4 S corporation shareholders in company A.
3 of these company A shareholders want to replace the 4th shareholder (who has a contractors license & owns 51%) of S corporation stock in company A. These 3 want to place another person in as a shareholder with a license & 51% of the stock.
These 3 also own 100% of stock in another S corp, corporation B.
The 3 are worried that either having company A purchase the stock as treasury stock, or purchasing it themselves and then quickly selling it to a new 51% shareholder will turn Company A & B into a "controlled group", with expensive consequences.
Is there a time limit whereby they could accomplish one of these methods without causing A & B to become a controlled group?
They've thought about personally loaning money to an individual with a license so he could buyout company A's 51% shareholder and become the new 51% shareholder of company A. But the loans owed to the 3 might be seen and having undue influence/control over the new shareholder and blow up the plan.
So is there a short amount of time that the 3 can hold the stock, either as theirs or treasury stock, before getting it back out to a new majority shareholder?