U.S. Tax Reform: Are You and Your Clients Prepared?

Jon Lieber is a principal in the National Econmics and Statistics (NES) group of PwC’s Washington National Tax Services (WNTS) practice. In this role, he provides insights and analysis for clients on the effects of tax policy changes on their business, including modeling the effects of tax policy changes and providing estimates of their economic and tax contributions nationally and worldwide.

Prior to joining PwC, Jon worked as the practice head for the United States at the Eurasia Group, the world’s largest political risk consulting firm. Prior to that, for two years Jon directed policy research at Thumbtack, a San Francisco-based technology company. Jon spent 12 years in government service, starting as an economist at the House Ways and Means Committee, working at the National Economic Council at the White House under President Bush, and most recently as the economic policy advisor for now-Senate Majority Leader McConnell, providing strategic and policy guidance related to tax, trade, and financial services.

Jon started his career researching monetary policy for Dr. Allan Meltzer at the American Enterprise Institute. He holds a master's degree in economics and a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Tufts University.

Mark J. Mazur is the Robert C. Pozen director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and a vice president at the Urban Institute. His research interests cover all aspects of tax policy. From 2012 until early 2017, he was the assistant secretary for tax policy at the US Department of the Treasury.

Mazur served in the federal government for 27 years in various positions, including policy economist at the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, senior economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers; senior director at the National Economic Council; chief economist and senior policy adviser and director of policy at the US Department of Energy; acting administrator of the Energy Information Administration; director of research, analysis, and statistics at the Internal Revenue Service; and deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis in the Office of Tax Policy.

Before entering public service, Mazur was an assistant professor in Heinz College at Carnegie-Mellon University.

He has a bachelor’s degree in financial administration from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in economics and a PhD in business from Stanford University.

Lisa Zarlenga represents public and private companies on federal income taxation issues, with a focus on tax policy issues with respect to tax legislation and Treasury guidance as well as on corporate transactional and planning matters. Lisa serves as co-chair of Steptoe’s Tax Group and leads the firm’s tax policy practice. Drawing on her experience as Tax Legislative Counsel at the US Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy, Lisa marries substantive tax knowledge with strong relationships at Treasury and first-hand insights on the guidance and other processes at Treasury. She helps clients advocate for and resolve tax policy issues before the Treasury Department and IRS involving proposed and pending regulations and other administrative guidance, and before Congress involving legislation.

Lisa also advises clients on structuring tax-free and taxable acquisitions and dispositions, tax-free spin-offs, and internal restructurings, including providing opinion letters and seeking advance rulings from the IRS. She also assists clients in restructuring financially troubled businesses and advises on the special rules governing consolidated groups.

Lisa has combined her policy and transactional backgrounds to advise clients on tax issues relating to blockchain and digital currency. She advises clients on conducting digital currency transactions and conversions, token offerings, and different investment and entity structures. Her experience includes advising a coalition of the leading companies in the blockchain space that was engaging directly with the IRS and policymakers to develop workable policies at an industry-wide level.

As Tax Legislative Counsel at the Treasury Department, Lisa advised Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy on a broad range of domestic tax policy issues, including corporate, partnership, healthcare, tax-exempt organizations, energy, income tax accounting, estate and gift, and procedure and administration. She oversaw preparation of regulations and other administrative guidance implementing the Internal Revenue Code and the president’s annual revenue proposals in these areas.