After selling your remaining assets, collecting your outstanding receivables, repaying creditors, and paying your final federal, state, and local taxes, you might have a pool of proceeds that’ll need to be distributed before closing your bank accounts.
What you should do with those proceeds will depend on the structure of your business.
Here are some guidelines for dividing what’s left:
Sole business owner
If you are the sole owner of your business, you can claim any proceeds that remain.
LLCs and partnerships
If your business has multiple owners, each partner should receive an amount that’s in proportion to the share of ownership.
Corporations
If your business is a corporation, excess cash should be repaid to your shareholders according to the terms of your bylaws or organizing documents.
 | Remember to report all distributions to the IRS. You may have already reported your distribution on your final tax forms. If not, your accountant or tax advisor can walk you through the steps you need to take to complete this requirement. |
Need help finding an accountant? Take a look at these business-friendly firms:
Reconciled
Your Business Deserves the Very Best
Reconciled is an award-winning organization and one of the fastest-growing accounting firms in the country. Their team of entrepreneurship gurus, e-commerce pros, and tech-loving cloud accounting specialists look at your business holistically and help you analyze your spending, measure costs, and find opportunities to enhance margin and profitability, along with taking on your day-to-day bookkeeping. Want to learn more? Click the connect button below for an introduction.
Xendoo
Be Tax Ready All Year Long
With Xendoo, you can access a dedicated team of expert CPAs and accountants who provide monthly bookkeeping, tax preparation and filing, and tax consulting, three services that will help you stay on top of all your financial needs. Their team can also help you with your personal tax returns, too. You can explore their plans with totally transparent pricing by following the link below, and for a limited time, you can try their online bookkeeping service free for one month. Restrictions may apply. See Xendoo’s site for details.
1-800Accountant
Say Hello to Better Online Accounting
Business owners love 1-800Accountant. Here’s why. First, the service pairs you with a CPA who is an expert in your state and industry and can answer the tough questions you have about your business. Second, while many others charge by the hour, or worse, by minute, 1-800Accountant sets you up with an affordable, flat-rate pricing plan so you always know what you’ll be paying. Follow this link to try 1-800Accountant for 30 days with a money-back guarantee.
This resource is also a great primer:
What should I do with my share?
Consider speaking with a wealth advisor who can help you to invest any funds that you receive from the closure of your business.
Interested in connecting with a wealth advisor? Check out these firms:
Robinhood
Commission-free investing
Robinhood’s commission free trading is great for beginners with investment portfolios from $0-10,000.
With Robinhood, you can build your own portfolio using fractional shares of blue-chip companies or purchase a low-cost index fund such as the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (Ticker: VTI) or the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (Ticker: BND)
Pro tip: We recommend avoiding high-risk trading activities such as crypto currencies and options trading.
Betterment
Investing made better
Best option for investors with $0-500,000 in investable assets.
Betterment is a full-service advisory offering retirement planning and managed portfolio for a very low fee (0.25% per year).
Pro tip: We recommend sticking with Betterment’s core strategies and avoid gimmicks like “innovation,” “social responsibility,” and crypto. Generally when investing, you want to avoid what’s hot right now and stick to tried-and-true methods.
Owner Actions Connect
Connect with an expert team
Best for investors with over $500,000 of investable assets.
The Owner Actions team will connect you with up to three high-quality advisors who can build a custom plan to help you meet your goals.
As your wealth grows, your financial and estate planning start to become more complicated. Fortunately, with this tier of wealth, you can access high-quality advisors without having to pay high management fees.
What’s next?
After working through the asset distribution portion of closing your business, you can take on the final step: setting up a recordkeeping system. Read our guide, Recordkeeping after Closing Your Business, to learn why and how you’ll need to store key business documents.
Log into your owner’s portal for more articles and advice that can help you navigate the close of your business.
