wojciech Kopczuk (Columbia), Designing the First Income Tax
Chair: Conor Clarke (Washington University)
5. Tariffs
Susan Morse (Texas) & Diane Ring (Boston College), Are Tariffs Taxes?
Discussants: Susan Morse (Texas) & Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Cardozo)
6. Beyond Revenue: Corporate Tax as an Instrument of Governance
Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan), Repealing Reorganizations
Zhaoyi Li (Albany), The Fiscal Theory of Corporate Governance
Jordan Barry (USC), Promising and Problematic Ways to Tax Financial Statement Income
Chair and Discussant: Daniel Shaviro (NYU)
7. Behavioral and Distributional Effects of Tax Policy
Mirit Eyal (Alabama), Taxation as Public Hedging
8. Fiscal Policy: Strategy and Sustainability
Edward Fox (Michigan) & Zachary Liscow (Yale), Commitment Bonds: When Does It Pay to Fix Fiscal Policy in Debt Contracts?
9. Enforcement, Deterrence, and Audit Design
Aviv Caspi (Chicago), Jacob Goldin (Chicago) et al., Optimal Tax Audits Using Predictions
10. (Fiscal) Federalism in Theory and Practice
Adam Thimmesch (Nebraska), Fiscal Federalism and the Unequal States
James R. Hines (Michigan), Random Policies in Federations
Discussant: Michael Love (Columbia)
11. Environmental Pricing and Policy
Daniel Hemel (NYU), Death, Taxes, and Chickens
11. Tax Incentives: Design, Distortion, and Political Economy
Orli Oren-Kolbinger (Oregon), Taking Off the Five-Year Layover: A Tax Buyout Solution to the LLC S Election Lock-In
12. Taxation of Wealth, Capital, and Innovation
Mirit Eyal (Alabama) & Jay Soled (Rutgers), Betting on Tomorrow: Prediction Markets and the Tax Treatment of Event Contracts
Discussant: Ari Glogower (Northwestern)
13. Intergenerational Transfers and Wealth Inequality
Discussant: Thomas J. Brennan (Harvard)
14. Business Taxation and Tax Planning
Matthew Pierson & Andrew Granato (Texas), GRATs as Quasi-Options: Evidence from Corporate Insiders’ Estate Planning
15. Law and Optimal Taxation
Bret Wells (Houston) and Clinton Wallace (South Carolina), The “Logic” of the Income Tax
Jacob Goldin (Chicago), Adam Kern (San Diego), and Ana Vasilj, Buy or D.I.Y.: Home Production and the Income Tax
Luis Calderon Gomez (Cardozo), Envy: A Reappraisal
Theodore Seto (Loyola Los Angeles), Excess Burden, Objective Welfare, and the Limits of Efficiency Analysis in Tax Policy
Discussants: James R. Hines (Michigan, also Chair) & Zhaoyi Li (Albany)
Friday, November 13
1. Digital Services Taxes and the Evolving Tax Base
Daniel Shaviro (NYU), It’s Smart to Be Nice: How Should the U.S. Respond to the Rise of Tax Nexus Without Physical Presence?
Mindy Herzfeld (Florida), Shifting From Taxing Digital to Taxing AI
Discussant: Zhaoyi Li (Albany)
2. Taxing Artificial Intelligence
Panelists: Assaf Harpaz (Georgia), Jeremy Bearer-Friend (George Washington) & Lily Batchelder (NYU), with Svea Holtmann-Reinhard & Michael Plowgian
3. Tax-Administered Benefits and Well-Being
Discussant: Jacob Goldin (Chicago)
4. Constitutional and Other Issues Surrounding Wealth and Mark-to-Market Taxation Following Moore
Calvin Johnson (Texas), “Direct Tax” Means Tax Directly on States, and Congress Need Never Use It
Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan), Are Wealth Taxes and Mark-to-Market Income Taxes Constitutional?
Robin Morgan (Toronto), Constitutional, Valuation, Mobility and Other Practical Difficulties Regarding Wealth-Based Taxation
Bret Wells (Houston), The Past and Future of Taxing “Incomes”
Discussants: Clinton Wallace (South Carolina, also Chair) & John Brooks (Fordham)
5. Communications and Tax Administration
Eleanor Wilking (Cornell), Taxation Through Negotiation
Discussants: Michael Love (Columbia, also Chair) & Daniel Schaffa (Richmond)
6. Firm Growth in Developing Countries
Wei Cui (British Columbia, also a Discussant), Sizing Up Chinese Industrial Policy
7. Taxing Artificial Intelligence: Capital, Personhood, and Subsidies
Alex Zhang (Texas), Innovation Paradigm Shifts and Capital Taxation: The Case of AI
David Elkins (Cincinnati) and Mirit Eyal (Alabama), Toward AI Tax Personhood
Sloan Speck (Blue J), The Matrix of AI Taxes and Subsidies
Discussants: Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Cardozo, also Chair) & Mindy Herzfeld (Florida)
8. Tax Law, Constitutional Development, and Equality
Alex Raskolnikov (Columbia), Taxation and Formal Equality
Tracey Roberts (Samford), Whiskey, Women, and Tax: The Unexpected and Interlocking History of the 16th, 18th and 19th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
Amanda Parsons (Colorado), Taxing Oligarchy
Discussants: Blaine Saito (Northeastern) & Lauren Libby (Texas)
9. Information Frictions and Tax Administration
Discussant: Eleanor Wilking (Cornell)
10. Behavioral Responses to International Tax Rules
Discussant: James R. Hines (Michigan)
11. Private Funds and the Tax Code: Insurance, Risk, and Carried Interest
Ari Glogower (Northwestern) & Andrew Granato (Texas), “Insurer Creep”: Private Equity and Hedge Funds as “Insurance Companies” for Tax Purposes
Andrew Granato (Texas) & Pranjal Drall, Private Credit’s State Backstop: How Private Equity Socializes Risk Through Insurers
Discussant: Orli Oren-Kolbinger (Oregon)
12. Taxes and Business Investment: Tariffs, Depreciation, and Stimulus
Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Cardozo), Troublesome Tariffs
Discussant: Susan Morse (Texas)
13. Tax Administration and Legal Institutions
Joshua Blank (UC Irvine) & Leigh Osofsky (UNC), Demystifying Law in the Age of AI: The Role of Federal Agencies
Noah Marks (UNC) & Conor Clarke (Washington University), Tax Exceptionalism After Loper Bright
Michael Love (Columbia), The Partnership Automation Gap in U.S. Tax Enforcement
Aviv Caspi (Chicago), Who Should the IRS Audit?
Discussants: Joshua Blank (UC Irvine, also Chair) & Daniel Hemel (NYU)
Saturday, November 14
1. The Charitable Tax Exemption: History, Theory, and Its Limits
Alex Zhang (Texas), Racial Integration and Tax Exemption
Lauren Libby (Texas), The Historical Limits of Charitable Tax Exemption
Philip Hackney (Pittsburgh), Arts Tax Policy: Democracy or Plutocracy?
Skyler Dykes (Arnold & Porter), Structural Pluralism and the Charitable Tax Exemption
Chair: Ari Glogower (Northwestern)
Discussants: Daniel Hemel (NYU), Luis Calderon Gomez (Cardozo) & Ari Glogower (Northwestern)
2. Measuring and Detecting Evasion
David Weisbach (Chicago), The Effects of Tax Evasion on Inequality
Jacob Nussim (Bar-Ilan), Mandatory Disclosure and Tax Evasion
3. Optimal Taxation II
Michael Love (Columbia), Optimal Tax Policy With Complex Taxpayers
Chair: Michael Love (Columbia)
Discussant: Jacob Goldin (Chicago)
4. Charities
Luis Calderon Gomez (Cardozo), Charity’s Limits
Discussant: Brian Galle (UC Berkeley)
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