-
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.
-
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.
IT IS the policy of the Philippine government to pursue a program of poverty eradication so that poor Filipino families shall be encouraged to undertake entrepreneurial activities to meet their minimum basic needs. In pursuing entrepreneurial activities, financing is needed to start, sustain and grow the business.
However, one of the challenges of small and start-up entrepreneurs and the microenterprises is the access to finance.
Without financial access, microenterprises will have difficulty in growing the business and moving up to the next level. Most of these microenterprises are willing victims of the “5-6” money lenders which charge a very high interest rate. Such growth barrier will limit the potential of these enterprises to create more jobs and help eradicate poverty, particularly in the countryside.
Other governments around the world are also looking to micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and entrepreneurs as important sources of economic growth and social cohesion. Based on the paper recently published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) entitled “Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2016”, it says that appropriate access to finance is a critical pre-requisite to enable these businesses to invest, grow and create jobs, and the issue has been climbing steadily up the policy agenda in recent years.
In the Philippines, this financing gap is partly being addressed by the government by encouraging the private sector to lend money to microenterprises. One of the strategies of the government to encourage private sector participation is to pass a law that provides tax incentives to microfinance non-government organizations (NGOs). Republic Act (RA) No. 10693 otherwise known as the “Microfinance NGOs Act” was approved by former President Benigno Aquino III on November 3, 2015.
The Microfinance NGOs Act aims to address poverty by supporting and working in partnership with qualified NGOs in promoting financially inclusive and pro-poor financial and credit services.
This law covers only microfinance NGOs and does not cover for-profit microfinance institutions.
Revenue Regulation No. 3-2017 was issued last February 22, 2017, by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to implement the tax provisions of RA No. 10693. For clarity, the following terms are defined:
1. “Microfinance” means a viable and sustainable provision of a broad range of financial services to poor and low-income individuals engaged in livelihood and microenterprise activities;
2. “Microfinance loans” mean small loans granted to the basic sectors, as defined in RA No. 8425, otherwise known as the “Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act”, and other loans; these loans are granted to the poor and low-income individuals for their microenterprises and small businesses so as to enable them to raise their income levels and improve their living standards;
3. “Microfinance NGO” is defined as a non-stock, non-profit organization duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with the primary purpose of implementing a microenterprise development strategy and providing microfinance programs, products, and services, such as microcredit and microsavings, for the poor and low-income clients; and,
4. “Microcredit” is the extension of microfinance loans by a Microfinance NGO to its poor and low-income clients.
In accordance with RR No. 3-2017, a duly registered and accredited microfinance NGO shall pay a two percent tax based on its gross receipts from microfinance operations in lieu of all national taxes. This rate shall only apply to lending activities and insurance commission of microfinance operations which are bundled and forming integral part of the qualified lending activities of the microfinance NGOs.
All other incomes by a microfinance NGO shall be subject to all applicable existing taxes.
The microfinance NGOs shall be deemed as a withholding agent for the government on payments of compensation to employees and on purchases of goods and services subject to withholding taxes.
Books of Accounts and other pertinent records of Microfinance NGOs shall be subject to periodic examination by revenue enforcement officers of the BIR.
To qualify for the incentive, the microfinance NGO should secure a Certificate of Accreditation from the Microfinance NGO Regulatory Council. The Microfinance NGO should be a non-stock non-profit corporation with a capital contribution of at least P1 million and must comply with the following requirements:
1. The word “Microfinance” must be included in its corporate trade name;
2. The Articles of Incorporation and By-laws shall specifically state that:
• It is “non-stock and non-profit”;
• Its primary purpose is to implement a microenterprise development strategy and provide microfinance programs, products, and services for the poor;
• It shall specifically provide that upon dissolution, its net assets shall be distributed to another NGO organized for similar purposes, or to the State for public purposes or as may be determined by a competent Court of Justice;
• No part of its property or income shall inure to the benefit of any member, officer, organizer or any individual person;
• The trustees shall not receive any compensation or remuneration, except reasonable per diem;
• The level of administrative expenses shall not exceed 30% of the total expenses for the taxable year; and,
• Other requirements which the Council may deem necessary.
According to OECD, by strengthening access to both traditional banking and diverse alternative financing instruments and channels, we can unleash the ability of MSMEs to invest, innovate, and contribute to the productivity growth sorely needed for more prosperous and inclusive societies.
With the passage of the Microfinance NGOs Act to provide tax incentives to these NGOs, we hope that existing Microfinance NGOs will expand to the countryside and new Microfinance NGOs will be created all over the country.
In this way, more microenterprises will have access to microfinance to fuel their growth and contribute to the overall economy. If poverty will not be eradicated, we hope that it will be reduced significantly with the help of these revitalized microenterprises.
(Mr. Ganhinhin is a Partner and Head of P&A Grant Thornton Cebu and Davao Branches. P&A Grant Thornton is one of the leading Audit, Tax, Advisory, and Outsourcing firms in the Philippines, with 21 Partners and over 800 staff members. For comments on this article, please email wendell.ganhinhin@ph.gt.com or PAGrantThornton.marketscomm@ph.gt.com.
For our services, visit www.grantthornton.com.ph. Follow us on Twitter: pagrantthornton, and FB: P&A Grant Thornton.
As published in Mindanao Times, dated on 22 March 2017.