A tax team approach provides a timely, comprehensive analysis of targets

Private equity groups appreciate the team approach our tax services group has developed in response to their need for accurate and timely information to make decisions on acquisitions. The team includes private equity advisors who specialize in the areas of federal, state, local, and international taxes. The team members work simultaneously and coordinate to provide a comprehensive analysis of a target, to structure the acquisition most advantageously.

Consistency in the private equity consulting team will ensure that items identified during due diligence are taken into account when structuring the transaction. It also helps to minimize the start-up time necessary to accurately report items that are unique to the acquisition and ensure that tax planning opportunities that were identified during the tax due diligence are implemented. The tax advisory team is able to provide this level of consistency because of the firm’s high staff retention rate.

Tax due diligence you can depend on

Plante & Moran tax advisors can provide two levels of tax due diligence — limited and confirmatory. With limited due diligence, the tax advisors can depended on to provide information such as the nature and amount of any tax attributes that can be helpful in deciding whether or not to pursue an acquisition or how to structure a letter of intent. Confirmatory tax due diligence is a more complete tax due diligence service that will help determine and quantify any tax exposures related to the target companies.

In all cases, the tax advisory team will provide you with the necessary documentation outlining the due diligence done to support your tax position.

Structuring tax savvy transactions

Our tax minimization and structuring specialists can assist with all forms of transactions, including asset or stock transactions and tax–free reorganizations. They also can assist with structuring any contingent purchase price, financing the transaction, multiple classes of ownership, and the retention of or grant of ownership interests to service providers. Our tax specialists can also be depended upon to review representations, warranties, and the indemnification provisions to minimize exposure for items identified during tax due diligence. And if the strategy is to exit from investments, our tax advisors have experience you can depend on to handle disposition of stock or assets.

Analyzing transaction costs

For tax purposes, our tax advisory team can also analyze the costs of a transaction so that they are properly characterized. This analysis often results in the accelerated deduction of costs, such as success based fees and loan costs, which would otherwise be capitalized and deducted over longer periods.

Plante & Moran has the experience and expertise to serve private equity groups with comprehensive tax minimization and due diligence services along with many other specialized areas from our private equity consultants.

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