Unexpected post-closing costs
December 24, 2022
by an investor from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor in Chicago, IL, USA
I've heard a few searchers mention running into unexpected costs that they did not otherwise account for early on in the process. Life insurance seems to be one of the most common. I'm early on in my search and want to build these into my model. What are others that should be considered?
from University of Florida in Boynton Beach, FL, USA
1. Sales tax & title transfer on vehicles.
2. For licensed trades, in my case plumbing, you may have costs while changing the licensed contractor entity. Permit transfer fees and overlapping insurance policies to cover the old contractor entity and the new contractor entity while things are moved over.
3. In my case, Florida reemployment tax is charged on the first $7k of earnings per calendar year but in an asset purchase you have to pay it a second time for that calendar year since the employees are starting fresh. Not massive but your payroll tax expense will be higher than the historical average.
4. Employee perks and bonuses that need to be brought above board. If somebody used to get a $1,000 cash bonus under the table it might actually cost $1,500 to have them net the same after employer & employee payroll taxes and income tax.
from New York University in Mexico City, CDMX, Mexico
1. Value added tax in transactions involving almost any transfer of assets outside of the US. 2. Payroll-related costs. 3. Additional legal fees, including success fees.
Besides these costs, in some jurisdictions I suggest to pay close attention to modifications to the tax attributes of the target company.