LouisvilleAppriss sells for $1.825 billion
Equifax agreed in August 2021 to buy Appriss Insights, a Louisville criminal-justice and risk data business, for $1.825 billion in cash.
Equifax, 2021
Sell a business in Kentucky
The road from today to the years after a sale runs through Kentucky'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 gain4% 2025Deal volumeMediumEstate taxEntity tax
Kentucky is a mid-sized market, where the right buyers usually have to be found rather than met. The state's cut of the gain is modest, 4% at the top. Expect a tax on the business itself on the way out, and an estate tax to plan the proceeds around.
Tax on the gain: Flat rate.
Today
Where you stand
Kentucky taxes a gain at a flat 4 percent, 3.5 from 2026, yet an inheritance tax and the LLET still reach owner and company.
Roughly 394,000 small businesses employ about 711,000 people, and openings ran ahead of closings in the year to March 2024.
The small-business base
0
Firms
0.0%
Of all firms
0
Employees
SBA Office of Advocacy, 2025
Kentucky had 393,860 small businesses in the 2025 SBA profile, 99.3 percent of all businesses, employing 710,613 people.
Establishment openings
0
small-business openings against 11,181 closings 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 Kentucky briefing, read aloud
The deal team on what changes when you sell a business in Kentucky.
Before the letter of intent
What Kentucky takes
The tax on the gain, and what to settle before a buyer names a price
A flat 4 percent on the gain, an inheritance tax of up to 16 percent on distant heirs, and a gross-receipts LLET the company pays every year, $175 at minimum.
State tax on the gain
0%
Flat rate.
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
A flat 4 percent
Kentucky taxes a gain as ordinary income at a flat 4 percent in 2025.
Inheritance tax to 16 percent
Kentucky has no estate tax but an inheritance tax of up to 16 percent, with rates and exemptions that depend on how closely the heir is related.
The LLET, $175 at minimum
Every limited-liability business pays the LLET: a $175 minimum below $3 million of gross receipts, otherwise the lower of 0.095 percent of receipts or 0.75 percent of gross profits.
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 Kentucky runs under
The buyer of a retailer holds back part of the price until the Department of Revenue shows the sales tax is paid; non-compete and broker rules were not checked.
01Retail buyers hold back tax
Under KRS 139.670 a buyer of a retail business withholds enough of the price to cover the seller's sales tax until a receipt or no-tax-due certificate arrives.
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, 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 tax that bites is not on the sale but on what comes after: Kentucky is one of five states that still taxes an inheritance, by the heir's relationship.
Kentucky is one of only five states with an inheritance tax, and the rate and exemption depend on the heir's relationship to the deceased.
When the process opens
Who buys
Who shows up for a business in Kentucky
The Louisville data company Appriss is the exit local owners cite: built in Kentucky, backed by private equity, sold to Equifax for $1.825 billion in 2021.
LouisvillePrivate equity was the seller
The seller was a private equity portfolio company of Clearlake Capital and Insight Partners, and Equifax valued the tax benefit of the deal at about $360 million.
Equifax, 2021
LouisvilleThe business stayed in Louisville
The deal closed on 1 October 2021 and the business stayed in Louisville as a division of Equifax Workforce Solutions under its president, Brian Matthews.
Equifax via PR Newswire, 2021
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 Kentucky lets the proceeds do
The income tax rate keeps falling, 3.5 percent from 2026, and since 2010 Kentucky has abolished the rule against perpetuities, so a dynasty trust can run forever.
CloseDay 0
Proceeds land. What the state keeps of them is settled above; what it lets them do from here is below.
No rule since 2010Forever
Since 15 July 2010 Kentucky has had no rule against perpetuities, so a trust created here can hold family wealth indefinitely.
Rate falls to 3.5 percent
House Bill 1, passed in the 2025 session, cuts the flat individual rate from 4 to 3.5 percent on 1 January 2026.
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 Kentucky 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 Kentucky is on film yet. These are founders in other states who worked with FNDRS.47 founders on film
Nearby
Other states in the South
| South | Tax on the gain | Complexity | Deal volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 5% 2025 | Medium | Medium |
| Arkansas | 3.9% 2025 | Low | Low |
| Delaware | 6.6% 2025 | Medium | Very low |
| Florida | None 2025 | Medium | Very high |
| Georgia | 5.19% 2025 | Medium | High |
| Louisiana | 3% 2025 | Low | Medium |
| Maryland | 8.5% 2025 | Medium | Medium |
| Mississippi | 4.4% 2025 | Low | Low |
| North Carolina | 4.25% 2025 | Medium | High |
| Oklahoma | 4.75% 2025 | Low | Medium |
| South Carolina | 6% 2025 | Low | Medium |
| Tennessee | None 2025 | Low | Medium |
| Texas | None 2025 | Medium | Very high |
| Virginia | 5.75% 2025 | Medium | High |
| West Virginia | 4.82% 2025 | Medium | Low |
Your next step
The road starts with one step
Know where you stand in fifteen minutes, or talk the Kentucky sale through with a dealmaker. Either way, no pitch and no obligation.
Selling in Kentucky? 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.