<p>Question: We own a small restaurant and need to report the value of the business on the CSS profile. How do we compute this? Use the gross receipts from the corporate tax return? The business does not own the building.
Also, how heavily do most colleges weigh business assets??? Even if we did own the building, we couldn't sell it and still have our business.
Appreciate any help! </p>
<p>Being really, really, really conservative – if you had to sell the restaurant tomorrow, as-is, for cash, without painting anything or fixing anything up, and without your services, how much could you sell it for. (Quick sale.) Most businesses have a lot less value than people may estimate, especially if you don’t own the real estate. </p>
<p>Use the same approach you use to value your house for Profile: not what the neighbor sold his house for after repainting, putting a new roof on, and redoing the landscaping, but what you could sell for right now. </p>
<p>As to how colleges will incorporate it into their financial aid package? The best answer is, “It depends.” Some may take a holistic look at the family’s financial picture and decide if/how much to include the businesses value. Others may lump it in with other parental assets and assess it all at whatever rate (5%) they use. Call and ask individual schools is probably your best bet. Given how many colleges won’t even be clear with parents about to what degree home equity is considered, I don’t know that you’ll get a lot of great answers, but you might. </p>