The best way to sell your limited partnership interest may lie in finding an experienced broker or advisor who can help you to identify potential buyers and guide you through any negotiations that may arise.
A transfer of partnership interest involves transferring ownership, profits, losses, and management responsibilities from one partner to another or to a new entity. Partnership agreements typically dictate the terms of transfer, often including restrictions like the right of first refusal for existing partners.
—Generally, file Form 8308 as an attachment to Form 1065 for the tax year of the partnership that includes the last day of the calendar year in which the section 751(a) exchange took place.
This means the ownership interest a partner has in a partnership is treated as a separate asset that can be purchased and sold.
The seller in situation one will calculate their gain as if they had sold the underlying assets of the partnership. Unlike the sale of stock for a C-corporation or S-corporation, some of the gain in the sale of partnership units may be recharacterized to ordinary income instead of being all capital gain.
From the seller's perspective, the partnership recognizes gain or loss on the sale of assets, which flows through to the partners on their K-1s. The character of the gain or loss depends on the assets sold and can be a combination of ordinary gain/loss and capital gain/loss.
If a partner's departure triggers an end to the partnership, the partners will need to follow a dissolution procedure. In this case, the partnership will settle its debts and distribute any remaining assets to the partners—including the withdrawing partner—ing to their capital accounts.
The Partnership Buyout Agreement Your path to an ownership sale will be simpler if you created a clear and thorough partnership buyout agreement when you started your company. The agreement should discuss what might lead to one of the partners wanting to sell her share and state the terms and timing that would apply.
You have several options when looking to change ownership of your partnership, such as adding or removing members or tweaking each owner's stake in the company. However, if all of the business's core partners change, you'll need to officially dissolve the company.
The best way to sell your limited partnership interest may lie in finding an experienced broker or advisor who can help you to identify potential buyers and guide you through any negotiations that may arise.