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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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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 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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Behind the Numbers: People of P&A Grant Thornton
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The Christmas gift of Train
10 Jan 2018There were still some more friends we had to meet up with over the weekend as part of our Christmas activities. My kids continued to receive gifts and they were ecstatic; apparently there is no such thing as gift-opening fatigue.
I was reminded of a child-rearing debate I had with my wife. I’d argued that Christmas gifts should be opened only starting on Christmas Eve, citing the values of patience, delayed gratification, and high emotional intelligence. My wife simply countered that gifts, especially those received during the Christmas season, are as much for the giver as the receiver.
It took a while before I finally relented. I held on as long as I could, not because of a well-established foundation of values but because I just got used to it. That was how I was raised and hence I was skeptical to a new way of opening presents.
That is exactly the same feeling I had when the Duterte administration gifted us with the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) law a few days before Christmas. I was skeptical even though I’ve long clamored for tax reforms to address the unfairness of our income tax brackets. I guess I am not alone with this mindset as we often operate with our own biases and reluctance to change.
My first instinct was to reject the entirety of the tax reform and the benefits it could bring (e.g., more equitable income tax brackets and lower estate and donors taxes). But then I listened to people debate it, read articles discussing the upsides and downsides, and scoured the internet for all the relevant information I could find.
Though I was thrilled that income tax brackets were amended (and appear to be more equitable), I was highly suspicious of the impact of the increase in excise tax on fuel. In my mind, higher fuel prices would lead to a corresponding rise in prices of consumer goods, eating up the additional take-home pay of those who will no longer pay personal income tax.
How will this impact those already enjoying income tax exemptions even before the Train? They will not have any bump in cash inflows and yet will also suffer the potential price increases of basic consumer goods.
Excise taxes on fuel have not been adjusted for inflation since 1997. It should also be noted that the excise tax on diesel was even removed during the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. This, at least for me, was good justification for adjusting the fuel excise tax. Another thing that bothered me was whether the increase in the fuel excise tax was regressive in that it would relatively burden the poor more than the rich (something that, based on how luxury vehicles will be taxed under TRAIN, seems to be a reasonable concern).
As a general rule, a fuel tax is a progressive tax policy particularly for low- to average-income countries, according to the book Fuel Taxes and the Poor by Thomas Sterner. Filomeno Sta. Ana of Action for Economic Reforms, meanwhile, notes that the richest 10 percent of Filipino households account for 51 percent of total fuel consumption and 3.7 percent of their consumption spending is for fuel, as compared to only 1.1 percent for the poor. This additional information somehow eased, if not totally removed, any reluctance I earlier had.
There is no denying that the fuel price increase will have an inflationary impact as several investment banks and research groups have forecast inflation to test the upper limit of the 2.0-4.0 percent target for 2018. This will indeed place an additional burden on the poor who will not be getting any additional take-home pay under the income tax adjustments. This will supposedly be addressed by the planned strengthening of unconditional cash transfers to offset price increases coming their way. How effectively this program will be implemented is a totally different matter altogether.
There is a lot to unpack in this tax reform and certainly there are improvements needed. It is not perfect by any means but I believe it is generally a step in the right direction. One thing I learned as I was deep diving into the new tax law is that we should, as concerned citizens, inform and educate ourselves. Be skeptical, yes, but this should always be paired with an open mind, ready to accept new things when given enough reasons and basis.
This is only package one of the comprehensive tax reform program of the current administration. Be ready to continue with more discussions.
Anton Ng is a Partner, Audit & Assurance, of P&A Grant Thornton, one of the leading audit, tax, advisory and outsourcing firms in the Philippines with 21 partners and over 850 staff members. We’d like to hear from you! Tweet @PAGrantThornton, like us on Facebook: P&A Grant Thornton, and email comments to anton.ng@ph.gt.com or pagrantthornton.marketscomm@ph.gt.com. For more information, visit www.grantthornton.com.ph.
As published in The Manila Times, dated 10 January 2018