Fraudulent Transfers and Closing a Business

I previously wrote about closing down a small business in Massachusetts. One of the point I alluded to, I am going to expand on a bit here. What happens to the assets of the business when the small business folds? There is a temptation for the business owners to just keep the assets for their personal benefit after closing the doors and leaving business debts unpaid. This is what is called a fraudulent transfer, and a business creditor can make you personally pay the value of these assets over to them if you just keep them in this manner. The reason for this is the Massachusetts Fraudulent Transfer Act. The big picture is that the law does not permit giving away the assets of a business that can't pay its debts: the business creditors are entitled to get the value of those assets before anyone else does. It usually makes sense to administer and distribute assets to creditors in a fair and transparent manner, such as via a business bankruptcy. However, not all transfers of assets to business owners are problematic.

In Massachusetts, generally, an insolvent business can transfer assets to a business owner if the owner pays a fair price in cash to the business. Any such transfer and accompanying valuation must be well documented and supported, and the "payment" to the business must not simply be debt forgiveness by the business owner. It is also important to document transactions of this type because if the insolvent company ends up in bankruptcy, the trustee can sue the owner to recover the value of the assets if they are sold for less than reasonably equivalent value.