Read our insights, reports and more

Some of you of a certain age reading this post will remember in the mid-1980s, the representation of an Artificial Intelligence character called Max Headroom. (For those of you a little younger, look for Max Headroom in an Internet search engine). The background story provided for the Max Headroom character in his original appearance comes from a concept of a future dominated by television and large corporations.

I am frequently challenged that cash equivalents at the year-end should include those financial assets that have reached a maturity of less than three months at the year-end date, having had a somewhat longer maturity when first acquired. How wrong the understanding!

A stock-taking or physical inventory performed in a quality manner gives the heads of all units in a company assurance that financial statements and databases present a true and fair view of assets and inventories in stock. Periodic stock-taking is also quite effective for preventing fraud.

Although planning and goal-setting takes place both in the long term and monthly (or at least quarterly) basis, the question becomes an urgent one for management at a time when the next year’s goals and action plans have to be drawn up. Budgeting is very closely connected to strategic planning. Through this manner, accountants and financial analysts have a direct role in the organisation’s development.

Companies that follow IFRS accounting standards were required to make the transition to recognizing and accounting for operating lease agreements according to new principles at the latest starting from reporting periods commencing on 1 January 2019.

An annual audit is an indispensable resource for obtaining assurance that a company’s financial statements and accounting is free from material misstatements. One of the most important preconditions for productive cooperation between auditor and the company is adherence to deadlines and being ready for the audit at the agreed time.

Stock-taking quality depends on preparation for and performing of the physical inventory. In the following, I will provide an overview of what to devote attention to while performing it.

For several years now, new thresholds have been in force for auditing annual reports, which exempted many companies from the obligation to have their annual reports audited. From the company’s viewpoint, it may seem a good solution to be rid of the audit or review obligation: less work and financial expense. Yet the other side of the coin should be considered – what do the company and the public have to lose?

Although technology has an important role in preventing cyber attacks, companies are neglecting an equally important means of preventing cyber threats from realising: their employees. The results of a recent study by Grant Thornton showed that the weakest link of cyber defence was overreliance on technology to protect personal data.

This Briefing Paper provides insight into the latest VAT and Customs developments for both importers and exporters of goods and services in a ‘no-deal’ scenario.

Often accountants face the question: “What is and what isn’t a source document from the standpoint of accounting, and is a source document always necessary, for example at a one-man company?”

Enterprises conducting transactions with related parties, such as companies in the same group or persons related to the owners of the company, must take into consideration domestic and international transfer pricing rules. The idea of transfer pricing rules is to prevent related persons from agreeing to sell each other goods and services at lower or higher than market price, thereby also transferring profit and income tax base.

This year we have again reason to eat birthday cake: It Is the 15th anniversary of the opening of Grant Thornton Baltic’s Tartu office. But time has moved on and a new question has now come up, and that is, whether the existence of a physical office is important at all in the age of email and cloud services?

A local government has the obligation to organize internal audit activities. This can be done by outsourcing internal auditor services or by hiring an internal auditor. In the latter case, the requirements in laws and professional standards for internal auditors must be considered.

The calculation of tax-exempt income changed in 2018. To avoid the obligation to pay additional income tax on the basis of tax returns, more attention must be paid to which categories of income are counted toward taxable annual income. One taxable type of income is the parental benefit, which will be calculated under new principles starting 1 September of this year.

ISS Eesti AS is the largest facility management and technical maintenance services and second largest cleaning services’ company in Estonia, whose customers include retail chains, educational institutions and large office and production buildings. Grant Thornton Baltic advised investors on the acquisition of ISS Estonia's business.