PwC tax scandal raises question for global firm
PwC’s global firm knew about the tax leaks scandal unfolding in Australia two years before its local affiliate informed the powerful US regulator that oversees the consulting giant.
Revelations in the Senate inquiry into consulting on Tuesday raise questions about whether PwC Global should have notified theUS Public Company Accounting Oversight Board of the investigation by the Tax Practitioner’s Board.
The TPB was investigating how the Australian firm used leaked Treasury documents obtained by former partner Peter Collins to market tax avoidance schemes to US tech giants including Google, Microsoft and Uber.
Tax Practitioners Board CEO Michael O’Neill and chair Peter de Cure: PwC received feedback from US clients after notices to produce in mid-2021. Alex Ellinghausen
The Senate hearing also heard that last Wednesday PwC provided the TPB with nine tranches of documents prepared by King and Wood Mallesons and Allens/Linklaters covering each of nine partners who were forced to leave the firm in June over the tax leaks scandal.
This coincides with a decision by the TPB to elevate inquiries into a formal investigation of one former partner.
TPB chairman Peter de Cure said an enormous amount of information had to be sorted through first, and “of the nine partners, it may well be that seven of them have a formal investigation and two don’t or two do and seven don’t, but we’ve got to go through all of the information in an orderly fashion to find the right course”.
The tranches included reports on each partner compiled by the two law firms that PwC has engaged to review its conduct of the leaks, as well as documentary evidence on which the reports were based.
It’s believed that the nine former PwC partners were unaware that
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