American Taxation Association

American Taxation Association
source
Name	American Taxation Association
Formation	1974
Type	Professional association
Headquarters	United States
Fields	Taxation, accounting, public policy
Membership	Academics, practitioners, students
Leader title	President

American Taxation Association The American Taxation Association is a professional association bringing together Chicago-area and national scholars, IRS practitioners, and AICPA members to advance research and education on United States taxation, 1986 Tax Reform Act, and comparative tax systems such as those of United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Japan through conferences, publications, and pedagogy initiatives.

History

Founded in 1974 amid debates following the Watergate scandal and shifts in 1969 tax legislation, the association emerged from meetings involving scholars from Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School, Yale University, Stanford Law School, New York University School of Law, and practitioners affiliated with the IRS and the AICPA. Early leadership included faculty linked to Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, and University of Pennsylvania Wharton School. The association engaged with policymakers connected to the Joint Committee on Taxation, congressional staff from the United States House Committee on Ways and Means, and advisers who worked with administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter.

Mission and Activities

The association’s mission centers on promoting rigorous tax research and improving tax instruction at institutions like Boston University, Indiana University Kelley School of Business, University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business, and University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. Activities include collaboration with think tanks such as the Tax Policy Center, the Brookings Institution, and the American Enterprise Institute, engagement with bar associations like the American Bar Association Section of Taxation, and support for curricular development used at Georgetown University Law Center, University of Virginia School of Law, and Duke University School of Law. The association facilitates dialogues involving scholars from Princeton University, Cornell University, and Northwestern University on topics tied to legislation like the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Membership and Organization

Membership comprises academics from departments at University of California, Berkeley, University of Southern California, and University of Minnesota, practitioners from firms such as Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG, and government officials drawn from IRS regional offices and the Treasury Department. Governance features an elected board with officers who have held positions at American Accounting Association, Association of American Law Schools, and university faculties including Stanford University, Columbia University, and University of Chicago. Student chapters at University of Michigan, Ohio State University, and University of Florida foster links to student organizations like Beta Alpha Psi and law reviews at Harvard Law Review and Columbia Law Review.

Publications and Research

The association sponsors peer-reviewed outlets and working paper series that intersect with journals such as the National Tax Journal, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Legal Studies, the American Law and Economics Review, and the Tax Notes family of publications. Research topics frequently address issues related to the Internal Revenue Code, Double Taxation, transfer pricing matters considered by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and empirical studies referencing datasets maintained by institutions like National Bureau of Economic Research, Census Bureau, and Bureau of Labor Statistics. Collaborations have produced bibliographies cited in works by scholars affiliated with Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, and policy memos used by the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Treasury Department.

Conferences and Awards

Annual conferences attract presenters from University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Michigan State University, and international guests from Oxford University, Cambridge University, University of Toronto, and University of Melbourne. Panels often feature speakers such as law professors who have clerked for the United States Supreme Court or worked with the United Nations tax committees, and practitioners from Sullivan & Cromwell, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and major accounting firms. The association bestows awards recognizing outstanding scholarship and teaching—echoing honors like the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences-adjacent recognition in academia—and prizes comparable to those from the American Accounting Association and the Academy of Management for contributions to tax research and pedagogy.

Category:Professional associations based in the United States Category:Taxation