Tax Expert Scott Levine Previews Top Topics at 10th Annual Tax Conference
December 10, 2025
On January 7–8, 2026, hundreds of attorneys are expected to turn out for the D.C. Bar Communities’ 10th annual Tax Conference, one of the most anticipated tax law programs in the country with its comprehensive coverage of the quickly shifting U.S. and global tax landscapes.
Scott Levine, a tax partner at Baker McKenzie, helped launch the conference in 2016 and has served as its chair for eight years. Here, Levine talks about the biggest news in tax law in 2025 and previews what tax attorneys and other experts could expect from next year’s conference.
The Tax Conference is one of the Bar’s most successful events, attracting nearly 500 attendees in 2025. Why do you think the conference is such a big draw for tax professionals?
I think it has been successful for a few reasons. One of the things that sets it apart from many other tax conferences around the country or the globe is that [it] has been singularly focused on interacting directly with government. The proximity of the federal government to the D.C. Bar is helpful. Also, the D.C. Bar has gone out of its way to make it easy and accessible for D.C. Bar members and for government employees, whether they’re staff of the U.S. Treasury or the IRS, providing a very low price of entry to attend.
Also, it’s about the timing of the conference. It’s not an accident that we have the conference every year at the very beginning of January. It’s also not an accident that there is a lot of tax guidance that comes out at the end of the calendar year. So, we tend to be one of the first conferences to cover some breaking news.
The One Big Beautiful Bill dominated headlines in 2025. What other major topics will the conference cover?
So, there [is] the One Big Beautiful Bill as you just mentioned — a raft of new tax laws that came out of the most recent tax legislation that was enacted on July 4. This is the third presidential term in a row — the first Trump administration, the Biden administration, and now the second Trump administration — where essentially the signature bill of that administration is significantly focused on tax. So, there are a number of panels that will address changes to the tax law primarily out of the new bill — regulations that have been proposed since then.
Also, there [are] a lot of changes that we expect to come in the next few days and weeks relating to activity at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This relates to the global minimum tax that has been negotiated on Pillar II and how it ultimately comes out where there is a side-by-side system so that the U.S. and the rest of the members of the inclusive framework will be able to move on and still have some sort of minimum tax system in place.
We are going to have the essential people talk about these issues in real time. We will have senior members of the OECD staff, including [Director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration] Manal Corwin; we will have senior members of various other governments, including our own. That will be really interesting to see what comes out of those discussions and those panels. All of this will be fresh and new. This is a real opportunity for both the U.S. government, foreign governments [to hear] OECD explain what they just [implemented].
What were some of the biggest surprises in tax law in 2025?
I think it was a surprise to most people that the Trump administration was able to get a tax bill as significant as [the One Big Beautiful Bill] done. These things, just generally, do not happen that quickly. On July 4, it was signed. The administration came in on January 20. That’s lightning speed in legislative terms.
I think we have seen three [presidential] terms in a row going through reconciliation as to getting tax bills enacted with bipartisan support. That means you are going to have potential swings back and forth when there is change in the White House occupant. Some of the issues that [will] come up are that … language in the statute just does not make sense, or was a mistake, or was not what was intended. There was not enough time to truly vet the statute.
Another [related] issue is something called the “revenge tax,” or Section 899. It was a proposal to, in essence, force other countries to fix issues that the current U.S. administration believes are inequitable against U.S. taxpayers by punishing those jurisdictions and the taxpayers of those jurisdictions that had, in the United States’ view, discriminatory taxes against the U.S. That was something that we haven’t seen in a long time. It was extremely broad at first.
There was a big outcry from all different parts of the taxpaying community — from foreign investment folks, from the investment community, and from different industries that would be impacted more extremely. We saw this fierce lobbying on Capitol Hill to kill it. It did ultimately fall out of the One Big Beautiful Bill, but there is still talk of it potentially coming back. I think that is an interesting event in the tax world that we do not see all the time.
Of all the panel discussions in the 2026 conference, which ones are you most excited about?
I am excited about all of them, but I think there are a few that stand out. We purposefully plan … panels to [cover] a broad topic — a topic that should be interesting and relevant to everyone. There is one that will be dealing with the role of artificial intelligence and tax. This will explore our current international tax system and domestic system and how AI will impact [them]. There are a lot of potential issues that come out of that. For example, a lot of the tax rules are focused on where human activity takes place. If there is no human activity because it has been replaced by artificial intelligence, who has taxing rights [over] that activity? So, that issue will be really interesting to follow.
There is a panel that will be talking about the deregulatory agenda of the Trump administration [regarding] tax. Former and current senior tax officials from various administrations, including the Trump administration, will discuss … some of the concerns that folks have about the impact of that deregulation on the system.
We have some keynotes that are going to be really spectacular. We have [Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy] Kenneth Kies, who will be giving a keynote address on the current state of the tax system. On the second day, we have [Director General for Taxation and Customs Union at the European Commission] Gerassimos Thomas, who will be talking about both tax and tariffs from an EU perspective.
That [fireside chat] will be followed by a panel that I will be moderating, [featuring Corwin] as well as the top international tax folks from the U.S. and hopefully the United Kingdom and France. We will talk about what we can expect about the overall international tax system as we move forward.
What is an expected tax development in 2026 that a lot of people should know about?
Well, first off, tax is always changing. That is why I find it interesting.
I think the biggest thing will be what comes out of the OECD over the next couple of days and weeks. We are all waiting with anticipation to read what has been negotiated in the “side-by-side system” and how that will play out. That will require all multinationals around the world to rethink their tax structures and planning.
The other area is the rise of artificial intelligence and how fast that is occurring. The impact is two-fold — both on the tax system itself and on the tax profession. As more things become automated, tax lawyers will not be immune from the potential loss of jobs.
The 10th Annual Tax Conference takes place at the D.C. Bar on January 7–8, 2026. Click here to explore the program and register.
