A Petitioner Relies Reasonably on His CPA in Gaggero v. Commissioner, the Tax Court Finds. That Makes a Difference: Here’s Why. In Gaggero v. Commissioner, Judge Holmes at the U.S. Tax Court disagrees with the IRS’s contention that the plaintiff conducted an improper scheme to avoid capital gains. In First Street Holdings NV, LLC v. MS Mission Holdings, LLC, Judge Markell at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court finds a lower bankruptcy court’s errors to be likely prejudicial.
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Appraisers Should Focus on Objectivity and Competence and Be Ready and Flexible to Deal with Unanticipated Challenges—From Vague Case Law to New Evidence to Erupting Personalities. Rand Curtiss expounds on his philosophy that business appraisal is about boundaries: limits on what we can do. Every work challenge is filled with a large number of people, each of whom have different boundaries. Business sellers want emotionally high prices. Plaintiffs want to destroy defendants. Taxpayers want to minimize taxes. Scenarios are complicated by the fact that a central problem in business appraisal is balancing the purely scientific with a bit of the…
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Few Business Owners Seem to Even Know How to Make a Good Guess at What Their Business is Worth. NY Times Introduces Technology to Help—and Certified Advisers Provide Extra Value. Mark Cohen, at The New York Times Small Business Guide, reports: “At 53, Joe Ritz is old enough to remember a time when many of the classic cars that now pull into his specialized repair shop were new. “It’s one field where it pays to be a senior citizen,” he said. It’s Critical for a Business Owner to Know the Value of His Business; Here are Tips on Technology, Advisors,…
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A Valuation Principal Takes Issue With Revenue Ruling 59-60: “Does Analysis of Macroeconomic Conditions Add Credibility to My Opinion of Privately Owned Company Value In My Region?” Rick Warner, ASA, AVA, Principal, Great Lakes Valuations writes that “Most of us as appraisers are familiar with Revenue Ruling 59-60 and its prescription for factors to be considered as part of the valuation of the stock of closely held companies . . . And while I agree with most of what 59-60 has to say, I do have a bone to pick . . . with at least one of the…
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Annie Cushing is on a Mission to Rid the World of Ugly Data. Learn About Data Collection, Analytics, Technical SEO, Analysis, and Beautification. Annie Cushing, a Senior SEO at SEER Interactive, a Philadelphia-based online marketing agency, explains that “There comes a time in a marketer’s life when making pretty charts with a predefined dataset just doesn’t cut it. “And finding the sum and average of a column of data just doesn’t satisfy you anymore. Eventually — and it’s really inevitable — you will actually have to dive deep into the data and cull out a smaller dataset or manipulate it…
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Stakeholders Discuss Greater Institutional Investor Makeup, Governance Structures, Greater Regulatory Scrutiny Deloitte Insights contributes a piece to the CFO Journal on the Wall Street Journal site, part of a series designed to provide financial executives a customized resource to help them address the strategic, operational and regulatory issues they face in managing their finance organizations and careers, with top-line digests, research, perspectives and technical analyses. This Deloitte Insight reports on the Third Annual Hedge Fund Symposium Series held in New York recently. There, Joseph Fisher, who leads the Hedge Fund Audit practice for Deloitte & Touche LLP in New York, commented on how…
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External Attacks, Data Loss are Top Concerns Jeffrey Roman at Government Industry Security interviews Forensics expert Rob Lee who says its not new types of attacks that concern him. It’s the old ones that continue to impact organizations. How can organizations learn from past incidents and respond in 2013? The bulk of the cases he investigates are external breaches, not insider cases, says Lee, a seasoned forensics professional and curriculum lead and author for digital forensic and incident response training at the SANS Institute. When analyzing the incidents and reporting back to technical teams or executives, he’s often faced with the question, “How do…
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Tighter Regulations Leave Less Room for Error When Computing and Disclosing How Much Mortgages Cost. John Adams at American Banker reports that Ernst Publishing, not related to the accounting company, sells technology and closing cost data to mortgage market players. Its clients include nine of the largest ten originators and servicers and the largest five title insurance companies. And it has now received a U.S. patent for its recording fee and tax calculator, called “System and Method for Generating and Tracking Field Values of Mortgage Forms.” Read the whole thing here. More:
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Many Business Buyers Probably Have Some Boilerplate Questions Ready to Ask Business Sellers — But May be Missing the Most Important Ones. Mike Handelsman, group general manager for BizBuySell.com and BizQuest.com, the Internet’s largest and most heavily trafficked business-for-sale marketplaces, recently advised readers at Inc.com that if they’re thinking about buying a business, they should put extra effort into preparation. More:
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“You’re The Boss” Author Josh Patrick Suggests Business Owners Use Credentialed Advisers Who Work Only for You, Employing Intermediaries, Developing a Personal Financial Plan, More. Josh Patrick is a founder and principal at Stage 2 Planning Partners, where he works with private business owners on creating personal and business value. Recently he offered some recommendations about selling a business at the New York Times “You’re the Boss” blog. Here are five of the “hard-earned” lessons he passes on.
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MidasFund Will Not Acquire Distressed Companies; However, it Will Buy Stable Divisions of Bankrupt Companies. Here’s Why. “Last week’s announcement that MidasFund had started acquiring zombie companies caused a flurry of emails,” writes Rob Slee on the MidasMoments blog of the MidasNation site. “Many of you asked about the differences between acquiring distressed, zombie and healthy companies. Let’s dig into this.” Here’s an excerpt:
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Valuation Discounts, What the Interest Owners See, and What a Direct Owner Sees What sort of discounts apply to pass-through entities? Rand Curtiss helps clarify, looking at investment characteristics, investment profiles, and the interaction of these elements. He draws four conclusions. Find out what they are here.
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The Tax Court Speaks Loudly and Firmly on the Responsibilities of Business Appraisers Hempstead & Co. has published “Estate of Gallagher is a Valuation Tutorial.” The article emphasizes the importance of providing the court with a clear and convincing explanation of the assumptions and arguments you have employed in carrying out a business appraisal. It discusses the recent Tax Court Memorandum opinion in the Estate of Gallagher v. Commissioner, (TC Memo. 2011-148). The court’s valuation was closest to the value on the return as filed.
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Sweet Tax Deductions for Individuals That Often Get Forgotten With October 15 behind us and April 15 still comfortably far away, it’s a good time to start boning up on ways to save your clients money once things start getting serious. With that in mind, Bankrate.com identified 10 great deductions that individual taxpayers should use – but often forget. Accounting Today passes on the good news. Here’s the list:
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Investors Cool on Tech A survey of tech firms’ valuations shows many companies are challenged. Here’s detail from various reporters:
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The Weighted Average Method of Estimating Expected Future Earnings is Based on the Average or Arithmetic Mean. Here’s Why that’s Important. Companies that are growing in revenue need to be valued regularly, and they need to be valued with their future growth in mind. The weighted average approach is a valuable tool. But Richard Claywell suggests caution in using it to extrapolate large projections of future revenue. Why? Partly because it’s quite often typical for fast-growing companies to experience their most dramatic growth during their early years—and it’s important to focus on current market conditions more than past or imagined…
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Uncertain How to Assess the Legitimacy of Price Multiples? Here Are Some Tips! Rand Curtiss explains how to used reasoned judgment, statistical techniques, and comparative analysis to defensibly develop and support pricing multiples in an appraisal.
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Added Ammunition Support Appraisal Assumptions Sherry Smith offers a look at data sources that can deepen and add credibility to valuations, M&A offers, and more. Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Survey, Sageworks, and a number of Secondary Markets for Private Companies (SecondMarket, Sharespost, and Triago) all offer illuminating information.
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Federal Cases Examine Bankruptcy, Valuation Standards The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit weighs in on penalties for “gross valuation misstatement” in Gursthaw v. Commissioner, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Tennesee rules on the value of mortgage liens In re: Williams.
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Redefining the Value of Appraisals, and Helping Clients Understand Paul R. Hyde discusses how appraisals come in a variety of configurations based on client needs. Here are tips on how to balance these conflicting demands, and how best to set the expectation for work in valuation.