-
Financial reporting and accounting advisory services
You trust your external auditor to deliver not only a high-quality, independent audit of your financial statements but to provide a range of support, including assessing material risks, evaluating internal controls and raising awareness around new and amended accounting standards.
-
Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises
Get the clear financial picture you need with the accounting standards team at Grant Thornton LLP. Our experts have extensive experience with private enterprises of all sizes in all industries, an in-depth knowledge of today’s accounting standards, and are directly involved in the standard-setting process.
-
International Financial Reporting Standards
Whether you are already using IFRS or considering a transition to this global framework, Grant Thornton LLP’s accounting standards team is here to help.
-
Accounting Standards for Not-for-Profit Organizations
From small, community organizations to large, national charities, you can count on Grant Thornton LLP’s accounting standards team for in-depth knowledge and trusted advice.
-
Public Sector Accounting Standards
Working for a public-sector organization comes with a unique set of requirements for accounting and financial reporting. Grant Thornton LLP’s accounting standards team has the practical, public-sector experience and in-depth knowledge you need.
-
Tax planning and compliance
Whether you are a private or public organization, your goal is to manage the critical aspects of tax compliance, and achieve the most effective results. At Grant Thornton, we focus on delivering relevant advice, and providing an integrated planning approach to help you fulfill compliance obligations.
-
Research and development and government incentives
Are you developing innovative processes or products, undertaking experimentation or solving technological problems? If so, you may qualify to claim SR&ED tax credits. This Canadian federal government initiative is designed to encourage and support innovation in Canada. Our R&D professionals are a highly-trained, diverse team of practitioners that are engineers, scientists and specialized accountants.
-
Indirect tax
Keeping track of changes and developments in GST/HST, Quebec sales tax and other provincial sales taxes across Canada, can be a full-time job. The consequences for failing to adequately manage your organization’s sales tax obligations can be significant - from assessments, to forgone recoveries and cash flow implications, to customer or reputational risk.
-
US corporate tax
The United States has a very complex and regulated tax environment, that may undergo significant changes. Cross-border tax issues could become even more challenging for Canadian businesses looking for growth and prosperity in the biggest economy in the world.
-
Cross-border personal tax
In an increasingly flexible world, moving across the border may be more viable for Canadians and Americans; however, relocating may also have complex tax implications.
-
International tax
While there is great opportunity for businesses looking to expand globally, organizations are under increasing tax scrutiny. Regardless of your company’s size and level of international involvement—whether you’re working abroad, investing, buying and selling, borrowing or manufacturing—doing business beyond Canada’s borders comes with its fair share of tax risks.
-
Transfer pricing
Transfer pricing is a complex area of corporate taxation that is concerned with the intra-group pricing of goods, services, intangibles, and financial instruments. Transfer pricing has become a critical governance issue for companies, tax authorities and policy makers, and represents a principal risk area for multinationals.
-
Succession & estate planning
Like many private business owners today, you’ve spent your career building and running your business successfully. Now you’re faced with deciding on a successor—a successor who may or may not want your direct involvement and share your vision.
-
Tax Reporting & Advisory
The financial and tax reporting obligations of public markets and global tax authorities take significant resources and investment to manage. This requires calculating global tax provision estimates under US GAAP, IFRS, and other frameworks, and reconciling this reporting with tax compliance obligations.
-
Transactions
Our transactions group takes a client-centric, integrated approach, focused on helping you make and implement the best financial strategies. We offer meaningful, actionable and holistic advice to allow you to create value, manage risks and seize opportunities. It’s what we do best: help great organizations like yours grow and thrive.
-
Restructuring
We bring a wide range of services to both individuals and businesses – including shareholders, executives, directors, lenders, creditors and other advisors who are dealing with a corporation experiencing financial challenges.
-
Forensics
Market-driven expertise in investigation, dispute resolution and digital forensics
-
Cybersecurity
Viruses. Phishing. Malware infections. Malpractice by employees. Espionage. Data ransom and theft. Fraud. Cybercrime is now a leading risk to all businesses.
-
Consulting
Running a business is challenging and you need advice you can rely on at anytime you need it. Our team dives deep into your issues, looking holistically at your organization to understand your people, processes, and systems needs at the root of your pain points. The intersection of these three things is critical to develop the solutions you need today.
-
Creditor updates
Updates for creditors, limited partners, investors and shareholders.
-
Governance, risk and compliance
Effective, risk management—including governance and regulatory compliance—can lead to tangible, long-term business improvements. And be a source of significant competitive advantage.
-
Internal audit
Organizations thrive when they are constantly innovating, improving or creating new services and products and envisioning new markets and growth opportunities.
-
Certification – SOX
The corporate governance landscape is challenging at the best of times for public companies and their subsidiaries in Canada, the United States and around the world.
-
Third party assurance
Naturally, clients and stakeholders want reassurance that there are appropriate controls and safeguards over the data and processes being used to service their business. It’s critical.
-
ASPE Sec. 3041 Agriculture Understanding and applying the new ASPE Section 3041 AgricultureThe Canadian Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) has released new guidance on recognizing, measuring and disclosing biological assets and the harvested products of bio assets.
-
Tax alert Agricultural Clean Technology ProgramThe Agricultural Clean Technology Program will provide financial assistance to farmers and agri-businesses to help them reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
-
Tax alert ACT Program – Research and Innovation Stream explainedThe ACT Research and Innovation Stream provides financial support to organizations engaged in pre-market innovation.
-
Tax alert ACT Program – Adoption Stream explainedThe ACT Adoption Stream provides non-repayable funding to help farmers and agri-business with the purchase and installation of clean technologies.
-
Builders And Developers
Every real estate project starts with a vision. We help builders and developers solidify that vision, transform it into reality, and create value.
-
Rental Property Owners And Occupiers
In today’s economic climate, it’s more important than ever to have a strong advisory partner on your side.
-
Real Estate Service Providers
Your company plays a key role in the success of landlords, investors and owners, but who is doing the same for you?
-
Mining
There’s no business quite like mining. It’s volatile, risky and complex – but the potential pay-off is huge. You’re not afraid of a challenge: the key is finding the right balance between risk and reward. Whether you’re a junior prospector, a senior producer, or somewhere in between, we’ll work with you to explore, discover and extract value at every stage of the mining process.
-
Oil & gas
The oil and gas industry is facing many complex challenges, beyond the price of oil. These include environmental issues, access to markets, growing competition from alternative energy sources and international markets, and a rapidly changing regulatory landscape, to name but a few.
Canadian businesses implementing new work arrangements during the COVID-19 pandemic may face heightened tax risks – particularly those with international employees. Flexible work arrangements may help a business remain operational during these turbulent times, but if your business includes Canadians in a foreign country, or international employees working in Canada, you should be aware of the complex tax issues that may arise.
Complexities of mobility during COVID-19
As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts business routines, Canadian employers may face challenges managing global employees in affected areas. For Canadian companies who have employees who have relocated across international borders – either as part of business continuity strategies or for personal reasons – additional tax issues have to be considered.
By keeping up with government responses to individual tax compliance, Canadian businesses can more effectively navigate the tax risks areas they should consider as they create policies for new working arrangements.
The tax response so far
The Canadian government has introduced several tax measures to provide relief to Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic, including an extension of filing deadlines for individuals and trusts , and an extension of payment deadlines for most taxpayers until September 1, 2020. The filing deadline for corporations remains unchanged, falling six months after the taxation year-end.
The U.S. government extended both its filing and payment deadlines. The Internal Revenue Service is allowing taxpayers and businesses to file and make payments without interest or penalties until July 15. However, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has advised those expecting refunds to file as soon as they are able so they can get their money.
Other countries, however, have taken a “wait-and-see” approach and many have not implemented changes to individual annual tax filings. For internationally mobile employees who may have tax return filings in more than one country, normal compliance obligations should be assumed for each country. Where there are significant obstacles to obtaining information required to complete a tax return, it may be possible to extend the filing deadline by application or, alternatively, to review whether there is reasonable cause for a late filing and request the appropriate tax authorities abate possible penalties.
The mobility landscape during COVID-19
Many employers are implementing new working arrangements to allow employees to continue working amid government mobility restrictions, including allowing employees to work remotely from home, limiting business travel domestically and internationally, cancelling events and relocating employees to new international locations. The increased flexibility has the potential to create new challenges for mobility professionals, expanding their responsibilities and increasing the complexity of managing tax risks during the COVID-19 response.
Finding and managing ‘stealth expats’
Outside a company’s formal employee mobility program, Canadian companies have already seen that employees will sometimes choose to relocate themselves and their families in “response-based” events. Not surprisingly, employees in both China and in other Asia-Pacific nations moved out ahead of the virus to less-affected countries. Taking the “work-from-home” policy beyond its intended result, employees may take precautions with little or no visibility to their employers, particularly where travel is arranged outside corporate travel booking systems.
Mobility professionals will need to work closely with human resources, business partners and business units to find and manage employees who move without authorization to a new country to work. While businesses are responding to the virus with their own travel guidelines, employees may move without formal approval:
- Risk of a Permanent Establishment: Where employees work from a country remotely or in a country in which the company does not have an existing corporate entity, they put the business at risk of creating a corporate taxable presence in that country. This may result in the profits of the employing company being pulled into corporate taxes in the country where that employee relocates. The facts and circumstances of each situation should be evaluated, but where an employee is located in a country outside where he or she is employed for a long-term period it may create a permanent establishment there as a de facto fixed place of business or based on the role they are performing in the country.
While many double-tax treaties provide protection, where there is no treaty or there are longer-term relocations, it will be important to review whether these “stealth expats” are creating corporate tax risks and, if so, to determine how businesses should prepare to take appropriate mitigating action. This may involve relocating the employee or even requiring a leave of absence in some cases.
- Individual tax: When employees relocate to a new country in response to the spread of the virus, they may also trigger personal income tax liabilities. Employees will need to understand the individual tax implications of their presence in a new country, whether they can plan travel to mitigate taxation under a double-tax treaty. For stealth expats, U.S. companies may want to extend tax assistance to these new expats where it helps manage tax compliance.
- Payroll withholding and reporting: Canadian employers may also find they have payroll reporting and tax withholding obligations for these employees, whether through a local entity or as a non-resident employer. The associated obligations that fall on the business need to be understood to ensure continuing global compliance, but they could result in additional complexities and tax costs, particularly where local employment tax liabilities are considered.
- Social security: While Canada has an extensive double-tax treaty network, it and other countries have a more limited number of bilateral “’totalization” agreements that allow for employer and employee social security to be made only in an employee’s home country. Employees working in new country locations may therefore trigger additional social security liabilities for themselves and their employer, which can be very high.
- Double taxation: Employees should also be mindful of the law of the country they relocate to or from. Some countries, Brazil and China for example, may regard locally paid income as wholly taxable in that country, irrespective of where the individual physically works. To the extent a stealth expat becomes taxable in another country, that employee may face complexities and unexpectedly higher tax burdens. A company needs to determine what support, if any, these types of situations warrant.
Canadian companies should be reviewing the impact of the pandemic on their business, their suppliers and their customers. It may be advisable to relocate teams of employees in strategically important roles in out-of-risk areas, or to keep them in place for a longer than expected period. Formal assignments may increase as a result of these relocations, for some employers, resulting in assignments arising that do not fit the parameters and intention of a company’s mobility policy. Agile and proactive actions will be useful to identify the appropriate benefits employees and their families should receive, to determine the range of tax and payroll issues at stake and to effectively manage these assignments over an unknown period of time.
The role of mobility professionals
The COVID-19 pandemic is creating a range of unique and complex challenges for Canadian businesses, and human resource professionals will be key to responding effectively to these emerging issues. Through proactive engagement, mobility professionals can help businesses navigate the turbulence by identifying tax risk, managing complexity and cost, and enabling more employees to continue working wherever they are located.
We're here to helpWe understand that you want to be agile and responsive as the situation unfolds. Having access to experts, insights and accurate information as quickly as possible is critical—but your resources may be stretched at this time. We’re here to support you as you navigate through the impacts of coronavirus on your business and your investments. |