Difference Between Asset Sale And Stock Sale For Tax Purposes In Queens
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The benefit of an asset sale, from the buyer's perspective, is that it can select which assets and liabilities to acquire in the deal, compared to a stock sale or merger, where the buyer acquires all the assets and liabilities of the target.
What is an asset sale? An asset sale happens when you sell or transfer the assets of your company, rather than shares or stock. These assets can be tangible (eg machinery and inventory) or intangible (eg intellectual property).
An asset sale occurs when a business sells all or a portion of its assets. The seller, or target company, in this type of deal, is still legally the owner of the company, but no longer owns the assets sold. In a stock sale, the buyer acquires equity from the target company's shareholders.
The benefit of an asset sale, from the buyer's perspective, is that it can select which assets and liabilities to acquire in the deal, compared to a stock sale or merger, where the buyer acquires all the assets and liabilities of the target.
Stocks are financial assets. They're not real assets. A financial asset is a liquid asset that gets its value from a contractual right or ownership claim.
Almost everything you own and use for personal or investment purposes is a capital asset. Examples of capital assets include a home, personal-use items like household furnishings, and stocks or bonds held as investments.
In an asset sale, the ownership of these acquired assets would change hands, with the buyer negotiating separately for each asset. In a stock sale, ownership of such assets does not change hands in the same way. The target still retains its ownership typically, even if the target has a new owner.
For the target, a stock sale is usually a nonevent from a tax perspective. The buyer in a stock sale does not get a step-up in tax basis in the assets that comprise the target company, and thus is not able to increase their depreciation and amortization deductions in the same way as in an asset sale.
