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  Splitting up a marital estate can be a long and complicated process, particularly if one of the assets includes a privately owned business. Fortunately, a valuation analyst can assist attorneys and their clients address these issues – even at the early stages of the matrimonial action. These preliminary issues often include, but may not be limited to: How much is the business actually worth? Do you need to be concerned about the issue of “double dipping” when considering the valuation of a business and the money spouses support obligations? Is the spouse that owns and operates the business deceptive when it comes to reporting his/her income? In this blog post we quickly discuss these three issues.  For those of us that travel down this road often – you know that the totality of the financial concerns in a matrimonial matter can be significant. How much is the business actually worth? There are three methods used to value a business: the asset, market and income approaches. All of these techniques start with the analysis of the company’s financial statements. But discovery shouldn’t stop there, especially for spouses who aren’t involved in day-to-day business operations. Valuation experts should be given equal access to financial records and opportunities to tour the company’s facilities and interview management. Inadequate discovery can cause an expert to miss critical information and possibly lead to an inaccurate conclusion of value. If the business interest was owned prior the marriage, it might be appropriate to include only the […]

  Family-owned businesses aren’t usually run like large public companies. From the Rockefellers to the Kardashians, working together can bring out the best – and worst – in families. Here are four key issues to consider when valuing these entities. 1- Are family members on the payroll? The terms “family business” and “nepotism” often go hand in hand. Although some business owners hire family members because they’re perceived as more trustworthy, many hire them out of obligation or to satisfy a desire to pass the business on to their offspring. When valuing family-owned entities, business appraisers objectively consider whether family members are qualified for their positions and whether their compensation is reasonable. In some cases, management of a hypothetical buyer might want to consolidate family members’ positions and use fewer people to perform their duties. As a result, valuation professionals often make an upward adjustment to cash flow to reflect the excess expense of employing relatives. But the reverse may also be true. Some family businesses overwork or underpay related parties. Consider, for example, business owners whose passion for their work and desire to succeed lead them to work exceptionally long hours. When evaluating a related party’s compensation, experts look beyond the family member’s base pay. For example, they must also adjust for payroll taxes, benefits and extraneous perks. Perks may include such things as allowances for luxury vehicles, country club memberships or loans at below-market interest rates. 2 – Are there other related-party transactions? Family-owned businesses may engage in […]

I know that 2018 has begun with frigid temperatures for those of us in the Northeast, but I want you to get up from your desk, open up your office window and listen to what’s happening outside. That galloping sound you hear isn’t construction work, it isn’t local traffic, or planes flying above. It is the masses of divorcing couples, business owners, and retirement minded individuals running to their matrimonial, estate and corporate attorneys. On December 22, 2017 Congress passed and President Trump signed into law The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (hereafter, “the Act”). The Act is the most significant change to the current tax law in three decades. In its most simplistic terms the Act (1) lowers individual and corporate tax rates, (2) eliminates multiple tax credits and deductions, (3) increases the child tax credit, and (4) repeals the healthcare individual mandate penalty. Matrimonial and Family Law Attorneys should be aware that for those that separate and/or divorce after December 31, 2018 alimony payments will no longer be taxable to the recipient or deductible by the payer. Gift and Estate Attorneys should note that the estate and gift tax exclusion amounts have doubled after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2026. Corporate Attorneys should know that the corporate income tax rate has been simplified to a flat 21 percent and that owners of pass-through entities will be taxed at a 20 percent income reduction calculation. So the question you may be asking is: Why is a boutique […]

Unless you were buried alive during this week’s snowstorm, you probably heard that Donald Trump’s 2005 individual income tax return has been disclosed.  To date, no one has taken responsibility for its discovery, except for the journalist who found it on his doorstep.  Many of the talking heads and late night comedians have discussed and joked about the return, or more accurately its first two pages.  Few, if any, have discussed what the return partially states or even means in regards to President Trump’s reported income and/or assets.   Granted, this information is incomplete and may pose more questions than answers.  However, this exercise is not uncommon for a forensic accountant engaged in analyzing an individual income tax return in a business dispute or matrimonial action.  This discussion is non-partisan.  Truthfully, the subject matter could be about anyone.  But you are reading this blog post because it applies to the current President of the United States. Let this be a primer for those of you that are commercial or family law litigators. Form 1040 is the long form federal individual income tax return filed annually by individuals. You can obtain a full copy of this (blank) form and its instructions here. This particular filing is for the year 2005, which is 12 years prior to Mr. Trump becoming President.  It is fair to say that if President Trump voluntarily submitted his returns for public review, he probably would not have provided a return filed so many years ago. Here is […]

Introduction MarketWatch recently published an article outlining a report written by the global wealth consultancy, Wealth-X, and the insurance brokerage and consulting firm, NFP, which predicts that ultra-high-net-worth individuals will transfer $3.9 trillion to the next generation by 2026.The article writes that this massive global transfer, which it describes as the largest wealth transfer in history, has already begun. It states that, as of last year, ultrahigh-net-worth individuals 80 years of age or older are, on average, seven times wealthier than those 30 years of age or younger. These older, extremely deep-pocketed individuals are now in a position to transfer wealth to their family members. As the article writes, a recent survey conducted by Knight Frank found that the biggest concerns for these individuals are “succession and inheritance issues,” which likely derive in part from the complicated regulations imposed by the Internal Revenue Service. These concerns were likely amplified in the beginning of August 2016 by the official IRS release of the proposed changes to Internal Revenue Code § 2704, which handles rules for valuation discounts that affect transfers of family-owned equity interests or partnerships. The recently proposed changes to Internal Revenue Code § 2704 would affect not only the superrich, but anyone planning to transfer an interest in a family-owned corporation or partnership to a family member. These regulations would eliminate valuation discounts for transfer interests and likely limit the financial benefit of these transfers. The best strategy for an individual planning to transfer interests in a family business […]

Recently, Bloomberg reported that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is under investigation for potential securities fraud after being accused of inflating U.S. car sales. The company is said to have coordinated a scheme in which individual dealers were paid to create false sales reports, thereby exaggerating financial performance and deceiving investors. Unfortunately, instances of fraudulent financial reporting such as this one have become somewhat commonplace among corporations under pressure to meet earning expectations or to conceal declining financial performance. Fraudulent financial reporting is any intentional misstatement of, or omission from, the financial statements of a company with the purpose of misleading the statement users. The complexity of financial statement fraud has garnered significant attention over the past decade.  It has become clear that there are a variety of subtle methods used to manipulate expenses and revenues that are not easy to detect without knowledge of the necessary analytical tools. In 2002, following a series of major corporate financial fraud scandals, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which enacted strict reforms to financial reporting standards in the hopes of protecting investors from potential fraudulent accounting activities. In spite of these new standards, the number of fraud cases, as well as the dollar value of false financial reporting’s, has continued to rise for the past 14 years. Most cases of financial statement fraud take the form of either improper revenue recognition, misstatement of assets, liabilities or expenses. It is nearly impossible to trace the source of every revenue stream, verify the existence of all reported […]

Unity Technologies, a previously nondescript software development company, has grown significantly in value over the past few months with the release of the viral mobile app, Pokémon Go, which was created using Unity’s software. The company has recently been valued at around $1.5 billion. This consensus comes from an amalgamation of different data including the company’s past financial performance, trends in the market, and the company’s owned resources. In performing this or any other valuation one needs to decide the relevancy of each type of data. For instance, Unity’s past performance may be a good prediction of the company’s potential but does not account for the growing market for programs that produce augmented reality, an area in which Unity specializes. These considerations are an important aspect of business valuation. In a typical business valuation, the analyst will often use three general valuation approaches: (1) the income approach, (2) the market approach, and (3) the asset approach. Each of these approaches uses different data to estimate the value of the subject company, which inevitably results in slight disparities between the outcomes. In order to come to a consensus on value, the analyst must decide how to weight each outcome. There is no official formula for calculating weights in business valuation. In fact, Revenue Ruling 59-60 of the Internal Revenue Code states: “Because valuations cannot be made on the basis of a prescribed formula, there is no means whereby the various applicable factors in a particular case can be assigned mathematical weights in […]

(Reading time: Under 2 minutes) In an episode of the critically acclaimed sitcom, Arrested Development, aspiring magician and underachieving employee of the Bluth family business, G.O.B Bluth, tells his brother, Michael, “I figured out a way to make money while I’m working.” Michael, the work-oriented and responsible Bluth brother, replies, “But that is what we call working.” G.O.B. rarely performs work that adds to the value of the business, but, as a member of the Bluth family and officer of the Bluth Company, he is on the company payroll. His salary is an example of a discretionary expense that can affect the understanding of the company’s value. Business owners typically have a fair amount of flexibility to choose how they compensate themselves and their officers. The IRS mandates that the officers of a corporation, including the CEO, president, vice president, and any other shareholder employees, must be paid a “reasonable compensation” for their labor, but what qualifies as “reasonable” is left unclear. Depending on the nature of the business in question, there could be many factors that affect the level of compensation chosen for the business’s shareholders, including the following: When possible, companies tend to pay their officers wages that reduce taxes. For example, a C corporation might increase their shareholder’s compensation, and eliminate dividends, to avoid double taxation, while an S corporation might decrease their shareholder’s compensation in order to reduce payroll taxes. The shareholders may be receiving deferred compensation that was earned in previous years when the company […]

It is often assumed that a business valuation is only necessary in instances of conflict or litigation, but business valuations can be very useful in identifying ways to increase the value of an existing business. When business owners get valuations, they are often surprised by the lower-than-anticipated results as it is easy to overvalue personal assets and lose sight of the fact that market value is based almost exclusively on objective data regarding future profitability. It is essential that business owners have an accurate knowledge of their businesses value in order to be in a position to increase its worth. A business valuation expert would be able to provide an exact valuation and help the business owner develop a long term plan to increase the business’s market value.  The specifics of this plan would be dependent on the company’s position in the marketplace as well as its financial growth history. There are a few basic techniques that typically work to increase a business’s value. You may want to consider one or more of the following: Increase Profitability. Look at the future prospects in the market and work to ensure that profits will continue increasing, Find efficiencies that cut cost, Grow intangible assets, Establish sales and/or marketing departments, Increase employee retention, and/or Diversify revenue by producing a larger variety of products or services. Simplify. Establish seamless procedures and routines, Create recurring revenue statements, and/or Reduce or eliminate shareholders loans. Organize. Tidy up the business’s physical location, and/or Neatly catalog important documents. […]

Modern day examples of fraud don’t always take the form of mustachioed Ponzi-types with elaborate systems of deception. Today, elusive acts of fraud in the workplace are running rampant, especially throughout small businesses.   The ability to commit and get away with fraud has become even more accessible with the increased use of social technologies in the workplace. Tech savvy fraudsters can use anything from Facebook messaging to Snapchat to communicate plans for manipulating company funds in a way that is difficult to detect. If you or your client is suspicious of fraudulent activity in the workplace, it is essential to take the steps necessary to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. The following four steps should be taken to stop any potential fraudulent behaviors: Detection of Potential Fraudulent Activity in the Workplace The two main types of business fraud are (1) inappropriate personal use of business assets and (2) falsifying financial statements. These types of fraud can come in many forms, including but not limited to the following: Embezzlement, Forgery of official documents, Tampering with bank records, Inventory theft, Benefitting from placing a redundant order, Using company credit cards for personal expenses, Selling business assets under the market value, Manipulating the overtime periods, and Creating fictitious expenses and obtaining disbursements. If any of these behaviors are suspected, it is important to investigate. Forensic Investigation Although most employers wouldn’t like to think of their employees as the type to commit fraud, fraudulent behavior is surprisingly prevalent, especially among smaller […]