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Business valuations in Illinois 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 Illinois, including Chicago, Springfield, and Rockford.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT BUSINESS APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, ILLINOIS 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 Illinois businesses for charitable donations, gift and estate returns, retirement account reporting, divorce, and owners buying each other out, whether the subject is the whole company or one block of stock. The purpose settles the standard of value before a single number is run, and Illinois writes its own standard for the case where a court orders an owner bought out. A minority stake in a Chicago distributor and a downstate manufacturer owned outright raise different questions, and the paperwork behind each of them rarely looks alike.
Donations and gift returns
A donated or gifted interest is reported at what it would have changed hands for when the transfer happened, with the reasoning a reviewer will test set out in full: the transactions relied on, the earnings normalized, and every discount taken for lack of control or lack of a market.
Retirement accounts
An account holding a private company interest reports fair market value, and a custodian asks for that figure in writing before a conversion or a distribution. The figure belongs to the interest held, not to the entity's assets listed one by one.
Buyouts and exits
An owner leaving, joining or being bought out needs a conclusion both sides can test line by line, and where a shareholder or operating agreement already carries a price formula, that formula is read before anything else, because it can displace the open market altogether. Where the worth of the business sits in plant, rolling stock and yard machines, our Illinois construction equipment work is built into the same file.
Two finished Illinois assignments, a line each. Entity names, holdings and concluded figures stay inside the reports, and the photographs below are illustrations rather than anyone's premises.
IRA conversion
A limited partnership interest holding stock in a private company, valued for the account holder ahead of a conversion.
Charitable donation
A closely held interest valued at fair market value for the gift the owner reported, with the donation file assembled around it.
Illinois does not leave the measure of value to the parties in every case. When a court orders a buyout the statute defines the standard and shuts the usual discounts out, the dissent procedure puts the company's own estimate and its books in the shareholder's hands, and a state tax on company earnings sits inside the cash flow an income approach discounts.
Forced buyouts
Proportionate interest
Fair value in an Illinois share purchase
In an action by a shareholder of a corporation whose shares are not publicly traded, the Circuit Court may order the corporation or other shareholders to purchase all of the petitioner's shares for their fair value. For that purpose fair value means the shareholder's proportionate interest in the corporation, without any discount for minority status and, absent extraordinary circumstances, without a discount for lack of marketability. The court determines that value with or without the assistance of appraisers, and takes into account any effect on value of the conduct that brought the petition.
Dissenters
16 months
How old the books handed to a dissenter may be
A shareholder who dissents from a corporate action and demands payment is sent a statement of the corporation's opinion of the estimated fair value of the shares, together with its latest balance sheet for a fiscal year ending not earlier than sixteen months before that statement, the income statement for the year, and the latest interim statements. The shareholder then has thirty days from delivery to notify the corporation of their own estimate of fair value and demand the difference. Both sides commit to a figure early, working from the same set of books.
Company taxes
2.5 and 1.5 percent
Illinois replacement tax on net income
On top of the Illinois income tax, the personal property replacement tax takes 2.5 percent of net income from corporations other than S corporations, and 1.5 percent from partnerships, trusts and S corporations. For a valuation built on earnings that is not a footnote: it changes the after tax cash flow being capitalized, and it changes it by different amounts depending on how the company is organized. Two Illinois businesses with the same pretax earnings and different structures do not arrive at the same value.
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.
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
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
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
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:
It depends on the assignment: fair market value assumes a hypothetical willing buyer and seller, investment value reflects worth to a specific buyer including synergies, and intrinsic value reflects fundamental economic potential. Selecting the wrong standard is a frequent and costly error, so we define it explicitly before analysis begins.
Yes. Estates above the $4 million Illinois exemption owe state estate tax at graduated rates, and includible assets expressly cover business interests. A supportable date-of-death valuation of the company is what determines where the estate falls relative to that threshold.
No. Under the Illinois Probate Act, inventories and appraisals may be given in evidence but are not conclusive if other evidence shows the estate was worth more or less. That is why a documented business valuation, rather than a placeholder number, protects the representative when values are later questioned.
Yes, and it locks it in. Under 35 ILCS 405/5(c) the gross value of transferred property is its value as finally determined for federal transfer tax purposes, undiminished by mortgages, liens, or other encumbrances on that property for which the decedent was personally liable. Discounts for lack of control or marketability accepted federally carry into the Illinois calculation, and further reductions for personal debt on the asset do not.
It can. Illinois assessors and courts apply an intention test and the integrated industrial doctrine to decide when business equipment has become a taxable fixture, weighing how permanently it is annexed, its nature and purpose, and how integral it is to the industrial operation. The same press or production line can sit outside the tax base in one installation and inside real property value in another.
