Mr. Zaino is Chair of the Multistate Tax Practice Group and Member-in-Charge of the Columbus, Ohio office of the law firm McDonald Hopkins, LLC. He represents multistate and multinational clients in federal, state and local tax controversies, tax planning, and tax policy matters. As Special Tax Counsel to the Ohio Business Roundtable, an organization made up of the CEO's of Ohio's largest businesses, Mr. Zaino was instrumental in development of Ohio's commercial activity tax.
From 1999 to 2003, Mr. Zaino served as Ohio's tax commissioner under Governor Bob Taft. While serving as tax commissioner, Mr. Zaino chaired the bipartisan Committee to Study State and Local Taxes and developed the Ohio Business Gateway. Prior to serving as Ohio tax commissioner, Mr. Zaino was a tax consulting partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP where he was a founding member of the firm's National VISION Team, a special project management service provided to large businesses to assist in the implementation of significant business process and legal entity changes.
Mr. Zaino is a founding member of the Independent SALT Alliance, a national not-for-profit association of experienced and independent providers of professional state and local tax services. Currently, he is a member of the American Bar Association's State and Local Tax Committee; serves on the Ohio State Racing Commission; is on the board of directors of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce; is on the Ohio Society of CPA's Executive Board; is on the board and is treasurer of Prevent Blindness Ohio; and is on the board of the Ohio Partnership for Excellence.
He graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a B.B.A. in accounting and is a certified public accountant. Mr. Zaino earned his law degree from The Ohio State University. He is a frequent national speaker and author on state and local tax developments.The opinions expressed herein are solely Mr. Zaino's and not those of the entities with which he is or has been associated.