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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 truth will set us free: Availing of the proposed general tax amnesty
18 Dec 2018For someone to be forgiven, the truth must first be told. Be it in a quarrel between lovers, wrongdoing by a child, or even in confession to a priest, you must first admit the truth before being forgiven.
The proposed General Tax Amnesty, which is now awaiting the signature of the President, is no exception to this general rule. Under the proposed General Tax Amnesty, taxpayers who want to avail of the privileges of the amnesty must truthfully divulge very important information: their true total assets or true net worth. The General Tax Amnesty Return that a taxpayer must file with the Bureau of Internal Revenue should be accompanied by a notarized Statement of Total Assets (STA) or notarized Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) as of Dec. 31, 2017.
In exchange for disclosing their true total assets or net worth, taxpayers will be allowed to avail of the general tax amnesty program that shall cover their taxes, subject to some exceptions, for taxable year 2017 and prior years. The General Tax Amnesty will give taxpayers the option to choose a rate between 2% of their total assets or 5% of their net worth.
The Bill defines total assets as the amount of the aggregate assets, whether within or outside the Philippines, real or personal, tangible or intangible, ordinary or capital; net worth, on the other hand, is the difference between the taxpayer’s total assets and total liabilities. The taxpayer availing of the amnesty must admit all assets they have and all liabilities they owe as of Dec. 31, 2017 in the STA or SALN.
The STA shall contain a declaration of the total assets as of Dec. 31, 2017; while the SALN to be filed shall contain the following:
1. Assets located within or outside the Philippines, whether real or personal, tangible or intangible, and regardless of whether used in trade or business;
2. Description of classification, exact location, and valuation of real properties;
3. Personal properties other than money with specific description of the kind and number of assets and their value;
4. Conversion into the corresponding Philippine currency equivalent of assets that are denominated in foreign currency as of the date of the SALN;
5. Cash on hand and in bank in Philippine pesos as of the date of the SALN; and
6. All existing liabilities that are legitimate and enforceable, secured or unsecured, whether or not incurred in trade or business, disclosing or indicating clearly the name and address of the creditor and the amount of the corresponding liability.
To entice taxpayers to declare or disclose their true total assets or true net worth, any information contained in the Tax Amnesty Return, STA/SALN and other accompanying documents shall be confidential in nature and may not be used in any investigation or prosecution against the taxpayer. However, the information that the taxpayers will declare should be truthful; otherwise, the taxpayers could be subject to the crime of perjury.
If the disclosed information is discovered to be untruthful, the taxpayer could also be investigated for tax fraud. For juridical persons, the penalty shall be imposed on the partner, president, general manager, treasurer, officer-in-charge, and employees responsible for the violation.
Thus, although there is a presumption of correctness of the SALN, taxpayers must still file a correct STA or SALN. The Tax Amnesty Bill provides hefty penalties to any person who will file an incorrect STA or SALN.
With regard to the confidentiality of the information to be declared to the BIR, the Tax Amnesty Bill will also penalize any person having knowledge of the Tax Amnesty Return and appurtenant documents and who will disclose any related information. A fine and imprisonment will be imposed on the violator. If the offender is an officer or employee of the BIR or any government entity, the penalty will include perpetual disqualification to hold public office.
The Tax Amnesty Bill is just a signature away from becoming law, and is expected to be implemented within early 2019. Taxpayers may want to consider taking another look at the value of their assets, liabilities, and net worth vis-à-vis the aggregate amount of their potential tax exposures in taxable year 2017 and in prior years. In doing so, taxpayers should ensure that, if they decide to avail of the amnesty program, they will be able to comply with the requirements in the declaration of the true STA or SLN. As the saying goes, the “truth will set us free.”
P&A Grant Thornton is one of the leading audit, tax, advisory, and outsourcing services firms in the Philippines. You may contact the author thru RG.Moreno@ph.gt.com, or call us at tel. nos. +63(2) 988-2288.
Rufino Gerard G. Moreno III is an associate of the Tax Advisory and Compliance of P&A Grant Thornton.
As published in BusinessWorld, dated 18 December 2018