# Accountancy Practice Valuation

> Accounting firm valuation turns on retention and allocation more than on the multiple. What US buyers pay for, and what moves your net.

## Key facts

- US businesses selling under $500,000, the band most accounting practices fall into, had a median multiple of 2.3x in the IBBA Market Pulse survey for Q2 2025.
- In an asset sale the IRS requires both buyer and seller to use the residual method to allocate consideration across capital assets, depreciable property, real property and inventory.
- Depreciable and real property held over a year attract section 1231 treatment while inventory produces ordinary income, so allocation changes your after-tax proceeds without changing the price.
- The SBA names three valuation approaches for any business sale: income, market and assets.
- An advisor may broker a practice sale without registering where prior-year EBITDA was under $25,000,000 or gross revenues under $250,000,000.

## Key pages

- [Accounting firm valuation: what is your practice worth?](https://accountancyvaluation.com/): the main tool, answer above the fold.
- [The multiple of gross recurring fees, and what it hides](https://accountancyvaluation.com/gross-recurring-fees-multiple/): Practices are quoted as a multiple of annual fees. Why that number tells you little on its own, and the three adjustments that decide the real price.
- [Retention clauses, clawbacks and earn-outs on a practice sale](https://accountancyvaluation.com/retention-clawback-and-earnout/): Most practice sales pay part of the price later, contingent on clients staying. How the mechanisms differ and which risks you keep.
- [Allocation: the clause that changes your net, not the price](https://accountancyvaluation.com/allocation-and-net-proceeds/): In an asset sale the IRS requires a residual-method allocation across asset classes taxed differently. It moves your proceeds without moving the headline.
- [What moves an accounting practice's price, and what the buyer will ask for, 2026](https://accountancyvaluation.com/#data): original data table, updated 2026-08-15.
- [Full site content as markdown](https://accountancyvaluation.com/llms-full.txt)

## Data

- What moves an accounting practice's price, and what the buyer will ask for, 2026. Methodology: The factors and the evidence requests describe how practice sales are structured; they are a statement of mechanics rather than measurements, and no multiple is asserted for any of them because no primary source publishes practice-specific multiples we could read. Where a number appears anywhere on this site it is sourced and dated: transaction multiples come from the IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse survey of US business sales up to $50M, whose Q2 2025 edition drew on 272 transactions reported by 326 advisors and reported a median of 2.3x for businesses under $500,000, the band most accounting practices fall into. Tax treatment comes from IRS guidance on the sale of a business and valuation approaches from the SBA. Nothing here is a valuation of any particular practice.
- Last updated: 2026-08-15. Every figure cites its source inline.
- Source: IRS, Sale of a Business: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/sale-of-a-business
- Source: SBA, Close or sell your business: https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/close-or-sell-your-business
- Source: IBBA and M&A Source, Market Pulse Q2 2025 survey: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-ibba-and-ma-source-release-the-market-pulse-q2-2025-survey-302523561.html
- Source: AICPA, Private Companies Practice Section: https://www.aicpa-cima.com/resources/landing/private-companies-practice-section
- Source: 15 U.S.C. 78o(b)(13), the M&A broker exemption (Cornell LII): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/78o

## Citation

Cite as: "What moves an accounting practice's price, and what the buyer will ask for, 2026", Accountancy Practice Valuation, https://accountancyvaluation.com/ (updated 2026-08-15).

## About

- Accountancy Valuation is an information site. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the AICPA, the IBBA or any buyer or adviser named here, and it is neither a law firm nor a tax adviser. Nothing on it is legal, tax or valuation advice, and it does not value any particular practice. We publish no practice-specific multiple because no primary source we could read publishes one; the transaction figures quoted are the surrounding market of US business sales, sourced and dated. We take no commission and carry no paid placements.
- Operated by accountancyvaluation.com. Contact: enquiries@accountancyvaluation.com