Boat and ferry manufacturer; catamaran ferries for commercial and tourism use; located in Queensland.

Business over 30 years old built by two families and; one of the initial founders retired and exited the business nearly 20 years ago.

Manufacture low number of ferries each year but of high value.

Careful spenders and good savers; accumulated a large amount of retained earnings in their business.

Primary customers are tourism operators, government organisations in Australia and the Caribbean, Central America, Middle East.

To provide deal structure and tax advice for non-standard M&A transactions.

The business had more money in the bank account than what the business was worth; the business value was at $8M but there was $9M in the bank account which is an issue because if you were buying the trading into itself, you have to pay $17 million for an $8 billion business.

Old family business; family structure underneath the two main families wasn't suitable.

Structural and legal issues in place; money arising from the M&A transaction had to go to beneficiaries and the rest of the family.

Met the client, talk to them and when they were happy to work with us, get an understanding of what the transaction looked like for the buyer and the seller, the timing of it, what parts of the transaction was flexible, what wasn't flexible, , what the offer actually meant.

Fact find on the family that owned it and the entities underneath; understand the shareholders and the structure involved within the two families (complex family arrangement).

Went back to tax legislations and go through the available options for the client.

Flesh out calculation and what that meant to the clients from an income perspective, tax perspective and timing perspective; when will the income need to be declared, when will the tax have to be paid, where the money would have to go to from a family perspective delay some of the timing and have it managed overtime.

Provided three situations or options for client to choose and implement if he were to implement things during the duration of the transaction and provided an alternative or proposal where they could work with the buyer that would lightly improve the situation or allow us to implement it over time rather than having to do it right away.

The client agreed to work with the buyer which would slightly improve the situation and allow us to implement it over time rather than having to do it right away.

Our client gained an extra year to manage the complexities of shareholding and transfer of money.

Tax Advice for Non Standard M&A Transactions.