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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.
The Department of Health (DoH) confirmed on Thursday, Jan. 30, the first case of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the Philippines. This alarmed many Filipinos.
Yesterday, I heard on the radio that the DoH reported the first death in the Philippines due to epidemic. It was the first confirmed death outside of China due to 2019 nCoV. This prompted the government to order a travel ban for foreigners coming from China to the Philippines.
The news was so alarming and some people may be freaking out. But according to the DoH, we should all be calm. What we need to do is practice good personal hygiene such as regular hand washing, as a preventive measure. Aside from this, we should start wearing surgical masks when going around crowded areas, or if possible, avoid crowded areas.
In most cases, if we do not know what to do, the tendency is to panic. The same thing may also happen when you receive an assessment from the BIR, especially if the amount is enormous.
But being calm and knowing what do is the key to handling the assessment.
The first thing you should do is to evaluate whether the assessment is valid. For an assessment to be valid, some of the factors that you should determine is if whether the assessment was issued within the prescriptive period; the BIR followed due process; and the Final Assessment Notice (FAN) and the letter of demand (FLD) must comply with the requisites provided under the existing tax laws, among others.
The FAN and FLD must be issued by the Commissioner or his duly authorized representative. It must also state the facts, the law, rules and regulations, or jurisprudence on which the assessment is based. Otherwise, it shall be considered void.
The FAN contains the name, address, and tax identification number (TIN) of the taxpayer; kind of tax; period covered; basic tax assessed, surcharge, interest and compromise penalty, if any; and the date when such deficiency tax must be paid (which is normally 30 days from the date of mailing or release thereof). This information, however, is not sufficient to comply with the requirement under tax law that the taxpayer must be informed in writing of the law and the facts on which the assessment is based, otherwise the assessment is void. The objective of this provision is to ensure that the taxpayer can properly evaluate the correctness of the assessment.
To comply with the provision of the tax law, the FAN is issued together with the FLD. The FLD contains details of the assessments and explains why the taxpayer is liable for such deficiency taxes. The definite amount of tax liabilities and date for payment thereof are also critical for an assessment to be considered valid.
In the case decided by the Supreme Court (SC) (G.R. No. 128315, June 29, 1999), the SC emphasized the importance of indicating the definite due date for payment of an assessment. According the SC, “[a]n assessment contains not only a computation of tax liabilities, but also a demand for payment within a prescribed period. It also signals the time in which penalties and interests begin to accrue against the taxpayer. To enable the taxpayer to determine his remedies thereon, due process requires that it must serve on and received by the taxpayer.”
The SC decision was also cited by the Court of the Tax Appeals (CTA) when it rendered a recent decision in the CTA Case no. 9046. The CTA invalidated a BIR assessment due to the absence of the specific period on which the assessment should be settled. In its ruling, the CTA found that “to be considered valid, the FANs must not only indicate the legal and factual bases of the assessments but must also state a clear and categorical demand for payment of the computed tax liabilities within a specific period. The requirement to indicate a fixed and definite period or a date certain within which a taxpayer must pay the assessed deficiency tax liabilities is indispensable to the validity of the FAN.”
It is also equally important that the assessment contain a definite amount of tax liabilities. The term “definite” is defined as “having distinct or certain limits; free of all ambiguity, uncertainty or obscurity.” Given this definition, the question is, if the assessment contains a specific amount of tax liabilities but final amount may be adjusted depending on the date of payment of such liabilities, would you consider this a definite liability?
Most people would probably say “yes,” since the amount is determinable. If the debt is subject to interest, the amount is normally being adjusted depending on the date of payment. But the same seems not applicable to tax liabilities.
In CTA Case No. 9609, dated Jan. 15, 2020, the CTA invalidated assessment since the amount of tax liabilities is deemed indefinite. The amount will remain indefinite if the tax due is still subject to modification, depending on the date of payment. In this particular case, the FLD received by the taxpayer contains a statement that the interest will have to be adjusted if paid beyond Nov. 20, 2015. While the FLD provided for the computation of the tax liability, the CTA ruled that the amount is deemed indefinite since the tax assessment is still subject to modification or adjustment, depending on the date of payment by the petitioner.
Staying calm and knowing what do is the key to handling the assessment. The first thing you should do is to evaluate whether the assessment is valid. You could also seek the advice of experts to properly guide you.
Both the 2019 nCoV and assessment may be alarming and might even cause death. But to overcome the worst, we need to learn how to respond to every situation. As Charles Swindoll once said, “Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”
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.
Edward L. Roguel is a partner of Tax Advisory & Compliance division of P&A Grant Thornton, the Philippine member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd.
As published in BusinessWorld, dated 04 February 2020