Services

Public entities that grant subsidies are increasingly requiring that applicants provide an auditor’s report certifying that the subsidised expenses are true and necessary for the activity that has benefited from a subsidy.

At Auditing, we have extensive experience in the preparation and drafting of these reports:

• Review of the subsidised expenses.
• Analysis of the regulations applied to the subsidy.
• Verification of the parameters established for the subsidy.
• Issuance of the Special Review Report for Justified Expenses.

Conducting mandatory audits for foundations in accordance with the requirements established as per Law 50/2002 on foundations and volunteers for any non-profit organisations. Audits for receiving certain subsidies from public bodies (experimental programmes relating to labour occupation, ICEX, Social Welfare).

Economic and financial consultancy. Preparation of action plans for foundations, treasury statements, settlement of budgets and periodic presentation of financial statements.

Compliance auditing involves verifying or evaluating financial, administrative, economic and other similar operations in order to establish that the processes have been carried out in accordance with applicable legal and statutory regulations and procedures.

From the very beginning, our firm has specialised in providing tax, corporate and accounting consultancy services to non-profit organisations, particularly to foundations and associations.

Our specialisation originated from two facets, academic and professional.

At an academic level, the firm’s partners are professors at the University of Barcelona, and have directed various research studies in the fiscal treatment applied to foundations, participated in Master’s degrees and other postgraduate courses and have given conferences relating to the tertiary sector.

Within the professional field, our first contact was the consultancy services that we provided to more than twenty associations in the food sector.

Subsequently, our expertise directed its focus towards entities which assisted the physically and mentally disabled and health and science related foundations as well as NGOs.

Advisory services for the constitution of foundations and associations. Registration with public registries. Obtaining the declaration of public interest for associations. Changes of trustees and members of the Boards.

Advisory services on the special regime set forth in Law 49/2002 on non-profit organisations and on tax incentives for patronage, for foundations and associations declared to be of public interest. Request for application of the special regime. Preparation of the explanatory report. Advice on corporation tax for partially exempt organisations and on the different regimes of value added tax.

We deal with the payroll management of foundations and associations and we advise on the application of bargaining agreements, dismissals, redundancy plans of employment regularization and settlement proceedings in CEMAC.

At present, many companies have financial needs; when these companies request assistance from financial institutions, they are asked to provide these institutions with their financial information. Financial institutions prefer this information to be reviewed by an auditor, hence audits are becoming increasingly necessary, even if the company has not exceeded any of the above limits.

On the other hand, in those cases where the major shareholder is not involved in the day-to-day running of the company, an audit of the annual accounts is recommended in order to verify the accuracy of the financial information received.

The audit of financial statements refers to the review of a single financial statement and not the annual accounts in their entirety, either due to a legal obligation or a necessity of the shareholders.

A limited review includes examining the accounting results, formulating certain questions to the representatives of the company and carrying out certain analytical procedures and other review processes, providing relative certainty regarding the veracity of the information subject to review, that is, validating that such information is error free.

Sometimes the appointment of an auditor is requested directly by a Judge. In these cases, the procedures applied are the same as those of a financial statements audit, although for a different purpose.

In corporate law there are several situations in which an audit report is required, these situations usually involve capital movements.

At present special reports concerning agreed procedures are carried out by an account auditor; this is not, by definition, an accounts audit, even though these reports have to be issued by auditors registered with the Official Register of Auditors, such as, reports requested by ECOEMBES.

Our services in this area include:

• Assistance and representation in tax collection procedures:
  – Request for deferral and instalment payments of tax debts.
  – Opposition to collection procedures.
  – Asset seizures.
  – Administrative auctions.
  – Establishing guarantees to suspend a tax debt.
  – Repayments of undue income.
  – Etc.

• Assistance and representation in tax inspection procedures for individuals, self-employed workers and companies.
  Our specialists’ in-depth knowledge of these types of procedures, ensures that the result of the actions undertaken by the Administration will be as successful as possible.
  In our experience, the complexity and impact that may result from these procedures means that the support provided by our professionals is essential throughout all stages of the procedure.

Our team of lawyers who specialise in taxation have extensive experience in dealing with procedures and cases bought before the courts. In order for a company or individual to make the best decision regarding moving forward or not with a procedure of this nature, a preliminary analysis of the case by our professionals is essential.

Auditing will not continue with procedures it deems cannot have a successful outcome and will always inform its clients on the feasibility of their appeals.

According to statistics from the Tax Administration, the current figures reflect that the majority of procedures brought on by taxpayers before courts are successful.

Auditing can help you with any query you may have regarding the completion of tax returns, both for residents and non-residents.

An internal control system is the set of mechanisms, systems, procedures and standards that ensure sound and efficient management of a company. Our goal is to help businesses detect and prevent risks by analysing all the internal control procedures they have established and assessing whether they are sufficient or whether they require improvement.

Due Diligence is a critical examination and thorough review process of a company carried out by a potential buyer, with the current owner’s explicit consent, to ascertain the accuracy of the information provided in the negotiations so as to obtain an informed view on the actual situation of the company concerned. This can be carried out to varying degrees of depth and may cover a variety of areas (financial, legal, tax, labour, etc.).

The main purpose of a Due Diligence is to reduce the transaction risk by providing the potential buyer with an independent and detailed assessment of the business and reviewing the possible existence of hidden liabilities or contingencies in all areas under study or review.

We all take for granted that before buying or selling any item, no matter how small and/or ordinary it may be, we must first have a reference price that will allow us to assess whether the supply/demand that we are being offered is within the market reality, beyond our personal pretensions.

To this end, we must take into consideration the current economic reality where words and facts such as growth, synergies, internationalisation, etc., have increased operations that, until only a decade ago, were unusual in our country. These operations include the sale of companies, mergers, spin-offs of activity branches or businesses or others of a similar nature, and are carried out by applying the aforementioned criteria of knowing a reference price to allow us to start negotiating. At present, company appraisals have become increasingly necessary and have taken on significant relevance in these operations.

The service we offer aims to put to use our team of auditors’ and economists’ extensive technical expertise and professional experience in order to:

• Choose the method which is best suited to the characteristics of the property/business under appraisal.
• Make available to any person and/or company the information regarding the value of such property/business.
• Provide objective figures, thereby avoiding unrealistic market expectations.

We have a specialised team who carry out:

• Individualised studies on the economic and financial viability of any possible business investment project.
• Studies on the economic and financial viability of company restructuring, downsizing or recovery projects.

Debt restructuring is a process which modifies the terms of a financial commitment, usually in relation to terms and interest rates.

When a person, company or country has difficulties or is unable to meet the commitments they have agreed to, they can try to restructure their debt. A debt can be restructured by mutual agreement between the debtor and the creditor; when this happens, the debt is restructured to avoid debtor default or bankruptcy.

In other cases, such as when interest rates fall, the debtor can take out a new loan (at a lower rate) to pay-off the original debt (at a higher rate), thus the debtor benefits from the new low interest rate. The new debt may be taken out with the original lender or a new lender. This process also allows for modifying the repayment term in order to extend it and facilitate its repayment.

In these times, many companies find themselves forced to file for bankruptcy in order to reach agreements with all their suppliers and creditors in order to properly manage their debts.

For this process to be successful, a good feasibility plan and cashflow forecast are needed and are often complicated to prepare.

We are experts in drafting these documents based the information provided by the company concerned.

Auditing’s specialist team are particularly relevant due to their extensive experience in managing receiverships and bankruptcy procedures within companies.

Our professionals intervene as court-appointed auditors in insolvency procedures or as Trustees in bankruptcy proceedings, foreclosure of shares, company receiverships and expert reports.

Our economic, accounting and financial advisory services assist businesses in improving their performance by optimising the efficiency and effectiveness of their business management, resulting in an improvement of their profitability. We help our clients analyse and detect economic and financial problems. We are committed to finding the most appropriate solutions that are best suited to the realities and needs of the company in question.

Related topics:

• Constitution, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and company spin-offs and liquidations.
• Project financing: investment feasibility study, obtaining grants and subsidies or other types of funding.
• Budget control management / Costs studies.
• Financial planning and management plans.

Business consultancy and account management:

• Company accounting.
• Preparation and submission of financial statements and records.
• Analytical accounting.
• Preparation and submission of annual accounts and financial reports.
• Economic reports.

We realise that our services must innovate in order to meet the needs brought on by new realities. The continuous evolution of the sector in which we operate requires maximum flexibility. In this sense, Auditing has recently developed a new area of business, whose purpose is the preparation of evidence to present in court in cases involving corporate conflict.

The ultimate purpose is to seek evidence in any area of business to be presented and ratified in court.

Our team of professionals provides specialised assistance with litigation, fraud, etc., to facilitate understanding and proper handling of these situations:

• Consulting and actions for the prevention, detection and investigation of fraud.
• Reviews into regulatory compliance.
• Review of accounts and contracts.
• Preparation of expert evidence and consultancy for litigation or arbitration matters.
• Conflict resolution including arbitration and mediation.

The purpose of an expert or financial report is to clarify any doubts brought forwards by judges and to serve as a support tool for lawyers in corroborating the facts and evidence submitted.

Expert evidence has been especially helpful to judges in cases of unfair competition, white collar crimes and tax-related litigation cases, termination of contracts, etc.

Types of expert reports

There can be various types and specialities when referring to expert reports, we can prepare all those that deal with economic issues, such as:

• Determining whether there are negative economic reasons for a dismissal, Article 1 of Royal Decree 801/2011, of 10 Jun, enacting the Regulation of procedures for regulating employment and for administrative action in collective transfers.
• Determining whether an administrator is responsible for a company when found in any of the situations legally described as dissolution, Article 363 of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2010, of 2 July, enacting the redrafted text of the Spanish Corporations Law.
• An accounting expert report, when it comes to assessing an item in the Balance Sheet or Profit and Loss Account.
• The calculation of “loss of earnings” or “consequential damages”.
• Assessing the consequences of unlawful conduct of employees.

Arbitration is a procedure in which a dispute is submitted, by agreement between the parties, to an arbitrator who issues a decision on such conflict that is binding to both parties. In choosing arbitration, the parties opt for a private dispute resolution procedure rather than bringing the issue before the courts.

Arbitration can only take place if both parties have agreed to it. The parties include an arbitration clause in the contract for the possible event that a future dispute may arise from the contract into which they have entered. An existing dispute can be submitted to arbitration through a submission agreement between the parties.

Criminal Liability of legal entities was first introduced into the Spanish legal system through Statutory Law 5/2010.

Aside from their legal obligations, companies increasingly consider the need for implementing crime prevention programmes as a matter of good corporate governance and also to avoid damaging their reputation because of a criminal conviction.

By implementing a properly designed and implemented crime prevention programme a company can ensure that they avoid:

• Committing crimes.
• Prosecution and conviction, with their consequent imposition of penalties and reputational damage.
• Prosecution and conviction of its directors.

We provide our clients with comprehensive advice for the implementation of crime prevention programmes within companies.

These programmes are designed to prevent unwillingly committing crimes, damaging to the reputation of the company in the event of facing criminal charges and being convicted, prosecution and conviction of its directors and showcasing the company’s commitment to fostering good corporate governance.