About Cook and Company Tax Advisors

Cook and Company ensures that all clientele, including individuals, partnerships, corporations, limited liability companies, estates and trusts can benefit from our knowledge, technology and resources. We consistently champion the promise of making every effort to ensure that you pay the minimum amount of tax allowable under the tax code (the correct amount of tax).

Cook and Company plays a central and essential role in supporting taxpayers by providing income tax filings and audit representation. We partner with software vendors, continuing education providers and others to deliver services that help the tax paying public.

Today, Cook and Company performs a range of critical functions that include, among others:
• Educating and advising individuals, corporate officers, board members, managers, partners, executors and trustees in tax matters;
• Processing hundreds (really thousands) of tax return filings each year;
• Representing taxpayers before all administrative levels of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state departments of revenue;
• Interpreting and applying federal and state rules and regulations;
• Servicing hundreds of accounts, securing and storing confidential tax and financial information; and
• Operating information technology systems and tools that manage millions in tax dollars.

This is a complex, multifaceted mission that calls on a range of staff skills and demands coordination between the various functions involved. Consequently, Cook and Company emphasizes tangible results and efficient performance, as well as the continuous improvement of the processes and systems that support our mission (see our ten step process).




The future is bright

There have been many changes in the tax laws over the years that have precipitated changes in the way we do business. However, technology has had the biggest impact on changes in our operations. We think it is safe to predict more tax law changes and further improvements with technology in the future.

Bara Business Service was established in 1957 by Al LaGrone, EA, PA and operated out of his home in Arab, Alabama for the first two years. During the following four years, we shared office space with a Real Estate Office on North Main Street. Mr. LaGrone built and occupied our current office building in April 1962. In 1970 an addition was made to our building, doubling the office space to approximately 10,000 square feet.

Mr. LaGrone retired and sold the practice to Greg Cook (an employee of approximately ten years) in December 1994. The business operated under the name Cook & LaGrone during the transition period. Due to state regulations governing Mr. Cook's CPA license and the use of a fictitious name, LaGrone was dropped from the firm name in March 1998 (two years after the death of our Founder). Mr. Cook completely renovated the building inside and out over the next five years.

Bara is simply Arab spelled backwards. Arab, Alabama is a small town in Marshall County, nineteen miles south of Huntsville, Alabama on U. S. Highway 231. Al LaGrone launched an income tax return preparation business in January 1957 and called it Bara Business Service.

More about our history and transition from Bara Business Service, to Cook & LaGrone, to Cook & Co....

How did Arab, Alabama get its name?
The town was to be named Arad in honor of it's founding citizen Arad Thompson. In 1886 when the letters for the Post Office arrived from Washington D.C., there was a "B" instead of "D". The citizens put the letters on the Post Office building and changed the name to Arab.