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Buying a business: More than just the sale price

If you thought reaching an agreement on price was difficult, wait until you get to the fine details of buying or selling a business.

So you've reached an agreement on price. But, there are differences between the parties on how the sale price should be apportioned across different assets.

A solution that's sometimes proposed is to simply show the sale price on the contract and let both sides manage their own apportionment but this depends on what assets you are buying. Try to avoid this trap.

Are you entitled to a GST refund?

A large number of businesses, particularly those in the services sector, receive prepayments from customers for future services - in some cases these are deposits and in others, part or full payment for the anticipated service.

Often the contract terms provide that there is no refund of the prepayment if, ultimately, the customer does not take up the service.

If the customer does not ultimately take up the service, what is the GST position on the prepayment?

Christmas in July? The ups and downs of Christmas marketing

The Christmas decorations started going up in shops just after Father's Day in September. If it gets any earlier we'll be experiencing Christmas in July.

As many client focussed businesses know, Christmas has a psychology of its own. Christmas, and the embedded message of gift giving (code for ‘spending'), is stretching well beyond the traditional Christmas months.