This technical note outlines the differences between financial accounting standards and tax law that affect the valuation of potential targets depending on the deal structure employed.

Valuation models typically rely on financial accounting information to estimate the value of the deal; but tax laws, not financial accounting standards, affect the after-tax cash flows attributable to the deal. The note provides steps to determine a target’s tax basis from information in the financial statement, which allows for a better assessment of after-tax cash flows. This technical note can be used in conjunction with several other technical notes: UVA-F-1862, UVA-F-1863, UVA-F-1875, and UVA-C-2256.