Alan Pink looks at some ways that tax planning reverses normal preconceptions about what to do with the family business.
Conventional wisdom says that, as time goes on, the older generation should give way to the new, in the family business as in other areas of life. After all, businesses need new blood and fresh ideas. If the older generation hangs on to the ownership and control of the business, all the energy of the younger generation, which could have been moving the business in new and profitable directions, may end up being wasted.
However, tax planning considerations can point in precisely the opposite direction, as we’ll see from a few examples.
Capital taxes and the family business
To understand the reasons why passing ownership of the family business down from the old to the young can be bad tax
