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Installment Sale of a Business

If the buyer pays over several years, how is the gain taxed year by year, and what does that defer? Every piece below can be linked to, so it opens in a window on your reader's screen, current as of the record. No form to fill in.

2026 law · Reviewed September 7, 2026 · The full page, with methodology and sources · the terms · All tools

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The price, basis, down payment, note terms, recapture, and rates; the gain and tax for each year, the total, and the tax deferred against a cash sale. In a frame it carries no cookies, no tracking, and a visible link back to the methodology. Your site has to allow frames; most do. The link that opens it in a small window is on the professionals page.

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In plain words.
When a buyer pays over time, the seller can report the profit as the money comes in instead of all at once. Each payment of principal carries the same share of profit. Two things do not wait. Depreciation the seller claimed on equipment or buildings is taxed as ordinary income in the year of sale no matter how little cash arrived, and the interest on the note is taxed each year as it is paid. This tool takes the price, the basis, the down payment, the note terms, and the rates, and lays out the payments, the gain, and the tax year by year.
Why it matters.
An owner weighing a cash offer against a higher price paid over five years wants to know what the tax looks like in each year, and how much of the gain is really deferred. The recapture surprise, a large tax bill in a year with a small down payment, is the one to see before the letter of intent is signed.
An example.
A business sold for $2,000,000 with a $500,000 basis and $100,000 of depreciation recapture, $400,000 down and the rest over four years at 6 percent, at a 20 percent gains rate and a 37 percent ordinary rate: 70 cents of every principal dollar is gain, the tax in the year of sale is $93,000 instead of $317,000 for a cash sale, and $224,000 of tax moves into the four later years.
Where it stops.
It uses flat rates you choose, so it does not show a lower bracket from spreading the gain. It leaves out debt the buyer takes over, the interest charge on notes over $5 million, a related-party buyer, state tax, and the risk that the buyer stops paying.

Everything here reads from one reviewed record, so a copied piece carries its year and its review date. When the law moves, the embed updates by itself; a copied table or chart keeps the year in its caption. Corrections are welcome through the contact page.