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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.
Our local councils were not in a strong financial position before the Covid-19 crises struck. Analysis of each council’s finances suggested all 11 councils were carrying debt ranging from £6m to £80m. Total debt across all councils was calculated as just over half a billion pounds. The economic shutdown then starved our 11 local authorities of significant income, as rates holidays, closures of leisure and civic centres, and a considerable drop off in use of council car parks impacted on revenue. One estimate suggested that councils here were burning through approximately £10m a month, and some analysis was raising the prospect that insolvency in some councils was not beyond the realm of possibility.
For many, thoughts of your local council might not extend far beyond which colour of bin goes out this week, or a trip to the leisure centre, but the remit of councils reaches into large swathes of our daily lives, and large parts of our economy. This is perhaps most evident in the economic development role our councils play, and the various city/growth deals that have been announced in recent times. There is approximately £1.2bn that has recently been allocated across Northern Ireland for infrastructure, regeneration, and tourism projects. Pushing that money to the right projects and delivering them effectively and efficiently will take a considerable effort by councils and their partners. Given this, and given the financially precarious situation our councils are in, is it time we gave serious thought as to how our councils work, and what they work on? After a ‘bedding in’ term of our new councils, is it now time to see some aggressive business transformation undertaken?
As Councils emerge from the Covid-19 crisis, there is an opportunity to revisit core purposes. Two things that should be front of mind are:
1) Hold on to what has worked: In responding to COVID-19, many organisations have achieved new levels of local collaboration and community empowerment. Councils must quickly identify, reinforce and retain the positive behaviours and practices learned during their response, and consider where collaboration would be more cost effective and impactful.
2) Stop doing things that others can do: Leaders must create time and space to make sense of a forensic, line by line review of expenditure, and understand why it is needed - could it be done differently/better? Is anyone else already doing it?
Places and organisations are unlikely to return to how things were before the Covid-19 pandemic. Ultimately, lower growth will be mirrored by lower incomes and lower wellbeing – impacting the day-to-day lives of residents. It will fall to councils, through the community planning process, to create a new long-term vision for their places. To do so effectively, they need to be lean and fit for purpose.