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Business valuations in New York for donations, M&A, gift tax, and IRA conversion, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises small businesses, partnerships, corporations, professional practices, and franchises across New York, including New York City, Buffalo, and Albany.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT BUSINESS APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, NEW YORK COURTS, LENDERS, INSURERS, AND MORE.
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Owner & CEO
Joe founded AppraiseItNow to make a certified, USPAP-compliant appraisal as simple to order as anything else online. A former Bain & Company strategy consultant, Joe leads the entire team and specializes in strategy, growth, and the firm's tech capabilities.
Business Valuation Expert & Appraiser
ASA, ABV, and CFA charterholder. Since 2016 Justin has valued businesses for estate and gift tax, purchase price allocations, fairness opinions, lending, and buy-sell agreements, across manufacturing, services, retail, and pre-revenue biotech.
Business Valuation Expert & Appraiser
Accredited Senior Appraiser with the American Society of Appraisers. Raymond values capital stock, business enterprises, stock options, and intangible assets.
Client Success Manager
Manages each engagement from the first enquiry to the delivered report, and keeps you posted at every step along the way.
American Society of AppraisersAccredited Senior Appraiser
The Appraisal FoundationAuthorized by Congress as the source of appraisal standardsAppraiseItNow appraises closely held companies, partnerships and professional practices in New York for charitable gifts, gift and estate tax filings, shareholder buyouts, dissolution proceedings and divorce. The work is built from the company's own record: returns, financial statements, the shareholder or operating agreement, and the history of what has been distributed and to whom. Every conclusion names the standard it was written to, because in this state the standard is frequently chosen by a statute rather than by the parties. Where an income approach, guideline transactions or the net assets carried the conclusion, the report says which did the work, and a figure is never reported without the date it belongs to.
What moves the figure
Owner compensation, one time items, working capital needs and customer concentration are normalized before any multiple goes near the file. Two companies reporting the same sales can finish a long way apart once that work is done.
Partial interests
Control, the distribution record and the transfer restrictions written into the agreement shape what a partial interest is worth. Whether discounts belong in the conclusion at all is settled by the standard the filing or the proceeding requires.
Both files arrived the same way. Someone had decided to give away part of what they owned, and the gift needed a supportable value behind it before the paperwork could move. Neither card carries a figure, a date, a name or the company it belonged to. What is on them is the kind of interest, the city the file came from and the standard the report was written to. Both were run from the documents that created the interest, which is where this kind of work almost always begins and, on a privately held position, frequently ends.
Charitable donation
The donor was giving away a loan position in a real estate fund, so the value rested on the terms of the loan and the strength of what stood behind it.
Charitable donation
Shares an employee had bought in a private corporation were valued for a gift to a donor advised fund, where the terms of the shares did the work rather than any market in them.
Three New York rules decide what a block of shares is worth on paper, and none of them wait for the owners to agree. Two of them fix a date. The third turns the sale of a company into the sale of the land underneath it.
Dissolution buyout
The day before
the petition was filed is the date a New York court values the petitioner's shares as of
Holders of twenty percent or more of the votes of a close corporation may petition for dissolution under section 1104-a of the Business Corporation Law where those in control have been "guilty of illegal, fraudulent or oppressive actions toward the complaining shareholders" or where the assets are "being looted, wasted, or diverted for non-corporate purposes." The corporation or the other shareholders may then elect, within ninety days of the filing, to buy the petitioner out instead. Section 1118 sets what that costs: failing agreement, the court determines fair value "as of the day prior to the date on which such petition was filed," exclusive of any element of value arising from the filing itself. An appraisal written for one of these proceedings is dated to the filing, not to the hearing that follows it.
New York State Senate, Business Corporation Law section 1118
Dissenting shareholders
15 days
is all a New York corporation gets to put its own number in writing once a shareholder dissents
A shareholder who dissents from a merger or another action listed in section 623 of the Business Corporation Law files a notice of election and steps out of the vote. The corporation must then make a written offer to pay "within fifteen days after the expiration of the period within which shareholders may file" those notices, and in no case later than ninety days after the shareholders' authorization date. If no price is agreed within thirty days of that offer, the corporation has twenty days to start a special proceeding in which the court fixes the number. The standard there is fair value "as of the close of business on the day prior to the shareholders' authorization date," which is a different day from the one a dissolution buyout uses, and the two are easy to confuse when both are live.
Transfer tax
50% or more
of an entity is a controlling interest, and moving one is taxed in New York as a conveyance of the real property
The real estate transfer tax reaches more than deeds. Section 1401 of the Tax Law defines a controlling interest as "fifty percent or more of the total combined voting power of all classes of stock" of a corporation, or fifty percent or more of the capital, profits or beneficial interest in a partnership, association, trust or other entity, and it folds the "transfer or acquisition of a controlling interest in any entity with an interest in real property" into the definition of a conveyance. Where that happens, the consideration is "the fair market value of the real property or interest therein," apportioned by the percentage of the ownership interest transferred or acquired. A company whose balance sheet is mostly New York real property therefore needs the property valued alongside the equity, and the two exercises answer to different standards.
What clients say we are known for
Across 100+ published AppraiseItNow reviews the picture is consistent: every one is from a client who paid us for an appraisal, and the three things they raise most often are that they would hire us again, how quickly we answer, and how much research is visible in the report.
I used AppraiseItNow to examine a contribution to a foundation. Their work was quick, thorough, and easy to work with, as they’ve developed a simple system for uploading documents. I plan to use them again.
Business Valuation Appraisal for Charitable Donation
I found them professional & responsive. The report was quite thorough as well.
Business Valuation Appraisal for Charitable Donation
Responsive, professional, first class deliverables -- especially considering that that the appraised assets are extremely complex financial assets with little by way of comps. The deliverable satisfied my accountants and advisers as being more than adequate to support the valuation needed to complete a conversion to a Roth IRA
Business Valuation Appraisal for IRA Conversion
Joe and Aron were extremely impressive - the entire process went very smoothly. They were always quick to respond to any questions I had and could not have been more helpful. They were aware of some tight time restrictions I had and made sure I received my reports in a timely fashion. I highly recommend them to anyone needing a valuation.
Business Valuation Appraisal for Charitable Donation
The team was highly knowledgeable, helpful, and efficient. I highly recommend their appraisal services, especially for private companies.
Business Valuation Appraisal for IRA Conversion
From the start they were very responsive, price competitive, and had a quick turn around time. Thank you so much to Joe who was very sweet in responding to my emails; I am looking forward to utilizing AppraiseItNow for many years to come.
Given the USPAP-compliant nature of AppraiseItNow’s appraisal reports, we prepare our deliverables for major legal, tax, and financial reporting purposes for individual and commercial clients.
Popular uses of our appraisal reports include:
Yes. New York levies a state estate tax with its own threshold and filing requirements, distinct from the federal regime, though it has no inheritance tax. A closely held company or partnership interest in the estate must be supported at fair market value for the New York return when the estate exceeds the state threshold.
Usually the commencement of the action. New York's equitable distribution framework typically values marital assets, including business interests, as of the filing date, though courts may select another date when appropriate for a specific asset. The valuation date can swing the result materially for a business that has grown or declined during the case.
The IRS expects more than a title. Its Business Valuation Guidelines emphasize valuation-specific competence and structured procedures, and professional standards including AICPA SSVS No. 1 and USPAP Standards 9 and 10 require proper application of the income, market, and asset approaches with documented support. Submitted appraisals are evaluated against those expectations.
Yes, in one case. If the estate files a federal return and elects the alternate valuation date under IRC Section 2032, New York Tax Law Section 954 requires the New York gross estate, including closely held business interests, to use the same federal valuation dates. Electing estates need appraisals that track both dates consistently, since mismatched state and federal values invite scrutiny.
No. Article XVI, Section 3 of the New York Constitution prohibits ad valorem taxation of intangible personal property, including shares of stock and partnership interests, and bars excise taxes levied solely on ownership. Only the income such property produces may be taxed, so valuations of New York business interests serve estates, transactions, and litigation rather than any annual property assessment.
