Why one person with both licenses beats a committee
Selling a company usually means assembling a small crowd. A CPA for the taxes, a lawyer for the deal, sometimes an estate attorney on top. Each one bills for their slice, and each one guards their slice. The trouble shows up in the seams, where the tax plan and the legal terms were supposed to agree and never quite did. Martin does not have that seam.
He holds the CPA license and the law license both, so the sale gets structured once, by one person, with the tax result and the contract in view together. That means fewer surprises at closing and, most of the time, a bigger check when the wire clears. Does he still work with your other advisors when you have them? Yes. But you do not need three parties to get the pieces to fit.
The same deal, two ways of staffing it
On a mid-size New Jersey sale these are the decisions where the tax answer and the legal answer have to agree. Here is who usually owns each one, and what happens when they are the same person.
| Decision | Typical team | One desk |
|---|---|---|
| Asset sale or stock sale | The attorney drafts what the buyer proposed. The CPA learns the tax cost after the letter of intent is signed. | The tax cost of each structure is modeled before anyone signs a letter of intent, and the negotiating position is set accordingly. |
| Purchase-price allocation | Often left to a schedule the buyer's accountant fills in after closing. The CPA reports it. | Negotiated as a deal term, with goodwill, personal goodwill, non-compete and equipment each priced for their tax effect. |
| Owner-created IP and personal goodwill | Nobody's job. The buyer prices it at zero inside the company. | Identified early, separated where it belongs, and either licensed or sold on its own terms. |
| Representations, indemnities, escrow | Legal language the CPA never reads. Tax consequences surface later. | Read for the tax trap as well as the legal one, including how an indemnity payment or escrow release will be taxed. |
| New Jersey bulk-sale notice | Discovered late, closing delayed while the state responds. | Calendared from the start, with the escrow sized so closing proceeds on time. |
| If the position is questioned | The CPA who reported it and the attorney who drafted it point at each other. | One person who structured it, documented it and can defend it. |
What the combination means for you
No relay race
You could hire a CPA, then a deal attorney, then hope they talk. Or you could work with one person who reads the tax return and the contract at the same desk. Martin does. That is why fewer things fall through the cracks on the way to closing.
The size of deal you actually have
The moves that matter at this size, like installment sales, the qualified small business stock question, New Jersey's own tax on a sale here, and how goodwill gets allocated, are the moves Martin plans for. Not the ones in a template.
Early is cheap, late is expensive
The best tax outcome on a sale is usually set two or three years ahead, in how the books read and how the entity is structured. Come in early and Martin can shape the value and the tax bill. Come in late and he can only clean up.
Can't my regular attorney and CPA just talk to each other?
They can, and you pay both of them to get up to speed, and something falls between them anyway. That is the usual story. Here it is one person holding both licenses, so the tax view and the legal view are already in the same head. Fewer meetings. Nothing dropped.
You're more expensive than my current accountant.
Probably. Your current accountant files returns and keeps the books. Fair work. This is different work. One structuring decision on a $6M sale can swing your after-tax check by hundreds of thousands. The fee is small next to that number, and it is the number you will remember.
A first talk is free, and it is short.
Bring what you have, even if it is a rough number and a rough timeline. Martin will tell you plainly what can be done now and what has to wait. No pressure to sign anything.