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Audit of annual and consolidated financial statements
Objectivity, expertise and experience are crucial when it comes to assurance services. And above all developing a strong working relationship with our clients is the foundation of our service approach.
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Assurance related advisory services
Assurance related advisory services are based on the knowledge and expertise that are the staff of life of our auditors.
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Global audit technology
We apply our global audit methodology through an integrated set of software Tools.
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Accounting related consulting
Accounting in accordance with UGB, US-GAAP or IFRS is in constant motion. The integration of new regulations into their own accounting systems poses special challenges for companies.
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Corporate Taxes
Experts at Grant Thornton Unitreu have many years of experience and provide the full spectrum of tax services. They are familiar with the specifics of the Austrian market in all aspects of tax and economic law. Tax consultants at Grant Thornton Unitreu take pride in developing and concluding effective and individual solutions.s.
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International Tax
Our teams have in-depth knowledge of the relationship between domestic and international tax laws.
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Transfer pricing
The laws surrounding transfer pricing are becoming ever more complex, as tax affairs of multinational companies are facing scrutiny from media, regulators and the public
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Value Added Tax (VAT)
Experts at Grant Thornton Unitreu have many years of experience and provide the full spectrum of tax services. They are familiar with the specifics of the Austrian market in all aspects of tax and economic law. Tax consultants at Grant Thornton Unitreu take pride in developing and concluding effective and individual solutions.s.
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Private Wealth
Our experienced Private Wealth Team distinguishes itself through its long-term and trustworthy advice to private clients, owner-managed companies and private foundations.
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Real Estate Consulting
Real estate, buy-side tax due diligence when purchasing real estate by (i) acquiring shares in real estate companies (share deal) or by (ii) purchasing real estate directly (asset deal)
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Global Mobility Services
Assignment management is a task with many aspects and many contact persons. For successful expatriate management you need not only a local tax consultant, but a network, which successfully cooperates across borders. Grant Thornton has member companies in more than 130 countries with Global Mobility experts who regularly exchange information.
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Bookkeeping & Financial accounting
Financial accounting is the basis for many decisions in the company. Only those who prepare their figures clearly and get a good overview of their company can recognize weak points in time and react to negative developments. The use of state-of-the-art software (BMD) allows you to access your figures at any time. Digital document management and a document management system for data archiving are a matter of course. We take care of your financial accounting.
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Preparation of annual & consolidated financial statements
Depending on the size of your company and the legal form chosen, you are obliged to prepare annual financial statements. In addition, shareholders, owners and management want to be provided with financial information on a regular basis. We support you in fulfilling your recording obligations and thus ensure that you present companies, the bank and other addressees with meaningful and reliable figures.
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Payroll Services
Payroll services are among the subject areas that are changing rapidly and constantly gaining in complexity. This is where tax law, social security law, labour law, residence law and other legal matters come together. Our experts will help your team to stay up-to-date and solve complex issues. But we are also happy to take care of your entire payroll accounting.
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Tax Compliance
Tax authorities keep entrepreneurs and freelancers constantly engaged with tax issues, so they play a central role in almost every business decision. Depending on your needs, our services range from the preparation of tax returns, the execution of tax calculations with a thorough review of the data as a basis for assessment, to international tax compliance for several countries.
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Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a software-based technology that mimics a series of activities within and between systems based on a set of instructions typically to complete a process.
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Valuation
Our business consulting services can help you improve your operational performance and productivity, adding value throughout your growth life cycle.
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Transaction Support
We can support you throughout the transaction process – helping achieve the best possible outcome at the point of the transaction and in the longer term.
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Merger & Acquisition
M&A, Merger & Acquisition
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Restructuring & Going Concern Forecast
Recovery & Reorganization
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IT Audit
Increasing networking and digitalisation are bringing about far-reaching changes in the business world. Modern accounting is no longer conceivable without complex IT systems. At the same time, however, this also increases the risks for companies, especially when handling data. Confidentiality, availability and integrity of data are central security requirements that must also be met with regard to the correctness of IT-supported accounting. Our IT auditors are experts in operational IT operations and develop targeted measures for you to counteract risks and to check the security and reliability of your IT systems.
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Internal Audit
Internal Audit helps companies and organisations to achieve their goals by analysing and evaluating the effectiveness of risk management, controls and management and monitoring processes. Internal Audit focuses on independent and objective audit (assurance) and consulting services that improve the value creation and business activities of your company.
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Special Attestation
At present, practically all types of IT services can be outsourced to service providers. Advancing technological developments, especially the possibilities for virtualizing server systems, are a major driver for companies to increasingly outsource IT services. Frequently, nested outsourcing structures can also be found in which service companies outsource certain IT services to subcontractors.
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Expert dispute resolution & advisory
Grant Thornton Austria offers comprehensive services in the field of business-oriented expert services with a broad range of competencies from banking to communication. The core activity of experts is the objective recording of findings and the preparation of expert opinions - regardless of all external circumstances. Our experts Gottwald Kranebitter and Georg H. Jeitler, as sworn and court-certified experts, ensure that the highest professional standards and the principle of objectivity are observed.
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Crisis Management
Crisis Management
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Blockchain & Crypto-Assets
Blockchain as a carrier technology for crypto currencies and smart contracts, among other things, is becoming increasingly important. Grant Thornton Austria offers comprehensive audit and confirmation services for block chain technologies and business models.
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Corporate & Brand Strategy
We can support you throughout the transaction process – helping achieve the best possible outcome at the point of the transaction and in the longer term.
Nathan Goode applauds the energy saving blueprint from Japan
We asked the 3,500 business leaders who responded to our latest Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) a new question in Q4-2013: Do you expect rising energy costs to constrain the growth of business over the next 12 months? More than a third of businesses said yes, making it the second largest concern businesses have for 2014 behind only economic uncertainty. You can view the full results here but I wanted to explain in more detail what I think this means for the cleantech sector.
In the long-term, renewables have the potential to flatten energy costs for both businesses and consumers. However, in the short-term, renewable energy tends to be expensive and requires government subsidies to make it investible. For example, the UK Government has offered a price of £155 ($250) per megawatt hour for offshore wind energy; around three times the current wholesale price of electricity.
Energy costs account for significant and rising chunks of both household and business outlays. Understandably, consumers and companies are clamouring for lower prices now. But this acts as a major disincentive for governments to take the long term perspective needed to support the move to greener energy sources. In Europe, the EU has recently announced a proposed 40% cut in emissions by 2030, which includes an EU-wide target of 27% renewables, but at the time of writing it was not clear how this would be translated into national targets, potentially giving less willing nations plenty of wriggle room. The EU has also announced a target of 25% energy efficiency, but, significantly, this is described as non-binding, implying that it is harder not to use energy than to find new technologies to generate it. This seems counter-intuitive, to say the least.
The global picture on energy costs is far from uniform. In Japan, where nuclear provided 30% of the electricity supply before the Fukushima disaster, four in five businesses are now worried about the rising cost of energy. By contrast, this is a concern for just one in seven businesses in the United States, where the shale revolution has actually lowered energy costs for many businesses. In Europe, it is telling that businesses in Germany (36%), where the government is phasing out nuclear, are much more concerned with rising energy costs than peers in the UK (22%), where new stations such as Hinkley Point are being commissioned, although politicians in the UK appear to fear the political fallout from rising costs just as much as their German counterparts. Equally interesting are the Nordics: just 4% of businesses in oil and hydro-rich Norway are worried about increased energy costs; while only 12% of businesses in Finland are, which is has no fossil fuel resources but significant amounts of nuclear power, hydro and biomass.
So what’s the answer? Firstly, use less energy. Post-Fukushima, Japan’s government introduced stringent energy conservation measures, including a 15% reduction in energy usage for buildings of a certain size and 30% for large corporates.
The results were impressive and show how relatively simple measures can help reduce energy consumption and therefore lighten the associated cost burden. Slashing funding for renewable energy is a short-term, populist measure which will mean higher costs for businesses and consumers in the long-term. But governments will help the case for renewables by also getting serious about energy efficiency, alongside, of course, a balanced low carbon energy mix, which gets a whole lot harder without nuclear.
Nathan Goode is global leader for energy & cleantech at Grant Thornton.