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Business Risk Services
Our Business Risk Services team deliver practical and pragmatic solutions that support clients in growing and protecting the inherent value of their businesses.
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Corporate Finance and Deal Advisory
We offer a dedicated team of experienced individuals with a focus on successfully executing transactions for corporates and financial institutions. We offer an integrated approach, with our corporate finance specialists working seamlessly with tax and other specialists to ensure that every angle is covered.
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Economic Advisory
Our all-island Economics Advisory team combines expertise in economics and business with a wealth of experience across the public and private sectors.
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Forensic Accounting
We have a different way of doing business by delivering real insight through a combination of technical rigour, commercial experience and intuitive judgment. We take pride in delivering responsive and tailored solutions to all our clients, capitalising on the wealth of experience housed within our Belfast and wider Forensics team
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People and Change Consulting
The Grant Thornton People & Change Consulting practice works with clients on these issues as well as on all aspects of how they attract, retain, engage develop, deploy and lead their people.
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Restructuring
We work with a wide variety of clients and stakeholders such as high street banks, private equity funds, directors, government agencies and creditors to implement solutions which provide the best possible outcomes.
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Technology Consulting
Motivating and assisting our clients to pursue, maintain and secure the benefits of digital solutions is at the core of our Digital Transformation teams' agenda and goals. We work with business leaders to deliver efficient digital strategies and operating models that provide new or enhanced capabilities.
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Corporate and International Tax
Northern Ireland businesses face further challenges as they operate in the only part of the UK that has a land border with a country offering a lower tax rate.
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Employer Solutions
Our team specialises in remuneration and incentive planning and works closely with employers, shareholders and employees to ensure that business strategies are aligned and goals achieved in the most tax efficient, cost-effective manner.
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Entrepreneur and Private Client Taxes
Our team of experienced advisors are on hand to guide you through any decision or transaction ranging from the establishment of new business ventures, to realising value on exit, to succession planning and providing for loved ones.
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Global Mobility Services
Grant Thornton Ireland offer a different approach to managing global mobility. We have brought together specialists from our tax, global payroll, people and change and financial accounting teams across Ireland and Northern Ireland, while drawing on the knowledge and insights of our global network of over 143 offices of mobility professionals to provide you with a holistic approach to managing global mobility.
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Outsourced Payroll
Our outsourced service provides valued service to over 150 separate PAYE schemes. These ranging from 1 to 1000 employees, working for micro, SME and global employers. The service is supported by the integrated network of tax and global mobility teams and the wider Grant Thornton network delivering a seamless service. Experienced staff deliver a personal service built around your business needs.
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Tax Disputes and Investigations
Our Tax Disputes and Investigation team is made up of tax experts and former HMRC investigators who have years of experience in dealing with a variety of tax investigations. Our expertise and insight can guide you through all interactions, keeping your cost at a minimum while allowing you to continue with the day to day running of your business.
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VAT and Indirect Taxes
At Grant Thornton (NI) LLP, our team helps Northern Ireland businesses manage their UK and global indirect tax risks which, as transactional taxes, can quickly become big liabilities.
If one thing is clear, it is this: the Covid-19 pandemic has not affected all businesses alike.
For some businesses, the objective has been merely to survive. For others, due to the nature of their business, or perhaps due to an inspired new business idea, trading during the pandemic has been a roaring success. For others, the effects of the pandemic were strangely inconsequential.
In general, however, the pandemic has caused many businesses to take stock of where they are, and to rethink what the future may hold. Perhaps the business needs to go in a different direction or perhaps there is now a realistic prospect of a sale in the medium to long-term. Many business plans prepared in a pre-Covid world have simply become obsolete.
Any businesses resetting their strategies and revising their business plans, need to think carefully about their people. Crucial to this is how a business can ensure, in such uncertain times, that it is able to retain its key employees, and continue to attract the right calibre of talent.
A key tool in addressing attraction and retention is a well-designed long-term incentive plan (LTIP). An LTIP allows your key employees to share in the long-term value growth of the business. In most cases an LTIP would be forfeited if an employee chooses to leave before it crystallises, ensuring retention. Many businesses that have never had an LTIP may now need to consider implementing one, and many businesses who already have one may need to revisit theirs to make sure it remains fit for purpose.
HMRC also recognise the need for companies to have a high-calibre, well-incentivised management team, and this opens the door for certain LTIP structures to be afforded highly favoured tax treatment.
Take for example, ‘Enterprise Management Incentives’ (EMI). This is a share option scheme aimed at companies with less than 250 employees, whereby employees can be granted options to acquire shares in the company. When they eventually exercise their EMI option and sell their shares, their tax rate on the gain can be as little as 10%. In the meantime, the existing shareholders retain full control.
EMI is only one of many ideas that could be explored. The reality is that, no matter what size a company is, or the nature of the business, an LTIP can be designed that is both commercially effective, and tax efficient – the perfect combination!
As we come out of the worst of the lockdown restrictions, and we look ahead with renewed optimism, now is the perfect time to speak to your tax advisers about getting an LTIP in place.