With over 30 years of experience, first as a tax adviser for a dozen years followed by twenty years as a business appraiser, Bruce enables estate and gift attorneys to achieve favorable results for their clients in the realm of estate, gift, and trust tax planning and compliance, and he routinely supports tax controversy attorneys nationwide in resolving tax-related business valuation disputes in US Tax Court and in IRS appeals and audits.
Before joining Applied Economics, Bruce served as Partner at BW Arpeggio from 2022 – 2024 and as Principal /Managing Director from 2007-2022 at CapVal – American Business Appraisers.
Bruce speaks regularly at national tax controversy conferences, such as the NYU Tax Controversy Forum and the UCLA Tax Controversy Institute, on business appraisal and related topics. He has been published in the Wolters Kluwer Journal of Tax Practice & Procedure and Bloomberg Tax, among others.
Mr. Wood earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from Georgia Southern University and a Master of Taxation (MTx) from Georgia State University.
Representative Tax Cases
Hired as Second Opinion
Secured a “no-change” audit result for a decedent estate’s family meat processing business that had been assessed $40 million in valuation adjustments by the IRS. In fact, the estate received a refund for administrative fees.
Obtained a $250 thousand settlement in a Tax Court reasonable compensation case for a catering company (C corporation) that was facing a $19 million liability upon an income tax audit assessment. Valuation techniques were used to show that officer compensation was reasonable given that company growth far exceeded benchmark industry growth.
Procured a “no-change” audit result in a Tax Court case, under joint representation by the IRS and the law firm representing the decedent estate, where the estate’s family hardware business had been assessed $8 million in valuation adjustments by the IRS.
Achieved a $250 thousand settlement in an IRS audit where the IRS had assessed millions of dollars against the taxpayer’s hotel enterprises as a result of an income analysis based on the net worth method.
Numerous other success stories exist.