More industry-specific skills are needed

On the occasion of an interview for Italia Oggi – one of the main economic and legal Italian newspapers – Giuseppe Bernoni, founding and managing partner of Bernoni Grant Thornton, shows future prospects of consultancy and the need of a higher specialization: «If I had to advise young people on how to prepare to become accountants, I would tell them to specialise and practice in an associated firm offering different specialised services, as well as learn to work in team. Our profession has become more and more complex and companies, especially large and international ones, are increasingly looking for highly specialised services, so that today skills needed concern not only major service lines, but also industries.»

Giuseppe Bernoni also expresses the need for more clarity in the application of the new law on professional companies. In fact, after more than 50 years, Bernoni Grant Thornton is still a professional “associate firm”, and not a professional company (Società tra professionisti – Stp): «The problem is that after four years from the implementing decree of the Ministry of Justice[1], the tax and social contribution landscape is still indefinite, i.e. the tax treatment of the new Stp, as well as the charges deriving from the transformation from an associate firm are unclear.