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Corporate Finance and Deal Advisory
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Grant Thornton offers solutions to the digital risk issues you are sure to face. Our skilled and experienced security team can helping by advising and consulting, giving you peace of mind, clear value for money and an enhanced ability to react to attacks.
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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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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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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 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.
Throughout Northern Ireland working parents have started to exercise their new entitlements to enjoy Shared Parental Leave (‘SPL’) and Shared Parental Pay (ShPP). “Whilst some employers have reacted to these changes many are yet to develop plans to ensure their business can cope with the additional choices available to employees with children.”
Those with specific parental responsibility (whether birth or adoption), have a pool of shared parental leave (SPL) and Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) that they can utilise. This “Shared Parental Leave and Pay” is not in any way a replacement of the underlying statutory provisions for maternity or adoption, but runs alongside those provisions since April 2015, adding choice and flexibility to the delivery of benefits. Statutory Paternity Pay and leave is unaffected.
In practice
In practice, an eligible mother or adopter may now choose to reduce their maternity/adoption leave and opt into SPL. The remaining leave will be available as SPL and the remaining weeks of pay will be available as ShPP. Partners, if eligible for SPL, can share the remaining leave. For example, a partner could begin to take SPL while a mother is still on maternity/adoption leave.
The eligibility criteria are a little complex. To qualify for Shared Parental Leave (SPL), an employee must share the care of the child with either a husband, wife, civil partner or joint adopter, the child's other parent, or a partner. In addition, the employee must have been employed continuously for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the due date and be employed by the same employer while you take SPL.
In the case of the partner, they become eligible if during the 66 weeks before the baby is due the partner has been working for at least 26 weeks in total and earned at least £30 a week on average in 13 of the 66 weeks.
Although Shared Parental Leave and Pay has been around for over a year the uptake remains low in NI and beyond. As awareness grows, it will forever change the landscape for employers. As a first step employers should consider a review of employee terms and conditions, the introduction of new policies and a briefing for Finance/Payroll staff on new procedures to be applied.
Working parents
To potentially complicate matters further, the then Chancellor George Osborne indicated his intention to extend the measure to include working grandparents. The consultation for this measure is scheduled, with legislation planned for 2018. If enacted this will be another change for employers to adopt and embrace.
Employers will need to plan around these choices to minimise impact on operations and ensure that the administration of the pay and leave is correct. At a strategic level, employers will need to be flexible to plan for and to accommodate additional employee absences in the normal course of business.