GT and Topia team to deliver tax offerings for remote

SAN FRANCISCO and CHICAGO — Grant Thornton LLP, a leading U.S. professional-services firm with a global member firm network, and Topia, a leader in global workforce and talent mobility software solutions, are teaming to bring their distinct service offerings to clients. Working together, Grant Thornton and Topia can help organizations more efficiently manage domestic and international regulatory, tax and compliance issues associated with distributed, remote and hybrid workforces — and business travel.

Grant Thornton will pair its decades of experience in tax and compliance services for global workforces with Topia’s hybrid workforce-management technology, including its industry-leading Topia Compass application built atop the Topia One platform. Topia’s technology provides critical employee work-location data analytics combined with compliance-focused workflows and automation.

By bringing together Grant Thornton’s tax and advisory services with Topia’s software-automation solutions, organizations should be able to more easily and efficiently manage complex issues such as international employer tax risk, state and local tax payroll withholding obligations, permanent establishment and nexus. Grant Thornton and Topia can also help companies solve broader business strategy and operational issues stemming from hybrid workforces with employees working in many more locations. For example, they can help align employee locations to a company’s strategy and real-estate decisions.

“Hybrid working arrangements have become, and will continue to be, the new norm for many employers; however, this has caused cross-border regulations to increase in complexity, resulting in significant compliance exposures and risks for businesses across the globe,” said Richard Tonge, Human Capital Services principal at Grant Thornton. “Activities such as payroll withholding, tax compliance and statutory reporting were straightforward when employees worked in the same offices every day. Now, with today’s remote employees, the increased fluidity across local, state and international borders means compliance is far more difficult — it pushes finance, tax and payroll teams to proactively manage employees’ work locations to adhere to regulatory requirements. In short, businesses need to develop a successful hybrid work strategy.”

According to Tonge, Topia’s technology solutions can provide organizations with “clear, actionable and real-time data insights and analytics necessary to embrace hybrid working models while avoiding business risks.” He explains that with Grant Thornton’s extensive experience and its network of global member firms, “organizations can more easily adapt to a remote and flexible future of work.”

“Welcoming Grant Thornton into the rapidly-growing Topia ecosystem as a strategic tax services provider for companies using the Topia technology platform means our customers can benefit from Grant Thornton’s proven ability to help organizations shift to more flexible and mobile work arrangements,” said Anupam Singhal, SVP Strategic Partnerships at Topia. “Grant Thornton will help us expand the value of the Topia One platform and provide our customers with critical tax and compliance services to contend with the new remote-work environment.”

Nishant Mittal, SVP and GM Business Travel at Topia, summed up the relationship this way: “Grant Thornton is a trusted professional-services provider in the U.S. and internationally with its network of member firm organizations, which is why collaborating with the firm makes such good sense.”

To learn more about Grant Thornton’s global mobility offerings, visit www.grantthornton.com/globalmobility. To learn more about Topia Compass, visit www.topia.com/compass.

About Grant Thornton

“Grant Thornton” is the brand for two professional-services entities: Grant Thornton LLP, a licensed, certified public accounting (CPA) firm that provides audit and assurance services ― and Grant Thornton Advisors LLC (not a licensed CPA firm), which exclusively provides non-attest offerings, including tax and advisory services. With revenues of $2.4 billion for the fiscal year that ended July 31, 2023, and dozens of offices nationwide, Grant Thornton represents a community of almost 10,000 problem solvers, relationship builders, and industry specialists who know that how we serve matters as much as what we do.

Grant Thornton LLP, Grant Thornton Advisors LLC and their respective subsidiaries operate as an alternative practice structure (APS). The APS conforms with applicable laws, regulations and professional standards, including those from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Grant Thornton LLP and Grant Thornton Advisors LLC serve as the U.S. member firms of the Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL) network. GTIL and its member firms are not a worldwide partnership and all member firms are separate legal entities. Member firms deliver all services; GTIL does not provide services to clients.

About Topia

Topia is the leader in Global Talent Mobility. We empower companies to deploy, manage and engage employees anywhere in the world. Topia’s data-driven platform enables organizations to deliver mobility as part of a broader talent strategy encompassing all types of employee movement — remote and distributed workforces, business travel, and more traditional relocations and assignments. This drives enhanced employee experiences and competitive advantage by ensuring the right people are in the right place at the right time, while staying compliant no matter where they are. The Topia platform automates the entire global talent mobility process, including scenario-based planning, expat payroll, tax and immigration compliance, reporting and more. Topia powers global talent mobility programs for world-renowned brands such as Schneider Electric, Dell, Veolia, Equinor and AXA. Topia has raised over $100M from NewView Capital (formerly New Enterprise Associates), Notion Capital and others, and is a global company with offices throughout the Americas and EMEA. For more information, visit www.topia.com and follow Topia on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.