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California business appraisers providing valuations for donations, M&A, gift tax, and IRA conversion, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises small businesses, partnerships, corporations, franchises, and professional practices across California, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT BUSINESS APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, CALIFORNIA 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 corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, professional practices and holding entities in California for gift and estate tax filings, charitable gifts of equity, shareholder and member buyouts, dissolution of marriage, and sale negotiations. The interest being valued is defined first, because a whole company and a slice of one are two different assignments with two different answers.
Whole companies
Earning capacity, guideline public companies and completed transactions for comparable businesses are each developed, then reconciled into one conclusion, with the weight given to each approach explained rather than asserted. Normalizing adjustments to owner pay and related party dealings are shown on their own line.
Minority interests
A holder who cannot force a sale, a distribution or a change of course does not own a proportionate slice of the whole, and the analysis has to show evidence for every adjustment rather than reach for a rule of thumb.
Asset heavy entities
Holding entities and equipment intensive operators are tested against what they hold as well as what they earn. The machinery itself is California equipment work.
Standard of value is not a matter of taste. A gift return takes fair market value, a statutory buyout can take fair value on a basis the Corporations Code writes out in full, and a dissolution of marriage takes whatever the court's valuation date produces.
Tax filings
A transfer of an interest to family or into a trust takes fair market value on the transfer date, prepared to the qualified appraisal requirements that attach to the return it will travel with. The report names the interest transferred exactly, down to the class and the percentage, because that is what the figure is attached to.
Disputes and exits
A statutory buyout and a division of community property answer to different definitions and different dates, so the engagement fixes both in writing before any analysis starts. Where counsel has not yet settled the date, the report can carry the alternatives side by side.
Two California rules decide more about a valuation than any choice of method. One writes out the standard, the basis and the date for a buyout that stops a dissolution. The other starts a clock the moment an interest in an entity changes hands.
Buyout appraisals
3 appraisers
appointed by the California court to fix fair value in a dissolution buyout
In a suit for involuntary dissolution, or a voluntary dissolution initiated by holders of only 50 percent of the voting power, the corporation or the holders of 50 percent or more may avoid dissolution by buying the moving parties' shares for cash at their fair value. The statute then says how that is reached: on the basis of liquidation value as of the valuation date, while taking into account the possibility, if any, of a sale of the entire business as a going concern in a liquidation. The valuation date is the day the action was commenced or the proceeding initiated, though the court may name another for good cause, and the court appoints three disinterested appraisers whose award, once confirmed, is final on all parties.
Entity transfers
90 days
to report a change in control of a California entity that holds real property
Transfers of ownership interests in a legal entity leave no recorded deed, so California gathers them another way. Form BOE-100-B, the statement of change in control and ownership of legal entities, is reviewed centrally and reported on to county assessors, and a change in control or change in ownership requires reassessment of the entity's California real property interests. An entity that held or leased California real property at the time of the change is exposed to penalties unless it files within ninety days of the change, or within ninety days of a written request. Any valuation of an entity sitting on California real estate has to know whether that clock has already run.
What clients say we are known for
Across 80+ 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.
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
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
The team was highly knowledgeable, helpful, and efficient. I highly recommend their appraisal services, especially for private companies.
Business Valuation Appraisal for IRA Conversion
I found them professional & responsive. The report was quite thorough as well.
Business Valuation Appraisal for Charitable Donation
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:
As community property, divided equally to the extent it was built during the marriage. Family Code section 2552 sets the default valuation date: the court values the assets and liabilities as near as practicable to the time of trial, and only on 30 days' notice by the moving party, and for good cause, may value all or part of them at a date after separation and before trial. For an owner operated business that choice can move the number a long way, because the owner keeps working in the meantime, so it is worth settling early.
The standard of value, premise of value, effective date, exact interest appraised, key assumptions, and all information sources, reconciled into one conclusion. Standards require enough disclosure that a reader could replicate the analysis, which is the benchmark reviewers and opposing experts apply.
Databases of real deals: DealStats (formerly Pratt's Stats), BIZCOMPS, IBA Market Data, and GF Data, plus public company evidence from SEC filings. They provide actual prices, terms, and multiples that anchor the market approach.
No. California has no state estate or inheritance tax, so a business interest passing at death is valued for probate inventory and federal estate tax purposes only, at fair market value as of the date of death.
