The Center for the Study of Ethics and Human Values, in conjunction with the Olin School of Business and the School of Law, will present a tax ethics forum Oct. 29.
“An Ethics Forum for Tax Practitioners” will be held from 8:45-11:30 a.m. Oct. 29 in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium.
Conference topics include the standard of care applicable to tax professionals and whether it is affected by competition from other tax advisers; corporate tax shelters and professional conflicts of interest; pending amendments to the IRS standards of practice; and whether practitioners owe duties to the tax system or to persons other than their clients.
Peter J. Wiedenbeck, J.D., the Joseph H. Zumbalen Professor of Law, and Nancy C. Pechloff, adjunct professor of accounting in the Olin School of Business, will moderate the forum featuring five panelists:
• James G. Castellano, chairman of Rubin, Brown, Gornstein and Co. of Clayton. Castellano has testified before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection as well as the Senate Banking Committee. He serves as chairman of Fontbonne University’s council of regents and is on the boards of Rockhurst University and the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital Foundation.
• Tom Herman, senior special writer for The Wall Street Journal. He authors the paper’s weekly “Tax Report” and “Ask Dow Jones” columns. He has received the Excellence in Financial Journalism Award from the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is co-author with Douglas R. Sease of The Flat Tax Primer.
• Cono Namorato, director of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility and former partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm Caplin & Drysdale. He served as deputy assistant attorney general in the tax division of the U.S. Department of Justice and was chief, assistant chief and a trial attorney in the division’s criminal section.
• Christopher S. Rizek, an attorney with Caplin & Drysdale of Washington, D.C. He represents taxpayers in all types of federal, civil and criminal tax controversy matters, and guides clients through IRS audits and other tax-related matters. Most recently, he was an attorney-adviser and associate tax legislative counsel with the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
• Bernard Wolfman, the Fessenden Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is the author of articles in law reviews and professional journals as well as several books on the ethics of tax practice. He teaches in the field of federal income taxation, having served as a tax policy consultant to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
A continental breakfast will be held at 7:45 a.m. Admission is free with a University ID.
For registration and more information, go online to humanvalues.wustl.edu or call 935-9358.