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Audit approach overview
Our audit approach will allow our client's accounting personnel to make the maximum contribution to the audit effort without compromising their ongoing responsibilities
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Annual and short period audit
At P&A Grant Thornton, we provide annual and short period financial statement audit services that go beyond the normal expectations of our clients. We believe strongly that our best work comes from combining outstanding technical expertise, knowledge and ability with exceptional client-focused service.
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Review engagement
A review involves limited investigation with a narrower scope than an audit, and is undertaken for the purpose of providing limited assurance that the management’s representations are in accordance with identified financial reporting standards. Our professionals recognize that in order to conduct a quality financial statement review, it is important to look beyond the accounting entries to the underlying activities and operations that give rise to them.
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Other Related Services
We make it a point to keep our clients abreast of the developments and updates relating to the growing complexities in the accounting world. We offer seminars and trainings on audit- and tax-related matters, such as updates on Accounting Standards, new pronouncements and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issuances, as well as other developments that affect our clients’ businesses.
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Tax advisory
With our knowledge of tax laws and audit procedures, we help safeguard the substantive and procedural rights of taxpayers and prevent unwarranted assessments.
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Tax compliance
We aim to minimize the impact of taxation, enabling you to maximize your potential savings and to expand your business.
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Corporate services
For clients that want to do business in the Philippines, we assist in determining the appropriate and tax-efficient operating business or investment vehicle and structure to address the objectives of the investor, as well as related incorporation issues.
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Tax education and advocacy
Our advocacy work focuses on clarifying the interpretation of laws and regulations, suggesting measures to increasingly ease tax compliance, and protecting taxpayer’s rights.
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Business risk services
Our business risk services cover a wide range of solutions that assist you in identifying, addressing and monitoring risks in your business. Such solutions include external quality assessments of your Internal Audit activities' conformance with standards as well as evaluating its readiness for such an external assessment.
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Business consulting services
Our business consulting services are aimed at addressing concerns in your operations, processes and systems. Using our extensive knowledge of various industries, we can take a close look at your business processes as we create solutions that can help you mitigate risks to meet your objectives, promote efficiency, and beef up controls.
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Transaction services
Transaction advisory includes all of our services specifically directed at assisting in investment, mergers and acquisitions, and financing transactions between and among businesses, lenders and governments. Such services include, among others, due diligence reviews, project feasibility studies, financial modelling, model audits and valuation.
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Forensic advisory
Our forensic advisory services include assessing your vulnerability to fraud and identifying fraud risk factors, and recommending practical solutions to eliminate the gaps. We also provide investigative services to detect and quantify fraud and corruption and to trace assets and data that may have been lost in a fraud event.
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Cyber advisory
Our focus is to help you identify and manage the cyber risks you might be facing within your organization. Our team can provide detailed, actionable insight that incorporates industry best practices and standards to strengthen your cybersecurity position and help you make informed decisions.
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ProActive Hotline
Providing support in preventing and detecting fraud by creating a safe and secure whistleblowing system to promote integrity and honesty in the organisation.
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Accounting services
At P&A Grant Thornton, we handle accounting services for several companies from a wide range of industries. Our approach is highly flexible. You may opt to outsource all your accounting functions, or pass on to us choice activities.
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Staff augmentation services
We offer Staff Augmentation services where our staff, under the direction and supervision of the company’s officers, perform accounting and accounting-related work.
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Payroll Processing
Payroll processing services are provided by P&A Grant Thornton Outsourcing Inc. More and more companies are beginning to realize the benefits of outsourcing their noncore activities, and the first to be outsourced is usually the payroll function. Payroll is easy to carve out from the rest of the business since it is usually independent of the other activities or functions within the Accounting Department.
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Our values
Grant Thornton prides itself on being a values-driven organisation and we have more than 38,500 people in over 130 countries who are passionately committed to these values.
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Global culture
Our people tell us that our global culture is one of the biggest attractions of a career with Grant Thornton.
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Learning & development
At Grant Thornton we believe learning and development opportunities allow you to perform at your best every day. And when you are at your best, we are the best at serving our clients
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Global talent mobility
One of the biggest attractions of a career with Grant Thornton is the opportunity to work on cross-border projects all over the world.
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Diversity
Diversity helps us meet the demands of a changing world. We value the fact that our people come from all walks of life and that this diversity of experience and perspective makes our organisation stronger as a result.
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In the community
Many Grant Thornton member firms provide a range of inspirational and generous services to the communities they serve.
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Fresh Graduates
Fresh Graduates
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Students
Whether you are starting your career as a graduate or school leaver, P&A Grant Thornton can give you a flying start. We are ambitious. Take the fact that we’re the world’s fastest-growing global accountancy organisation. For our people, that means access to a global organisation and the chance to collaborate with more than 40,000 colleagues around the world. And potentially work in different countries and experience other cultures.
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Experienced hires
P&A Grant Thornton offers something you can't find anywhere else. This is the opportunity to develop your ideas and thinking while having your efforts recognised from day one. We value the skills and knowledge you bring to Grant Thornton as an experienced professional and look forward to supporting you as you grow you career with our organisation.
Now that the tax filing deadline has passed, many taxpayers can breathe a sigh of relief. Taxpayers have gone through one of the most grueling deadlines for the year and have lived to tell about it. Yesterday’s deadline was a bit nostalgic, as it was the last return filed under the old tax system. From now on, we can totally immerse ourselves in the new rules under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law. Taxes will now be referred to as “before TRAIN” (BT) and “after TRAIN” (AT).
With April 16 gone, the next income tax filing deadline for individuals will be the first-quarter Income Tax Return (ITR) due on May 15, 2018. Before that date, self-employed individuals need to make a crucial decision. Do they avail of the 8% special tax rate, or follow the regular income tax rate for individuals?
Since the start of the year, when the TRAIN law became effective, many self-employed individuals and small business owners have been keenly following the developing rules for the 8% tax applicable to them. Every time I attend a family gathering, someone would always ask me about the 8% tax and ask how he can avail of it. There have been issuances from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) that have helped shed light on some of the questions of taxpayers. Since this is a new tax rate, the BIR has to develop rules specifically for implementing this special tax rate. Taxpayers are grappling with the various issuances, trying to understand and comply with them.
The 8% tax is applicable only to self-employed individuals (sole proprietors and professionals) whose gross receipts or gross sales and other non-operating income for the year do not exceed the three million pesos (P3,000,000) value-added tax (VAT) threshold and are not subject to other types of percentage tax. If the small business is owned by a corporation, the 8% tax will not apply. The 8% tax is applicable to various types of business activities that can be undertaken by a sole proprietor, such as the practice of a profession, consultancy services, or convenience store business.
The taxpayer availing of the 8% tax gets to enjoy simplified taxation. He does not need to pay separate income tax and percentage tax, as the 8% tax rate answers for both taxes. He also does not need to account for various expenses when computing taxes. If the self-employed individual is earning purely business income, he simply needs to add up his gross sales or receipts, deduct the non-taxable P250,000, and multiply the difference with the 8% to arrive at his tax payable to the BIR. It’s that simple.
A word of caution, however; the 8% rate should not be an automatic choice for all self-employed individuals. The 8% tax rate is imposed on the gross sales or receipts; no deductions for business expenses are allowed. Hence, the self-employed individual should do his math and check what option would benefit him most. He should compare his tax liability under the 8% tax and the regular income tax of 0% to 35%. However, should he elect to pay under the regular rate of 0% to 35%, he shall continue to pay the 3% percentage tax in addition to the income tax.
The 8% tax is generally preferred for professionals or those engaged in the sale of services where business expenses are normally minimal. For those in businesses that have huge costs of sales and operating expenses, the 8% tax on gross may yield a higher tax payable. However, even with the higher tax, the taxpayer can also factor in his decision making that fact the administrative requirements under the 8% are also simplified.
Partners of a general professional partnership are also not allowed to avail of the 8% tax, as their distributive share from the general professional partnership is already net of cost and expenses.
To avail of the 8% tax, the taxpayer must first cancel his VAT registration or his percentage tax registration. Once that is done, he must elect to apply the 8% income tax rate in his first-quarter income tax return, which is due on May 15. For those who are excited to file their first- quarter income tax return for 2018, a little patience is required; the appropriate form has not yet been released by the BIR. We expect the BIR Form to be issued before the deadline. Hence, taxpayers need to check the BIR website for the announcement of the availability of the form.
Section 12 of Revenue Regulations No. 8-2018 requires percentage taxpayers to submit their taxpayer registration update form (BIR Form 1905) to the BIR to end-date the percentage tax. If taxpayers fail to end-date their percentage tax registration, they must continue to file the percentage tax return reflecting zero-amount of tax with a notation that they are availing of the 8% income tax rate for the taxable year. I have received some messages that there are some BIR offices that refuse to end-date the percentage tax return for taxpayers availing of the 8% tax, despite the regulatory requirements. This situation is probably part of the birthing pains we are still experiencing with the new tax system.
If the taxpayer is VAT-registered and wishes to avail of the 8% tax, he must cancel his VAT registration no later than April 30, 2018. The taxpayer must submit his registration update form to the BIR and surrender his unused VAT invoices and receipts.
In view of the lower income tax rate, the withholding tax collected by clients and customers from their payments of professional, promotional, talent fees, and similar payments for services rendered by self-employed professionals availing of the 8% has also been decreased to 5%. The individual must submit to his client a sworn declaration that his gross sales or receipts for the year do not exceed P3 million, together with a copy of his Certificate of BIR registration showing that he is not VAT-registered. The sworn declaration must be submitted no later than Jan. 15 of each year or at least prior to the initial payment of the fees or commissions subject to 5% withholding tax. Failure to comply will result in the payment of a higher rate of 10% withholding tax.
The 8% tax rate for small business owners is a welcome development in the simplification of our tax system. It is especially helpful to individuals who may be very talented and knowledgeable in their chosen field but may have difficulty in coping with the complicated requirements of taxation. With tax simplification, self-employed individuals can concentrate on making their businesses grow and on improving their skills until, one day, they are small businesses no more.
Eleanor Lucas Roque is the head of the Tax Advisory and Compliance of P&A Grant Thornton. P&A Grant Thornton is one of the leading audit, tax, advisory, and outsourcing services firms in the Philippines.
As published in BusinessWorld, dated 17 April 2018