The proceeds you keep after a business sale depend on federal and state taxes, how the purchase price gets allocated, and the structure of the deal itself. On a significant sale, the gap between the headline and what you keep can be the difference between the retirement you imagined and wondering if you made the wrong call.
The decisions that determine that number are made in the years before closing. The earlier you plan, the more you keep.
We see a business sale differently than the people running it. Their job is the transaction. Ours is the life it's supposed to fund. It starts with one question: what would make this the best personal decision you ever made? We build everything around your answer.
A federal exclusion for qualifying C-corp shares held long enough before a sale. May remove a significant portion of the gain from federal tax.
Donor-advised funds and charitable trusts funded with shares before a sale. May reduce the taxable gain on what you give while funding what matters to you.
Trust strategies (GRATs, IDGTs) that move future appreciation to family before the sale sets a higher value. May reduce eventual estate and gift tax exposure.
Where you're domiciled when the sale closes determines the state tax on the gain. A genuine, well-timed move may meaningfully change what you keep.
Investment accounts built in the years before a sale to generate realized losses. Those losses may offset a portion of the gain when you sell.
A restructuring used in many S-corp sales, common in private equity deals. May preserve capital-gain treatment for you while giving the buyer what they need.
Spreading payments, and the taxable gain, across multiple years instead of one. May keep more of the proceeds in lower brackets.
If property is part of the sale, a like-kind exchange may defer the gain on that portion. Some owners retain the building and lease it back instead.
A federal program allowing gains reinvested into designated zones to be deferred, with potential tax benefits on long-term growth. Requires acting within a set window after the sale.
For information only, not advice, and not a complete list of the strategies we consider. Each requires coordination with qualified tax and legal counsel, and suitability varies by situation.
The paycheck the business used to write, replaced and planned for life after the sale.
Proceeds put to work in a portfolio built support your life.
Planned in the years before the sale, when the biggest opportunities are still open.
The wealth you built, positioned to reach your family with intention.
A sale is on your horizon, even three to five years out.
The business is most of your net worth.
You want a partner before the sale, and long after it.
An introduction to talk through where you stand and the decisions ahead. No commitment, no pressure, just a clear sense of whether we're the right fit.
Book a Discovery Call