There’s more than one way to buy a business.

The method you choose will impact your taxes long after the date of purchase.

As a buyer of a business, you want to do two things:

Set yourself up to recover your investment cost

Protect yourself from past and future liability

Stock Purchase: A Ready-Made Business

The simplest way to buy a corporation is to buy the stock.

Steve owns a business that you want to buy. Steve operates this business as a corporation.

You buy 100 percent of Steve’s stock ownership in the corporation. The corporation and its business are yours. Everything Steve owned in the business now belongs to you.

Dangerous Liabilities

When you buy stock, you buy the history of the business. ... Log in to view full article.