Tax Panel Staff Announced

WASHINGTON, DC – Jeffrey Kupfer, executive director of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, today announced three new members of the Tax Panel staff.  Jon Ackerman is serving as senior counsel, Rosanne Altshuler is serving as senior economist and Tara Bradshaw will join the Tax Panel staff as communications director later this month.

Jon Ackerman joined the Tax Panel staff as senior counsel on February 9, 2005.  He is currently on leave from the Department of the Treasury's Office of Tax Policy. Prior to joining the Department of the Treasury, he was an attorney with McKee Nelson LLP. Jon is a certified public accountant and practiced with a global accounting firm before attending law school.  He is an adjunct professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center and has held a number of positions in the American Bar Association Section of Taxation.  Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Arizona, a Master of Taxation from the University of Denver, and a law degree from the University of Chicago.

Rosanne Altshuler joined the Tax Panel staff as senior economist on February 14, 2005.  She is currently on leave from Rutgers University where she is an associate professor of economics.  Before joining the Tax Panel, she was acting as a special advisor to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Altshuler has published numerous articles on the economics of taxation in scholarly journals and books.  Her work has also appeared in Tax Notes and Tax Notes International.  She has served on the Board of Directors of the National Tax Association and has edited the National Tax Journal since 2001. Rosanne received her B.A. from Tufts University in 1982 and her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988.

Tara Bradshaw will join the Tax Panel staff as communications director on February 28, 2005.  She most recently served as an associate director in the Americas Public Relations Group at Ernst & Young LLC, where she managed public relations for the National Tax Practice. From 2001 to 2004, she served as a spokeswoman for U.S. Department of the Treasury regarding tax policy, tax reform, IRS, the Administration's budget, and economic issues.  She was the press secretary for the Senate Finance Committee (Chairman William V. Roth, Jr. R-DE) from 1999 to 2001. She holds a Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism and a BA in English from the University of South Carolina.

The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform was established by President Bush on January 7, 2005.   President Bush has charged the bipartisan panel with recommending reforms to the tax code that will make the U.S. tax system simpler, fairer and more growth oriented. 

Further details are available on the Panel's website at www.taxreformpanel.gov