There are many aspects to planning a sale or an exit from a business and the smart play here is to join these various aspects together and create a concrete plan of action.
This can include plotting the exit route a long way from home!
If you are in Business ask yourself whether you have an end game in mind? However far off or irrelevant this seems today there will be a time when your involvement ends or the business ends; what, do you think, this should look like?
Is it about passing on the business to the next generation, selling it to the highest bidder or somehow merging your role from full on, day to day, involvement to wound-down retiree?
Whatever your vision, it is very likely that to maximise your financial well-being you should create a plan of action and link your various aims and goals together. Too often, individual’s in business ‘plan’ their exit only when the exit is upon them. This is liable to produce an inefficient outcome or result.
Far too many people and families find they get unwanted tax bills because they rely, for example, on “advice” that they don’t need to do any wider tax planning because they will enjoy favourable tax treatment due to the generosity of the rules around shares and Business Property Relief (BPR).
So they sell out of their business, benefit from this tax relief, and then find they have a large sum of money – now what? How do they get this outside of their taxable estate? Or defend it against life threats such as divorce?
BPR presents a ‘one moment in time’ tax break – which is great, useful and much better than not getting it. But it does not protect wealth into the future. A forward looking, joined up Financial Plan put in place many years before could solve this – because such a plan could not only ensure BPR relief is obtained, but the resulting windfall from the sale of the business is preserved against future tax and lifestyle threats for decades.
We can help with this and we encourage all business owners to get ahead of the curve and plan their strategies, including their exit plan, a long way in advance. Get in touch to discuss our Financial Advice for Business Owners today.
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