Every business owner will eventually exit — by choice or by circumstance. A solid succession plan protects what you've built, minimises tax on the way out, and ensures the business passes on your terms.
Business owners who have no formal succession plan in place
Minimum recommended lead time for effective succession planning
CGT potentially payable on sale proceeds under the 15-year small business exemption (if eligible)
Succession planning is consistently deferred — not because owners don't think it's important, but because there's always something more urgent. A client to service, a staff issue to resolve, a growth opportunity to pursue. The succession plan waits.
The problem is that succession planning done under pressure — after an unexpected illness, a dispute, or a forced sale — is expensive, messy, and rarely achieves what the owner intended. Planning done years in advance is none of those things.
The Australian tax system offers substantial CGT concessions to eligible small business owners on the sale of a business — including the 15-year exemption, the 50% active asset reduction, the retirement exemption, and rollover provisions. Combined, they can dramatically reduce or eliminate the tax on a business sale.
Eligibility has specific requirements, and the planning needs to happen well before any exit. We help you understand where you stand and structure your affairs accordingly.
If you have a business partner, the question of what happens if one of you wants to exit — or can no longer continue — is not hypothetical. Without a funded buy-sell agreement in place, the remaining partner's options are limited and often expensive. We help business partners put the right arrangements in place to protect each other and the business they've built together.
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