The Number Someone Else Uses Is the One That Sticks
A buyer submits an offer. A partner files for a buyout. An attorney puts a figure on the business in a divorce proceeding.
In each of those situations, someone has already decided what you built is worth.
The question is whether you have a documented position to respond with, or whether you are negotiating against a number you cannot disprove. Most owners find out they have no basis to push back at exactly the moment it costs them the most.
A formal valuation changes that. Not because it guarantees a better outcome, but because it gives you something the other side has to engage with instead of dismiss. At Maris, we produce findings that hold up where it matters, in negotiations, in court, and in front of the IRS.
The Methodology Is Not Negotiable in the Situations That Count
Business valuation is the formal process of determining what a business is worth under recognized accounting standards. SSVS No. 1 governs valuation engagements conducted by CPAs and defines what the analysis has to include, how methodologies must be applied, and what the final report needs to document.
A number without that foundation is an opinion.
An opinion does not qualify as expert testimony. It does not satisfy a judge who needs a basis for a ruling. It does not survive an IRS challenge on an estate transfer.
A complete valuation applies income-based, market-based, and asset-based approaches and reconciles them against each other. Knowing how to value a small business means recognizing which of those approaches governs the situation and why.
The methodology that governs the final conclusion depends on the purpose of the engagement and what the requesting party requires, whether that is a court, a lender, or a buyer's counsel.
At Maris we document every step. The report explains the analysis, the approach, and the reasoning behind every number it contains. Not a summary. A defensible finding.
The Situation Determines How the Valuation Gets Built
A small business valuation prepared for a sale operates under different standards than one built for a shareholder dispute. An estate planning engagement has different evidentiary requirements than a divorce proceeding.
Using the wrong methodology for the situation does not produce the wrong number. It produces a document that may not be accepted at all.
Our business appraisal services cover the full range of situations where a formal opinion is required:
- Sale or acquisition of a business
- Shareholder disputes and partner buyouts
- Divorce proceedings involving business ownership
- Estate, gift, and trust planning
- Investor reporting and capital raising
- Litigation support for fraud, bankruptcy, and business conflicts
- Mergers and restructuring
Some engagements fall into one category clearly. Others involve overlapping considerations, and those tend to be the ones where getting the methodology right before work begins matters most.
The Same Sale Price Can Produce Very Different Tax Outcomes
A business valuation expert operating under CPA-level standards carries professional obligations a general appraiser does not. This is where work done outside that framework consistently costs clients money they did not expect to lose.
In an asset sale, how value is allocated across asset classes determines how each portion is taxed.
Allocate too much to a covenant not to compete versus equipment or goodwill and the tax treatment changes entirely. The headline number stays the same. What the seller actually keeps does not.
The same principle applies in an estate transfer. A business interest transferred at the wrong valuation does not just affect the estate plan. It invites an IRS challenge that can follow the transaction for years, long after the attorneys have moved on and the documents are signed.
Working with a business valuation firm at the CPA level means the valuation analysis and the tax consequences of how that value is applied are reviewed together.
Maris handles both sides of that picture. The valuation does not get handed off to a tax advisor afterward.
It is built with the tax outcome already in view.
Waiting to Know the Number Has a Cost Too
Some owners reach out years before a planned exit. They want a baseline, a benchmark to build toward, and a clear sense of what their business is worth before any conversation with a buyer begins. That is an optimal starting point.
Others contact us already inside a dispute or a transaction, with a deadline, incomplete records, and a number on the table that does not feel right but cannot be challenged without documentation. That is a common starting point too.
Either way, the process is the same. Once the valuation engagement begins, the owner stops operating on assumption. There is a documented position.
Every conversation that follows, with a buyer, with a partner, with an estate attorney, happens from a different footing. Owners who have been through it tend to describe the same thing. For the first time, they knew what the business was worth before someone else told them.
Maris & Associates CPAs provides business valuation services for owners across Everett, Seattle, and Snohomish County. Contact us to review what the engagement involves for your specific situation and tell you exactly what the process looks like from the first document request to the final report.