Before Tax vs. After Tax Analysis

In practice, is it generally more common to calculate your cash flows to equity and investment metrics (IRR, cash-on-cash, EM, etc.) on a pre-tax or post-tax basis? Or both?

In some of my classes, we're taught to do everything on a post-tax basis (mostly the "academic" professors), and in other classes, we don't take into account income or capital gains taxes (mostly the "industry" professors).

When I interned at a multifamily development shop, everything was done pre-tax.

My hunch is that post-tax analysis is used more so for personal investments in CRE, and for accounting/tax purposes; pre-tax analysis is used for your typical acquisitions/investment committee/BOE.

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Basically, if you're modeling a deal for "someone else"--a group of people generally--you model it on a pre-tax basis since everyone has their own tax rates and tax consequences. If you're modeling a deal for "yourself"--you personally or the company that employs you--then you model it post-tax. Generally. There are exceptions, of course--my boss likes to look at deals pre-tax because it gives him a better idea of the merits of the deal.

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