JoA: Whose Goodwill Is It?

This is interesting. Not sure I agree with the ruling. However, my father is a dentist who’s owned his practice for 25+ years, so I’m a little biased.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington recently held that goodwill created while a dentist was employed by his solely owned corporation belonged to the corporation and not to him. As a result, the dentist was required to characterize as a corporate dividend rather than a long-term capital gain the amount he received for the goodwill from the sale of his practice.