Chair Celebrates Tax Section Achievements, 2026 May Meeting

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Summary

• Programming highlights from the 2026 May Tax Meeting in Washington, DC
• Celebration of the pro bono activities including during the 2026 Midyear Meeting and in Alaska
• Recognition of the Law Student Tax Challenge winners
• Upcoming Section meetings and opportunities to get involved

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Dear Tax Section Members,

We continue to live in interesting and challenging times, both in the world of tax and the world at large. This year provides the opportunity to reflect on our history and the role of tax in shaping American democracy as we celebrate the 250 th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. During our 2026 May Tax Meeting, we will present programs and events related to this theme, in addition to our usual committee meetings, CLE sessions, and networking.

To cap off our celebration, Joseph Thorndike, Director of the Tax History Project at Tax Analysts, will moderate a discussion with Ruth Braunstein, Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University’s SNF Agora Institute; Andrea Louise Campbell, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Vanessa Williamson, Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and Senior Fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. The panelists will explore how our attitudes about tax have shaped American history, as well as the moral landscape in which Americans experience and make sense of the tax system. We are also planning a tea party and a whiskey rebellion. More to come for the May Tax Meeting and beyond! I encourage everyone to register!

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The 2026 Midyear Tax Meeting in San Diego this past January featured the second year of our reimagined schedule. Committees covered related areas of substance and collaborated to provide more cohesive CLE sessions and increased networking opportunities. From attendees’ notes, we are successfully responding to feedback about how to tweak the new format and we will continue to do so for the 2027 Midyear Tax Meeting, which will take place February 3-5, 2027, at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio River Walk.

The plenary session at the Midyear Tax Meeting featured a lively discussion about the state of taxation in the cannabis industry with Jennifer Benda, Ani Galyan, Barry Jones, and Nathaniel S. Pollock. If you missed it, you can still watch the recording.

While in San Diego, a dozen attendees of the conference volunteered at the Marine Recruitment Center to provide assistance to members of the military. You can learn more about this effort in the recent ABA Tax Times article written by the Section’s Vice Chair for Pro Bono, Susan Morgenstern.

One of my favorite parts of the Midyear Meeting was announcing the awards for the 2025-2026 Law Student Tax Challenge. First Place and Best Written Entry in the LL.M. division went to Jayme Rosenquist and John Mustafa from Loyola Law School. In the J.D. division, Vincent Martino and John Wright from Ave Maria School of Law received the First Place and Best Written entry awards from Ave Maria School of Law. If you have not had a chance to volunteer as a judge, it is a fun way to participate in the Tax Section. And look out for these future tax lawyers and Section members as they graduate and join the profession.

In late February, a group of Section members (Susan Morgenstern, Mandi Matlock, Elena Fowkes, Melissa Wiley, Lixun Chen, and Anna Gooch) participated in our Alaska VITA Project, sponsored by donations to The Tax Assistance Public Service (TAPS) Endowment Fund and our friends at Procedurally Taxing.

The volunteers were divided into two groups of three – one group traveled to remote villages in western Alaska and the other to remote villages in northwestern Alaska. Both groups faced blizzards, dense and frozen fog and extremely cold temperatures, well below -20 degrees Fahrenheit requiring travel flexibility. However, they persevered working 12-hour days to prepare hundreds of tax returns, ate dehydrated meals, and slept in sleeping bags on the floor. They were lavished from taxpayers with words of appreciation and local delicacies of caribou, whale meat, and seal oil. All six volunteers found the experience to be meaningful by providing windows into different cultures and perspectives.

“The work of this project is not limited to preparing tax returns. Discussions with taxpayers also present opportunities to explain the interplay between income, family composition, tax payments, and refunds. It’s in these conversations that we understand the valuable role we play in demystifying tax law and in eliciting information to prepare accurate returns.” – Susan Morgenstern, Vice Chair for Pro Bono and three-time volunteer with ABDC.

“For me, the experience served as an important reminder: tax law is not only about statutes, regulations, and procedures—it is also about people. Behind every tax issue is an individual or family trying to navigate a complex system. Efforts like this help ensure that taxpayers—regardless of where they live—have access to the guidance and assistance needed so that the tax system works as intended for all taxpayers.”  – Elena Fowlkes, first-time volunteer and Tax Section member.
Keep your eyes out for a full report on the trip with more cold anecdotes in an upcoming ABA Tax Times article. We will open the application period for the 2027 journey to Alaska in the early fall. If you are interested in applying and wish to strengthen your application in this competitive process, we recommend getting involved with your local VITA program and with the Tax Section. Negative 20 a bit too cold for you? You can always contribute financially to The Tax Assistance Public Service (TAPS) endowment fund allowing us to continue this unique program and the Tax Section’s other public service projects.

We began working within an hour of arriving in the village, continuing until after 10 pm on the first day and from 9 am to 9 pm the next day. At night, we returned to the school to unpack our sleeping bags and prepare dehydrated meals we had brought for the trip. We traveled between the tribal office and the school by four-wheelers and snow machines, despite temperatures that dropped below –20°F.

Over the course of the trip, we assisted more than one hundred individuals in Napaskiak and fifty in Goodnews Bay, helping ensure that households received credits for which they were eligible and remained compliant with their filing obligations. The experience also provided an opportunity to collaborate and learn from one another. The volunteers came from different areas of the tax profession and brought a range of perspectives and experiences to the work, strengthening our ability to address the wide variety of taxpayer situations we encountered.

The individuals we met in both villages expressed heartfelt gratitude for the assistance. For me, the experience served as an important reminder: tax law is not only about statutes, regulations, and procedures—it is also about people. Behind every tax issue is an individual or family trying to navigate a complex system. Efforts like this help ensure that taxpayers—regardless of where they live—have access to the guidance and assistance needed so that the tax system works as intended for all taxpayers.
Below are some photos of these amazing Tax Section members!

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Melissa Wiley, Elena Fowlkes, and Mandi Matlock travel to remote Alaskan villages by small cargo plane.

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Susan Morgenstern, Anna Gooch, and Lixun Chen assisted taxpayers in Point Hope and Point Lay in northwest and northern Alaska.

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I am also excited to welcome the 2025-2028 Loretta Collins Agrett Fellows:  Richard Perry Benson, Mariam Bojalil Lerch, Joshua Lin, Courtnie Russell, and James Terrell Smith. If you or someone you know is interested in applying, the application period is open now through May 15: The Loretta Collins Argrett Fellowship Application & Guidelines. The fellowship is funded through our Justice, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion endowment fund, please consider donating to ensure our efforts to create a welcoming, accessible, and inclusive Section continue.

And, ending on a personal note, I am thrilled that my law partner, Bryan C. Skarlatos, will receive the Jules Ritholz Memorial Merit Award from the Civil and Criminal Tax Penalties Committee during the May meeting. Bryan first brought me to the May meeting in 2005 and has been my mentor in the field of tax controversy as well as in the Tax Section, as he has for so many other lawyers during his career. Thank you, Bryan – and congratulations.

Other upcoming events and meetings include:

18th Annual U.S. and Latin American Tax Practice Trends Conference
June 10-12, 2026
Grand Hyatt Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Virtual 2026 Fall Tax Meeting October 5-9, 2026
Virtual

2026 Criminal Tax Fraud & Tax Controversy Conference December 10-12, 2026
Wynn Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV

I hope to see you in May in DC and am unendingly proud of the wonderful work of the Tax Section’s committee leaders, leadership Council, and members who give their time and talents to make the tax law profession and the tax system better. Please continue to share with me how you are using your Tax Section membership to advance your career and tax justice in general. It is inspirational for me to hear these personal anecdotes of the power we can have when we come together.

—Megan Brackney

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Endnotes

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Authors

Megan Brackney

Megan L. Brackney concentrates her practice in the areas of civil and criminal tax controversies. Ms. Brackney received her J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law and her LL.M. in Taxation from New York University....

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Authors

Megan Brackney

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