James Mackie joins the EY QUEST group in Washington

Ernst & Young LLP has announced that James Mackie joins the EY Quantitative Economics and Statistics (QUEST) group in Washington, DC, as co-director, alongside Robert Carroll. Mackie joins EY as he retires after serving for a decade as director of the US Department of Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis (OTA), and serving more than 30 years at Treasury.

“James’s deep experience at Treasury stretches from one era of tax reform analysis to the next,” said Kate Barton, EY Americas Vice Chair of Tax Services. “Virtually every client we have is clamoring for a deep examination of how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will affect them. James’s experience will offer valuable insights for our clients as they tackle implementation of the new bill.”

Mackie had been with the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis since 1985 and became OTA Director in 2008, overseeing and coordinating all activities including revenue estimates, distributional and macroeconomic impact analyses, industry impacts, memos for policymakers, model and data development, and policy development for the Administration’s annual budget. Most recently, he led the analyses and presentation of tax reform proposals to policymakers and stakeholders in the Treasury, the White House and outside the Administration.

Mackie joined the Office of Tax Analysis as a financial economist just prior to the enactment of the 1986 Tax Reform bill, at which point he helped to develop tax policy initiatives and provided insights on complex economic analysis for the Secretary of the Treasury, members of Congress and their staffs, and White House officials. Prior to serving as the OTA Director, Mackie served as OTA Deputy Director from 2007 to 2008, as well as director of the Revenue Estimating Division from 2005 through 2007. He also represented the US Treasury at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 

“I had the great pleasure of working closely with James during my 17-year career at the Treasury Department including as deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis during the George W. Bush Administration,” said Robert CarrolI, principal with Ernst & Young LLP and co-Director of the firm’s QUEST group. “James was a valued colleague during our years at Treasury, is a tremendous talent, and will help lead our efforts to meet the explosive demand for economic and other analyses around tax reform.”

In his new role, Mackie will help expand the client services and EY proprietary reports conducted by QUEST, a leading Washington, DC-based economic policy practice focused on tax and economic policy analysis. The group’s work encompasses broad federal, state and local, and global, tax policy and regulatory reform analyses. In addition to developing widely published thought leadership on tax policy issues, QUEST has prepared dozens of issue-specific studies on behalf of clients on a broad range of tax policy and regulatory issues. QUEST also includes a practice that provides a broad range of statistical sampling and survey services to clients.  

Mackie received a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts from Towson State University.