ABA Section of Taxation 2025 May Tax Meeting

Co-leaders of Ballard Spahr's State and Local Tax (SALT) team, Brett Durbin and Aaron C. Johnson, will both speak at the American Bar Association Tax Section's 2025 May Tax Meeting.

From 12:15-1:15 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 9, Brett will be a panelist for "Religious Tax Exemptions." From 4:15-5:15 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 9, Aaron will be a panelist for "Old Rules, New Economy: The True Object Test in the Digital Age."

The event descriptions:

Religious Tax Exemptions - This session will bring you up to speed on Catholic Charities vs. Wisconsin, a case involving a religious exemption from unemployment tax that is currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. It will also explore other religious exemptions across other tax types, including sales and use tax and property tax, and how the Supreme Court’s decision in Catholic Charities may impact those exemptions.

Old Rules, New Economy: The True Object Test in the Digital Age - Yesterday’s digital economy was desktop-based and just learning to walk; today, it sprints through a mobile, data rich landscape powered by cloud computing and AI. This transformation created—and continues to create—confusion and uncertainty in sales and use tax analysis. Because of that confusion, this panel attempts to debug and troubleshoot what the “true object” of a transaction is, examines the “primary purpose” test(s), and discusses the MTC’s efforts to create uniformity.