Valuing Ownership Interests in a Closely-held Business

For businesses listed on the various stock exchanges or on an active over-the-counter market, the valuation of ownership interests is relatively simple; the trades of ownership interests represent fair market value for exchanges and for tax reporting purposes as measured by actual transactions. However, relatively few farm and ranch corporations are listed for public trading and so the task is to create a value representing fair market values for use in transactions and or tax reporting purposes but derived from non-market sources.1 The failure to assure such determinations of value on a regular basis is a major source of conflict in many closely-held businesses, farm and non-farm