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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.
Are we ‘half-ready’ for the new normal?
26 May 2020Are we prepared for when we begin our “new normal”? Who else misses going out, joining social gatherings, playing outdoor sports, and attending Sunday mass? We spent the summer of 2020 in the comfort of our own homes, thanks to the coronavirus or the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have recently “graduated” from the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ). The World Health Organization and the Department of Health (DoH) recommend lifting the ECQ gradually or in phases to avoid a resurgence or a second wave of COVID-19. In response, Metro Manila, Laguna, and Cebu City are under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine. Other provinces, meanwhile, are under General Community Quarantine. It has not been easy, as essential services are still limited. Companies are restricted to a 50% physical workforce. Public transportation is not permitted in some areas. Our government has weighed the effects of the quarantine not only on the economy, but especially on the health & safety of Filipinos.
We may not immediately return to a semblance of normalcy without first finding the vaccine or cure for COVID-19. The pandemic has affected us in ways we could have never imagined. Health care providers and frontliners have been working long shifts for the past two months. The need for health care equipment or supplies is critical. The tools for prevention, protection, and testing are what we need right now. Some countries show success in containing COVID-19 by combining mass testing, social distancing, technology, and self-isolation. All of these must come together; otherwise, we are only “half-ready.” The government admits it has limited capacity to conduct mass testing. Sadly, the government does not have a robust program to carry out mass detection of the virus and has passed on the discretion to conduct tests to the private sector.
To address this issue, Section 4(o) of Republic Act No. 11469 — more popularly known as the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act” — liberalizes the granting of incentives to manufacture or import critical or needed equipment or supplies to address COVID-19. Consequently, importing related equipment and supplies is now exempt from import duties, taxes, and other fees.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue issued Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 6-2020 which exempts from value-added tax (VAT), excise tax, and other fees the importation of personal protective equipment; laboratory equipment and reagents; medical equipment and devices; support and maintenance for laboratory and medical equipment, surgical equipment, and supplies; medical supplies, tools, and consumables; testing kits and such other supplies or equipment, as may be determined by the DoH and other relevant government agencies.
Further, importing materials needed to manufacture health equipment and supplies deemed critical or required to address the pandemic is also exempt from VAT, excise tax, and other fees. However, the importing manufacturer must be on the Master List of the Department Trade and Industry and other incentive granting bodies.
The related importation is also not subject to the issuance of an Authority to Release Imported Goods (ATRIG) under Revenue Memorandum Order No. 35-2002. An ATRIG is no longer needed to release of the goods from the Bureau of Customs (BoC). However, the BIR will conduct post-investigation or audit based on the BoC list of importers that imported without an ATRIG. Thus, it is crucial to keep and maintain documents supporting the imports.
Relative to RR No. 6-2020, the BoC issued Customs Administrative Order (CAO) No. 7-2020 to relax the regulatory clearance process.
CAO No. 7-2020 exempts importers of medical equipment and supplies from presenting a Certificate of Product Notification (CPN) or Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before the BoC releases the goods. To be exempt, however, importers must provide a copy of their License to Operate (LTO) and proof of CPN or CPR application with the FDA. Importers of ventilators, respirators, and their respective accessories, on the other hands, only need to provide copies of their LTO.
Aside from establishments that provide medical devices, importers or companies that use face masks in performing work can directly import without an FDA certification.
Lastly, imported health products for donation, which are duly certified by the regulatory agency or accredited third party in the originating country, shall automatically be cleared. Certification is no longer needed for health products that are not subject to FDA clearance.
These regulations are in full force only during the three-month effectivity of RA No. 11469, unless extended or withdrawn by Congress. I hope that its effectivity will be extended, since we have a long way to go against the pandemic.
Tax and customs issuances will help hasten the manufacture, production, and distribution of medical supplies, tools, and equipment, especially the need for testing kits. The tax exemptions and incentives discussed above answer an essential question about our preparedness for the “new normal.”
Let’s Talk Tax is a weekly newspaper column of P&A Grant Thornton that aims to keep the public informed of various developments in taxation. This article is not intended to be a substitute for competent professional advice.
Alexander Querido, Jr. is an associate of the Tax Advisory & Compliance division of P&A Grant Thornton, the Philippine member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd.
As published in BusinessWorld, dated 26 May 2020