Thinking about selling your business?
Then don’t forget that it may include some extremely valuable “intangible assets.”
Intangible assets include customer lists, goodwill, proprietary software, and much more.
If you do decide to sell your business,
here is what you need to know:
Intangibles sold by your sole proprietorship or single-member LLC.
If you sell a business that you’ve operated as a sole proprietorship (or as a single-member LLC that’s treated as a sole proprietorship for tax purposes), you should treat the sale of business intangibles as if you sold them personally.
You’ll get all the facts when you read the full article.
Intangibles included in an asset sale by your corporation, partnership, or multi-member LLC.
You can arrange to sell the assets, including intangibles, of a business that you’ve operated as an S corporation, partnership, or multi-member LLC (treated as a partnership for tax purposes). In these scenarios, you would generally be better off selling your ownership-interest in the business rather than the assets.
You’ll get all the facts when you read the full article.
Intangibles sold by your C Corporation
With a C corporation, any gains or losses from selling assets, including intangibles, stay “inside” the company and fall under the tax rules for corporations.
You’ll get all the facts when you read the full article.
Sale of your ownership-interest in a business with intangibles
As an alternative to an asset sale, you may be able to convince a motivated buyer to purchase your ownership-interest in a business — one that you’ve operated as corporation, partnership, or multi-member LLC (treated as a partnership for tax purposes). Why would this be a good move for you?
You’ll get all the facts when you read the full article.