Tax tips for buying or selling a business

Generally speaking the sale or purchase of a business will involve a transfer assets or shares, sometimes both.

Deciding whether to structure a business sale as an asset sale or a share sale is complicated because the parties involved benefit from opposing structures.

Generally, buyers prefer asset sales, whereas sellers prefer share sales. Thi

In a share sale, the vendor sells his or her shares in the operating company. The sale of shares triggers CGT on the taxable gain.

With planning, the potential tax charge can be reduced considerably or eliminated altogether.

As far as the Seller is concerned a Share Sale is the most straight forward transaction from a tax perspective.

"Irish personal holding company"s enable individual or corporate investors to access tax-free returns on investments in trading entities.

"Irish personal holding company"s are exempt from companies CGT on disposals of shares in a qualifying subsidiary. The exemption also applies to gains arising on the disposal of assets related to shares, such as options and convertible securities