Repeated efforts by the Australian Tax Office to convince federal police to investigate PwC in 2018 failed because it did not have “the investigative powers” to secure key evidence.
For the first time the ATO has published a detailed timeline of the PwC scandal that confirms years of frustration at the firm allegedly withholding information about how it helped multinational companies avoid paying tax.
The timeline, which has been provided to a Senate committee, reveals that in August 2016 the ATO’s second commissioner, Jeremy Hirschhorn, directly raised his concerns with then-PwC chief executive, Luke Sayers, about concerns the firm was helping clients avoid multinational tax laws.
At another meeting two years later, it is alleged, Hirschhorn suggested Sayers “personally review the internal emails” that revealed how confidential tax policy information was shared within the firm.
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The ATO also alleges that in February 2020 Hirschhorn told Sayers “PwC should ensure that it is fully abreast of the range of concerns the ATO has had with PwC’s Tax Group’s behaviour”.
In a statement, Sayers said he did not recall the ATO suggesting he read the internal emails.
“I did not personally review the tens of thousands of documents and emails which PwC provided to the ATO as part of these processes, nor do I recall that being suggested to me by the ATO,” Sayers said.
“I was not aware of the existence of a confidentiality agreement signed by Peter Collins until I read about it in the media this year. I regret that I did not know about the breach of it earlier as I would have taken firm action.”
The timeline was released in response to questions from the Labor senator Deborah O’Neill, who was critical of the firm for not acting until the scandal was made public this year. She accused the firm of being aware of alleged misconduct “for years” and doing “nothing to censure those who participated, or to meaningfully reform the culture of their organisation”.
PwC did not respond to O’Neill’s allegations but instead referred to an internal investigation being led by former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski, which is expected to be released in full in September. The firm’s senior executive team has already apologised for misusing confidential tax policy information, which was passed to partners working for multinational companies in the US.
A PwC spokesperson said: “We have also announced plans to divest our state and federal government business, exited those who have been found to have done the wrong thing as a result of our ongoing investigation into confidentiality breaches, ended political donations and installed new leadership, including announcing plans to appoint independent, non-executive directors to the PwC Australia governance board.”
The timeline also reveals the ATO first suspected former PwC parter Peter Collins had shared confidential tax…
2023-08-08 02:06:54
Source from www.theguardian.com