WichitaPizza Hut sells to PepsiCo
Pizza Hut was started in Wichita in 1958 by brothers Dan and Frank Carney and sold to PepsiCo in 1977.
FundingUniverse, 1977
Sell a business in Kansas
The road from today to the years after a sale runs through Kansas's rules. Here it is in the order you will meet them: where you stand, what the state takes, the rules of the sale, who buys, and what the money can do after.
ComplexityMediumTax on the gain5.58% 2025Deal volumeLow
Kansas is a smaller market, with fewer buyers competing for any one business. The state takes a meaningful share of the gain, 5.58% at the top. Expect a tax-clearance or bulk-sale notice before closing.
Today
Where you stand
Kansas taxes the gain on a sale as ordinary income, topping out at 5.58 percent, with no separate capital gains rate.
Small firms carry about half of Kansas employment, and the state adds roughly ten thousand small establishments a year against slightly fewer closings.
Small-business employment share
0.0%
of Kansas private employment supplied by small businesses in 2021, above the national share.
SBA Office of Advocacy, 2021
Establishment openings
0
small-business establishments opened against 9,076 closed between March 2023 and March 2024.
SBA Office of Advocacy, 2024
The elements this touches
- TmTime The years before you want out. It feeds the exit-readiness score and never moves the price; every other decision is planned against it.
ListenThe Kansas briefing, read aloud
The deal team on what changes when you sell a business in Kansas.
Before the letter of intent
What Kansas takes
The tax on the gain, and what to settle before a buyer names a price
Kansas has two income tax brackets since 2024 and treats a capital gain like wages, so a sale gain pays the top rate on most of the proceeds.
State tax on the gain
0.00%
Tax Foundation, 2025
A founder on film
On what he learned about tax on the way to the sale.
Lewis Titus Wastewater purification and manufacturing · Wyoming
Two brackets, 5.58 at top
For 2025 Kansas taxes income at 5.2 percent up to $23,000 single or $46,000 joint, and 5.58 percent above that.
Senate Bill 1 of 2024
The two-bracket structure came from Senate Bill 1 of the 2024 special session, signed June 21, 2024, effective for tax year 2024 onward.
No break for capital gains
Kansas gives no lower rate or exclusion for long-term capital gains; a gain on a business sale is taxed as ordinary income.
The rate is the state's top rate on the gain for the year shown, the same figure as the indicator in the hero, so the two can never disagree.
The elements this touches
- TxTax Strategy The deal and entity structure, set before the letter of intent. FNDRS tracks whether it is in place. It never moves the price; it changes what you keep.
- ApAfter-Tax Proceeds What you keep at close. FNDRS records the pre-tax walk-away and the gap to your number. It never moves the price, and the tax on it is a question for your CPA.
Under contract and at closing
The rules of the sale
The rules a sale in Kansas runs under
A buyer of Kansas business assets inherits the seller's unpaid state taxes unless the seller shows a tax clearance, and a 2025 law firmed up non-solicitation covenants.
01Successors inherit unpaid taxes
The Kansas Department of Revenue says a business successor answers for the prior owner's tax debts unless that owner produces a tax clearance certificate.
Kansas Department of Revenue, 2025
02Two-year non-solicits presumed valid
Senate Bill 241, signed in April 2025 and effective July 1, 2025, presumes a customer non-solicitation of up to two years enforceable if limited to material contact customers.
Dentons, 2025
03Non-competes stay with case law
SB 241 leaves traditional non-competes untouched; they stay governed by Kansas case law and its reasonableness test.
Proskauer Rose LLP, 2025
The elements this touches
- LcLegal & Compliance Contracts, licences, and filings in order and enforceable. The FNDRS valuation reads it, and the score moves the multiple.
- DrData Room The documents a buyer will ask for, ready before they ask. FNDRS tracks it in the deal-readiness report card; it decides how fast and how cleanly a deal closes.
One thing you would not guess
The world's largest pizza chain was a Wichita startup that two brothers sold to PepsiCo nineteen years after opening.
Pizza Hut opened in Wichita in 1958 and became a wholly owned PepsiCo subsidiary in 1977, nineteen years later.
When the process opens
Who buys
Who shows up for a business in Kansas
Wichita's best-known founder stories ended in sales to outsiders: a pizza chain to a beverage giant, a century-old ointment maker to a Japanese buyer.
WichitaMentholatum goes to Japan
The Mentholatum Company, founded in Wichita in 1889, was bought by Japan's Rohto Pharmaceutical in 1988.
Visit Wichita, 1988
The elements this touches
- SyStrategic Synergy What one buyer gains that another cannot. The buyer at the table prices it, which is why the sell-side process goes looking for them.
Day 0, and the years after
After the close
What Kansas lets the proceeds do
Kansas keeps a statutory rule against perpetuities, so a trust there runs about ninety years rather than forever, and since 2024 it no longer taxes Social Security.
CloseDay 0
Proceeds land. What the state keeps of them is settled above; what it lets them do from here is below.
K.S.A. 59-340490 yrs
Kansas follows the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities (K.S.A. 59-3404), so a trust is limited to roughly 90 years, not perpetual.
Social Security untaxed
The 2024 special session repealed the $75,000 income cap, so Social Security benefits are fully exempt from Kansas income tax from tax year 2024.
WealthWhere FNDRS comes in
The post-exit wealth plan is the third act of the same engagement, and it starts in diligence, before the letter of intent, when a move or a trust can still change the answer.
FNDRSThe elements this touches
- EsEstate Architecture Trusts and ownership set up before the letter of intent. It changes what the family keeps, not what a buyer pays.
- ApAfter-Tax Proceeds What you keep at close. FNDRS records the pre-tax walk-away and the gap to your number. It never moves the price, and the tax on it is a question for your CPA.
People who walked it
Founders
Founders who worked with FNDRS, in their own words
From founders elsewhere
What founders say about working with FNDRS
No founder in Kansas is quoted yet. These are founders in other states, quoted word for word, each described by role and state.
1 of 3
“I definitely don't think we'd be in the same spot without you guys.”
No founder in Kansas is on film yet. These are founders in other states who worked with FNDRS.47 founders on film
Nearby
Other states in the Midwest
| Midwest | Tax on the gain | Complexity | Deal volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | 4.95% 2025 | High | Very high |
| Indiana | 3% 2025 | Low | Medium |
| Iowa | 3.8% 2025 | Medium | Low |
| Michigan | 4.25% 2025 | Medium | High |
| Minnesota | 9.85% 2025 | High | Medium |
| Missouri | None 2025 | Low | Medium |
| Nebraska | 5.2% 2025 | High | Low |
| North Dakota | 2.5% 2025 | Low | Very low |
| Ohio | 3% 2025 | Medium | High |
| South Dakota | None 2025 | Low | Very low |
| Wisconsin | 7.65% 2025 | Medium | Medium |
Your next step
The road starts with one step
Know where you stand in fifteen minutes, or talk the Kansas sale through with a dealmaker. Either way, no pitch and no obligation.
Selling in Kansas? Start with a conversation
No pitch and no obligation. If the honest answer is not yet, we will say so, and say what to work on.