-
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Tax compliance
We aim to minimize the impact of taxation, enabling you to maximize your potential savings and to expand your business.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Global culture
Our people tell us that our global culture is one of the biggest attractions of a career with Grant Thornton.
-
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
In the community
Many Grant Thornton member firms provide a range of inspirational and generous services to the communities they serve.
-
Behind the Numbers: People of P&A Grant Thornton
Discover the inspiring stories of the individuals who make up our vibrant community. From seasoned veterans to fresh faces, the Purple Tribe is a diverse team united by a shared passion.
-
Fresh Graduates
Fresh Graduates
-
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.
-
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.
Almost two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses worldwide are still slowly trying to recover from the effects of the economic downturn. Business establishments, both in the goods as well as the services industries, have been hit with massive losses and considerable expenses as a result of non-operation during the lockdowns.
To help corporate taxpayers deal with the losses, Congress passed Republic Act 11534 or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprise Act (CREATE). The most welcome provision of the CREATE Act is the reduction of the corporate income tax. However, the flipside of the law is the rationalization of the fiscal incentives of registered business enterprises (RBEs). One of the key incentives available to RBEs is the value-added tax (VAT) zero rating of their local purchases.
Prior to CREATE, the provisions of the TRAIN Law limited the zero-rating of local purchases of export enterprises. This portion of the TRAIN Law was implemented by Revenue Regulations No. 9-2021 issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in June. However, due to various representations by exporters and their suppliers, RR 9-2021 was deferred by RR 15-2021 in July. Since then, taxpayers have been eagerly awaiting revenue regulations that harmonize the VAT zero-rating provisions of both TRAIN and CREATE.
On Dec. 7, the BIR issued Revenue Regulations 21-2021 (RR 21-2021), which provided additional guidance on the VAT zero-rating of local purchases of goods and services by RBEs enjoying incentives.
The new issuance clarified that the VAT zero-rating on local purchases is to be enjoyed by the RBEs coterminous with their income tax incentives, which can run for a maximum of 17 years from the date of registration, unless otherwise extended under the Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP). Further, the zero-rating for existing registered export enterprises located inside ecozones and freeport zones are qualified for VAT zero-rating until the expiration of the transitory period. This period can run until the end of the income tax holiday (ITH) if the enterprise was granted only ITH, or 10 years from the effectivity of CREATE if the enterprise was granted both ITH and the 5% special income tax incentive.
Under CREATE, the VAT zero-rating on local purchases of goods and services by RBEs applies only to goods and services that are “directly and exclusively used for the registered project or activity” and without which the registered project or activity cannot be carried out. This requirement has been the subject of debate and discussion among tax authorities, RBEs, and their suppliers.
To this end, RR 21-2021 expanded the examples of goods and services that qualify as “directly and exclusively used.” For goods, it refers to sale of raw materials, inventory, supplies, equipment, packaging materials and goods to a registered export enterprise. For services, it refers to the sale of services, including the provision of basic infrastructure, utilities, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul of equipment. The enumeration is by way of example, which is not an exclusive listing.
Hence, the revenue regulations require that the VAT zero-rating on local purchases be granted upon the endorsement of the concerned Investment Promotions Agency or IPA, in addition to the documentary requirements of the BIR. IPAs are government agencies in charge of granting and administering tax and non-tax incentives. They include the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), the Board of Investments (BoI), and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
Finally, the regulations state that their provisions are immediately effective and cover transactions entered during the third quarter of taxable year 2021 and onwards.
While RR 21-2021 provided additional guidance on the new rules on zero-rating, a lot of questions posed by RBEs and their suppliers remain unanswered. For instance, what happens to a transaction which has been subjected to VAT and for which a VAT invoice or official receipt (OR) has already been issued by the supplier? Can the supplier reverse the transaction and report it as zero-rated if it qualifies under the requirements of RR 21-2021?
How about those transactions which were subjected to zero-rating? What type of BIR documentation is required in addition to the endorsement of the IPA? Will the BIR be issuing additional regulations that will enumerate such documentary requirements referred to in these latest regulations? Or were the regulations merely referring to the issuance of a zero-rated VAT invoice or official receipt? What type of endorsement will be issued by the IPA, and should such endorsement be furnished to the supplier before the transaction? If so, what happens to transactions made in the third quarter of 2021 which have already been completed but without such endorsement by the IPA?
There are definitely a lot of compliance issues that the change in rules has spawned. In addition, there are also some principle-based issues that taxpayers are now confused about. Did the change in the VAT zero-rating remove the legal fiction that ecozones and freeport zones are non-customs territories? Have we abandoned the cross-border doctrine that the tax authorities and the Courts used to apply when deciding VAT questions involving ecozones and freeport zones?
Questions abound as we enter new VAT regimes under CREATE. Such an adjustment period is expected every time we adopt new rules and regulations. Hopefully, the taxpayers will be better guided by the regulations issued by the BIR. Taxpayers really have no choice but to adapt to the changes in rules and regulations. Otherwise, they will be facing deficiency taxes and penalties for noncompliance.
As we draw nearer to the close of this year, we look forward to a new year filled with optimism and expectation that the issues surrounding the VAT zero-rating on local purchases of RBEs will be fully resolved. More importantly, we look forward to a new year with the fervent hope that this pandemic will soon be a poignant and distant memory.
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.
As published in BusinessWorld, dated 14 December 2021