If the business you are buying includes business assets such as furniture or office equipment, you must pay sales tax on them. It should not be read to mean that all asset sales in a particular state will be exempt from tax.A somewhat basic level high level presentation on the nuts and bolts of asset purchase sale transactions. After reading the following discussion on the accounting proceeding, many guardians ad litem will wonder how a complete report is possible. The election provides for no GST (or HST in the HST provinces) to be payable in respect of the purchase and sale of the assets and reduces the cash. In an asset sale, you, as the buyer, have the chance to deduct the entire purchase price you paid for the business assets from your tax bill. Both the seller and purchaser of a group of assets that makes up a trade or business must use Form 8594 to report such a sale. A taxable asset purchase allows the buyer to "step up," or increase, the tax basis of the acquired assets to reflect the purchase price.