Birmingham Chapter State & Local Tax Update

Bruce Ely is a partner in the Birmingham, Alabama office of the multistate law firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP and founder of its SALT Practice Group.  He represents taxpayers before various state and local government taxing authorities as well as the tax tribunals and circuit and appellate courts of Alabama and Mississippi, and before the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Tax Court.

Mr. Ely is Past Co-Chair of the New York University (NYU) Institute on State and Local Taxation, a long-time Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, and has been listed in “Best Lawyers in America” and “Super Lawyers” for a number of years.   Until recently, he also served as Co-Chair of the ABA Tax Section SALT Committee’s “Task Force on the State Implications of the New Federal Partnership Audit Rules” and co-authored a model conformity/RAR statute now being advocated to the states.  He is also co-editor of the Bloomberg Tax “Pass-Through Entities Navigator” and serves as Alabama correspondent for both Tax Notes-State and Daily Tax Report.  He is a longtime member of the State Tax Advisory Board for Bloomberg Tax and received Bloomberg’s “State Tax Author of the Year” Award in 2017 and its Franklin C. Latcham Distinguished Service Award in 2021.

Will is a partner in the firm’s Birmingham office and is a member of the Corporate and Tax Practice Groups. He practices primarily in the areas of corporate transactions, federal, and state and local taxation. Will regularly counsels public and private businesses on Alabama tax matters.

A significant portion of Will's practice is dedicated to the representation of taxpayers in all phases of federal and state and local tax controversy, including audit assistance, administrative hearings, and litigation. His practice also involves advising clients on methods of restructuring their organizations and choosing the proper entity through which to conduct their business in an efficient and effective manner that minimizes taxes.

Other areas of Will’s practice include advising clients with regard to business license obligations, abandoned and unclaimed property, tax compliance obligations, voluntary disclosure agreements, and real property litigation.

Will has written several articles regarding state and local tax issues and is a regular contributor to State Tax Notes. In addition, Will was a contributing author in the most recent edition of Richard D. Pomp’s textbook, “State & Local Taxation.”

In 2008, Will graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law. While in law school, Will received the John C. O’Byrne Award for Excellence in the study of Taxation and served as a notes editor on the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law. Will is a certified public accountant and prior to attending law school worked for a Big 4 accounting firm, where he advised clients on a variety of federal, state and local tax matters. He holds a Master of Tax Accounting from the University of Alabama and graduated summa cum laude from Birmingham-Southern College in 2002, with a bachelor's degree in Accounting.