Selling Your Orthodontic Practice Without the Year-One Tax Hit
Smile Doctors, OrthoDent, OrthoFi, Birdeye Orthodontics, regional ortho consolidators — most paying 5-9x EBITDA for high-volume practices. A $1M EBITDA ortho practice = $5M-$9M sale.
Ortho-specific advantage: higher % goodwill than general dental (often 80-90%) → more §453-deferrable gain.
The math — $6M orthodontic practice sale
Assumptions: $6M sale, 85% goodwill, 10% equipment, 5% aligner inventory.
Orthodontic-specific tax wrinkles
- Higher goodwill % than general dental. More §453 leverage.
- In-practice aligner inventory (Invisalign, ClearCorrect). Ordinary income.
- Treatment-in-progress (TIP) WIP. Patients mid-treatment with prepaid contracts; deferred revenue accounting matters.
- Membership / prepaid plan revenue. Deferred revenue, goodwill character.
- State dental board ownership transfer. Each state has rules.
What is the tax bill on your orthodontic practice sale going to be?
Send me the sale price and rough basis and I'll email you the actual number within one business day — plus the Seller's Guide to §453. If it doesn't fit your deal, I'll tell you that plainly.
No retainer · no obligation · the carrier compensates the broker, not you.
When this fits
- $1.5M+ sale (most ortho qualifies)
- DSO or strategic buyer
When it doesn't
- Mostly solo with small team
- Sale under $1.5M
How I work
Hans Goldstein, IRC §453 specialist. Pacific Life, Independent Life, USAA Life and other A-rated Fortune 500 carriers — 50 states. Free fit-check.
Find out what your orthodontic practice sale tax bill actually is — and what you can do about it
No retainer. The carrier compensates the broker — not you.
Find out what your tax bill actually looks like before you sell — including the parts your CPA may not raise until the return is already being prepared.
Most people find out what they owe after the sale closes, when nothing can be changed. A short conversation now tells you the number, which layers apply to your situation, and which options are still open while the sale is still in front of you.
- What you will actually owe — federal, the 3.8% surtax, recapture and your state
- Which of those layers you can still do something about
- Whether spreading the sale changes the number in your case
Hans Goldstein · 615-808-9731 · Goldstein & Co. LLC · This is an educational conversation, not tax advice. Bring your CPA in before you file.
Educational. Not tax or legal advice.
Run your specific numbers
The calculator runs your sale through real 2026 federal + state tax brackets and shows §453 savings vs lump sum side-by-side.
Run the calculator → 615-808-9731