Congress recently passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes climate incentives and healthcare provisions, along with a 15% corporate minimum tax. What are the tax implications of the act, particularly of the minimum tax? What are the goals of the minimum tax? And how does it fit with international efforts previously agreed to at the OECD level, particularly the pillar 2 proposal? 

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Cara Griffith
President and CEO, Tax Analysts

As the moderator for our Taxing Issues webinars, Cara objectively analyzes issues and asks probing questions that challenge panelists to explain and defend their positions.

When she’s not moderating Taxing Issues webinars, Cara provides strategic oversight for Tax Analysts. She has led efforts to improve the Tax Notes suite of products and to aggressively pursue transparency in the administration of tax systems. Previously, Cara managed the editorial department, including the flagship daily news publications and weekly magazines. She has written for a broad range of tax policy publications, including Tax Notes State, The Tax Adviser, The Hedge Fund Law Report, and The Hill. She regularly speaks at tax conferences and other events, discussing a variety of technical tax issues as well as the need for transparency in tax administration.

Cara has a BA in political science and a BA in international studies from the University of Evansville and a JD from the George Washington University Law School.

Kimberly Clausing
Eric M. Zolt Chair in Tax Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law

Kimberly Clausing holds the Eric M. Zolt Chair in Tax Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law. 

Earlier in the Biden administration, Clausing was the Treasury deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis, serving as the lead economist in the Office of Tax Policy. Previously, Clausing was the Thormund A. Miller and Walter Mintz Professor of Economics at Reed College.  

Her research studies the taxation of multinational firms, examining how government decisions and corporate behavior interplay in the global economy. She has published numerous articles in this area and is the author of Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital (Harvard University Press, 2019). 

Clausing is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. She has worked on economic policy research with the International Monetary Fund, the Hamilton Project, the Brookings Institution, and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. She was a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for American Progress from 2019 to 2021. She has testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee. 

Clausing received her BA from Carleton College in 1991 and her PhD from Harvard University in 1996, both in economics.  

Rohit Kumar
Principal and Co-leader of PwC's Washington National Tax Services Practice

Rohit Kumar is a principal and co-leader of PwC’s Washington National Tax Services practice, where he advises clients on all aspects of domestic tax policy. His insights and knowledge enable companies to assess critical policy issues more effectively and develop legislative strategies to address them from both a technical and political perspective. 

Before joining PwC, Kumar served as the domestic policy director and deputy chief of staff for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. He previously worked for Senate Majority Leaders Bill Frist of Tennessee and Trent Lott of Mississippi. In all of those roles, Kumar worked closely with Senate leaders in developing and implementing all aspects of domestic policy, including tax, trade, budget, and healthcare.  

Kumar has been named in Roll Call as one of the 50 most influential staffers for mastery of policy and procedure and access to decision-makers at key times. He was described on the Washington Post website Who Runs Gov as “an expert in both politics and policy” and listed in The Almanac of the Unelected as an expert in tax, trade, banking and financial services, and immigration.  

Kumar received his JD from the University of Virginia and graduated magna cum laude with a BA from Duke University.  

Watson McLeish
Senior Vice President of Tax Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Watson McLeish is senior vice president for tax policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he serves as the primary adviser on all tax-policy-related matters.

Watson previously served as tax counsel at the Tax Executives Institute, Inc., where he supported the advocacy and educational activities of TEI’s Tax Reform Task Force, Federal Tax Committee, and Canadian Income Tax Committee. He was responsible for advancing TEI’s advocacy priorities on Capitol Hill and with the Treasury Office of Tax Policy and the IRS. Watson performed the same role in Canada before Parliament, the Department of Finance’s Tax Policy Branch, and the Canada Revenue Agency. He also served as contributing editor for TEI’s Tax Executive. 

Before joining TEI, Watson was a member of the international tax services practice at Ernst & Young LLP. 

Watson is as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. He lives in Washington,  with his wife, Elizabeth, and daughter, Blythe.