For international businesses, Australia remains an exciting and stable market for a range of industries and investments, where expansion opportunities are vast, and return on investment secure.

Many organisations – from established global players to fast-growing businesses tapping into a new jurisdiction for the first time – find great success from doing business in Australia.

What also makes Australia an appealing market for growth is that the set-up or presence of a finance or accounting function is not required in the traditional head office sense. Businesses are able to operate and trade in the country by purely dedicating internal resources, roles and functions on your core products and services.

Our Grant Thornton outsourced accounting services team works with international businesses looking to Australia for their investments and plans, who are not yet ready – now or ever – to build a finance function. We take care of your initial and ongoing regulatory, governance and finance requirements.

We know what it takes to do business in Australia from the outset: including setting up and building tax-efficient and optimised structures, dealing with lenders, regulators and other stakeholders, navigating visa and FIRB issues, managing premises, even market studies around the viability of your plans.

We act as a third-party partner to the business on your day-to-day finance and accounting needs – including tax and GST and other regulatory obligations, as well as forecasting, budgeting and financial reporting. We can scale up and down our offering as you look to grow or diversify and develop tailored annualised or periodic reporting for your regional, or global parent companies.

Accessing our national and global network

Grant Thornton has offices across Australia in Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. We take a national approach to our tax, accounting and advisory services, which means wherever your business is operating, you have access to complete and consistent support.

Our global Grant Thornton network, which includes more than 56,000 people working across over 140 countries, means you have access to experts working in the jurisdictions in which you want to do business. By engaging with our Grant Thornton team, through a single point of contact, you receive a relationship leader who can bridge the gap, connecting you to the right people, teams and resources you need to make your international strategy a success.

Our services

Setup
  • Structuring advice to determine the most appropriate structure
  • Company or Branch setup including all tax, business and payroll related registrations
  • Appointment of local director
  • Assistance with local bank account setup
  • Application for audit relief and substituted accounting period (if required)
  • Setup of local accounting and payroll system
Compliance & operational
  • Statutory compliance – the range of compliance obligations, including income tax returns, payroll, superannuation, GST, FBT, payroll tax and corporate secretarial matters
  • Bookkeeping & back office – your back office & bookkeeping to provide a seamless and cost-effective solution for all your needs
  • Cash flow management, budgeting & forecasting – a solution to budgeting and cash flow issues which allow you to make effective and timely decisions as you expand your Australian operations
  • Management reporting – a range of reports for you using the latest cloud technology to yield actionable insights - this can be tailored to meet your group reporting requirements
  • Statutory & internal audit – when your business has grown in Australia and requires a review of internal controls, systems and risk we can help as well as providing a statutory audit when required
Collaboration
  • Partnerships – connecting you with our network of clients and contacts to develop key partnerships to enable growth in your business in Australia
  • Advisors – connecting you with our network of handpicked advisors who have deep expertise to collaborate with us on solving problems for you quickly, anything from immigration visas, insurances, payroll and workplace legal, we know the best people to help you
Specialist services
  • Tax advisory – international tax, transfer pricing and advisory services to help realise an effective tax solution when things get complicated
  • R&D and government incentives – R&D tax offset claim and identify opportunities for government incentives
  • Employee share schemes – incentivise employees with options or shares as a substitute for other monetary rewards
  • Technology development and consulting – develop, implement and review technology strategies, systems and processes aligned with your business goals
  • Human capital – review your current organisational structure to ensure you have the right talent, leadership and culture to execute your strategy
  • International expansion – we provide a gateway to global resources, offering our clients the specialist services they require while operating as a hub for global communications, strategy and regionally focused business expertise
Raj Deepan
Partner
Raj Deepan
Get in touch
Partner & Head of Private Business Tax & Advisory - Melbourne
Michael Skinner
Michael Skinner
Partner & Head of Private Business Tax & Advisory - Melbourne
Michael Skinner

Get in touch

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