Selling your business is never easy whether you are selling a family-owned food truck or a large corporation. Not only will this be a challenging time emotionally, but selling a business is also a complex process to go through when you factor in financial documentation, valuations, tax and legal compliance. Fortunately, a chartered accountant can guide you through the process and ensure that you are getting the best possible price.
So, how can a chartered accountant help when selling your business?
Maximize Value
When you decide that it is time to sell your company, you will want to spend some time maximizing its sale value much like you would when you sell your home. Chartered Cangaf Accountants can help at this stage by advising you on what steps you can take to increase the value of the company.
Valuation
Following on from this, they will also be able to perform a business valuation to establish how much the company is worth to potential buyers. This is done either by an asset-based method, a market method (comparing your company to similar businesses already sold) or by an income method looking at your financial history.
Structure a Business Deal
A chartered accountant can also help when it comes to structuring a deal with a buyer. These are highly complex deals that might include selling your business’s equity, stocks, equipment and intellectual property. They will be able to determine the deal structure that will get you the best value and ensure that all parties are happy with the outcome.
Tax Obligations
There are tax obligations when selling your business, which can be a nasty sting if you were not expecting this. A chartered accountant will not only help you to understand your tax obligations and ensure that you and the buyer do not find themselves in trouble while finding ways to help you take home as much money as possibly allocating most of the sale price to the capital assets (tax is lower for capital gains than taxable income).
Financial Advice
If you hire a chartered accountant, you will find that they can then help you to plan for the next chapter in your life. After selling a business, you need to have a strong plan in place for how to make use of the money whether you are looking to start a new company or plan for your retirement.
As you can see, a chartered accountant can play a major role when it comes to selling a business and help you through what can be a difficult process.
Article by Born Realist