Wealth Management · Seven questions · About four minutes
How does the money work after I sell?
A plain-language walk from the headline price to what you keep, and what that money has to do next.
How this works
What is behind the answer.
Owned by Wealth Management. Indicative and educational. Not an appraisal, a legal opinion, or tax or investment advice.
The number in the letter of intent is not the number that lands in your account. Between the two sit debt payoff, transaction costs, escrows and earnouts, and taxes that depend on your entity, your state, and how the deal is structured. Most owners see that walk for the first time after they have signed.
This tool shows it before. It uses published ranges rather than a private tax calculation, so treat the output as the shape of the answer, then have your CPA put exact numbers on it. Everything here is education, not advice.
Proceeds · questions
Straight answers.
- How much of a business sale goes to taxes?
- It depends on entity type, deal structure, state, and basis. For a pass-through entity selling stock or membership interests, federal long-term capital gains plus the net investment income tax reach 23.8 percent at the top. Asset sales add ordinary-income treatment on some of the gain. A C-corporation asset sale is taxed twice. State tax ranges from zero to over thirteen percent. The walk on this page shows those as ranges.
- What is an escrow or earnout, and why does it matter?
- Buyers hold back part of the price to cover indemnities (escrow) or tie it to future performance (earnout). Both are real money you have not received yet. A recompete-heavy or concentrated business usually sees more of the price deferred.
- Does Sunset Coast give tax advice?
- No. Sunset Coast Partners does not provide legal, tax, or investment advice. Wealth Management works alongside your CPA and attorney, and this tool exists so you walk into those conversations knowing the questions.
- What can still be done before a sale?
- More than after. Entity choices, timing, charitable planning, and estate moves all work better with years of runway. The unlocked section lists the levers that fit your inputs.