Whether you’re selling your business or acquiring another company, the tax consequences can have a major impact on the transaction’s success or failure. So if you’re thinking about a merger or acquisition, you need to consider the potential tax impact. Asset sale or stock sale? From a tax standpoint, a transaction can basically be structured as either an asset sale or a stock sale. In an asset sale, the buyer purchases just the assets of a business. This may happen if a buyer only wants specific assets or product lines. And it’s the only option if the target business is a sole proprietorship or a single-member limited liability company (LLC) that’s treated as a sole proprietorship for tax purposes. Alternatively, if the target business is a corporation, a...