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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.
A Tax Reform on the CPA Board Exam Syllabus by Richard R. Ibarra
10 Nov 2015Recently, there are movements with various groups advocating for the immediate adjustment of the 19 years old tax reform in the Philippine Tax System. The tax reform movements are lobbying for the bracket on individuals’ earnings and reducing the existing income tax rate both for individuals and businesses to a more reasonable and competitive rate. To date, there are pending bills in Congress supporting for those reforms. However, it remains a concern for the current Administration.
On a lighter side, I welcome the significant development in the course syllabus of the CPA Board Exam. Under the old syllabus, Taxation and Business Law (BLT) is taken as one subject in the seven areas covered by the examination. This time BLT was segregated into two independent subjects: as Taxation and Regulatory Framework for Business Transaction which would have equal weights with the total six other subjects. The implementation of the revised syllabus shall commence in the May 2016 CPA board examination.
What makes the subject reform more interesting is the inclusion of additional topics, namely: Taxation in the Local Government Code, Fiscal incentives vested the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and Board of Investment (BOI) enterprises, availment of the Tax Treaty Relief, Senior Citizen Law, and Magna Carta for Disabled Persons. These changes would make the future accountants more conversant and knowledgeable in the tax rules.
I have been in the tax practice for almost a decade and with the academe handling taxation subjects for six years. For me, I would say that there is a huge gap between what is being taught in school against the actual work in the tax practice. Thus, with the inclusions of the new topics it is hoped that it will cover the common discussions and issues relevant to actual practice.
Taxation is a very dynamic discipline. It is anticipated that there will always be changes on the rules and regulations. In fact, on year-to-year, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has an average of 130 revenue issuances. A summary for the last five years, is as follows:
BIR Issuances 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011
Revenue Regulations 13 11 18 18 11
Revenue Memorandum 72 89 76 91 61
Circulars
Revenue Memorandum 23 39 37 28 48
Orders
Total 108 139 131 137 120
* As of November 9, 2015 lifted from the BIR website
While the reforms are welcome, it is also important that the review of the syllabus be done at regular intervals to adapt to the changes in the business world.
The challenge that comes with the reform in the tax syllabus to be implemented by the Board of Accountancy is how the Academe (which should include the review schools) will adapt with the significant developments and still continue to provide quality instruction material in less than two years.
Furthermore, I noted that Taxation is one of the least favoured subjects among the accounting students. For this reason, the instructional design must also help increase the interest of these students on the subject matter.
Since taxation is a combination of law and accounting discipline, the subject is considered tough. Thus, the materials to be developed must be able to exhibit an authority and creativity to make the learning easy to comprehend and arouse the interest of the students. So what will constitute a good material for academic purposes?
First, all the related provisions of the Tax Code must be cited. These must be explained in the light of business perspective. The rationale of the related provisions must be covered in the discussion. The potential grey areas must be raised and put in proper context to minimize erroneous interpretation.
Second, it would be more helpful if the discussions will be illustrated with most recent court decisions, Bureau of Local Government Finance rulings and BIR rulings. This way the discussions would be more practical and could create better insights.
Lastly, the topic would be more interesting if the discussions would give not only the tax implications, but also the impact on the accounting side. It must show how to reconcile the differences both in the tax and accounting treatment of a particular transaction.
I look forward to the tax materials to be developed for academic purposes. It must be practical and easily understandable.
It is my desire and hope that the changes in the CPA course syllabus in Taxation will continue to strengthen the analytical skills of our future professionals. The reforms should also prepare them to face challenges in the actual practice in the field of taxation.
Lastly, I envisioned that the reforms in the tax syllabus will make young accountants more inclined to join the tax practice. The new breed of tax professionals should not only be able to provide potential tax saving mechanism to the company, but more importantly, ensure that the company or taxpayer-client is compliant with the existing tax rules and regulations.