Time to Sell

Accountants are fond of counseling clients not to let taxes drive their investment decisions.

But with the looming expiration of the Bush tax cuts at the end of 2010, plenty of business owners are worried they'll have to pay much higher capital-gains taxes if they sell their businesses in 2011 or later.

“You can't trust Congress,” says Kerry Dustin, chairman of Naples-based Falls River Group, a mergers-and-acquisition firm that pairs buyers and sellers of companies. “I'm a bit pessimistic of where we're going.”