AICPA About Ready to Take a Position on Business Valuation

The AICPA's second Exposure Draft on Valuation of Businesses, Securities or Intangible Assets has been issued and interest parties have until December 15 to comment on the draft. Among issues addressed are the treatment of oral valuations, scope of service clarification, procedure when an accountant relies on a specialist (such as a real estate appraiser) and clarifying the distinction between valuation and calculation engagements. The AICPA estimates that 25,000 members provide such services, including CPAs in tax, financial planning and mergers and acquisitions.

At first read, this draft may appear to only affect CPAs like Eva Lang of the Business Valuation blog. Don't sell this short, however, I could see how this could affect tax and financial planning issues, especially in the case of filing an estate/gift tax return or designing (perhaps in concert with attorneys) a trust for a child's education.