Business Valuation and Federal Taxes: Procedure, Law and Perspective, 2nd Edition

Foreword: Legal Practitioner's Perspective

Judge David Laro and Dr. Shannon Pratt have many years of experience looking at business data. Dr. Pratt looks at the data and its interrelationships for the purpose of evaluating the usefulness of the data in predicting or emulating the behavior of the marketplace. In that role, he has become well-known for his common-sense explanations of the tools of the appraisal profession and has become both the master teacher and the dean of the profession. The books he has authored and co-authored have become indispensable references for business amateurs—like most lawyers—who routinely encounter valuation issues.

Judge Laro looks at business data in the context of the cases that we advocates present to him. We cannot hire him like many of us have engaged Dr. Pratt over the years, but all of us, as citizens, have hired him to objectively ask whether the data and analysis laid before him makes sense and whether we advocates have used the principles developed by Dr. Pratt and others in a manner that advances the integrity of the tax system. Even when the resolution of issues is controversial, Judge Laro's name on an opinion signals thoughtfulness, thoroughness, and an effort to be helpful to the reading public as well as fair to the litigants in the particular case.

Thus, it is refreshing to see these two close observers of valuation issues collaborate on this intriguing volume. What the reader gets is something like a mural—depicting the life of ...