This Month
Tax Practitioners Board and former PwC CEO can’t get on the same page
Tom Seymour may be trying to tick every box now, but the tax professionals watchdog isn’t helping.
EY and PwC become the outsourcers
Such is the big four’s plight in Canberra that they have started outsourcing their government dealings.
PwC spin-off Scyne Advisory to slash staff and restructure
The public sector consulting specialist now owned by Allegro Funds told employees it would cut about 10 per cent of its headcount and focus on tech work.
March
PwC spin-off Scyne loses one of its most senior executives
David Sacks said he had decided to leave the professional services industry entirely and “apply my energy to provide more leading and doing”.
PwC reaches multimillion-dollar settlement with former tax partner
The accounting and consultancy firm named Paul McNab as one of a dozen people implicated in a tax leaks scandal. He denied the allegation, and sued the firm.
Post-tax-leak PwC looks beyond profit to measure partner performance
The firm’s first independent chairman, John Green, concedes it has a way to go before it fixes a “growth at all costs” culture where rainmakers are “untouchable”.
February
PwC spin-offs feast on taxpayer consultant addiction
Granting Scyne more than $12 million in taxpayer contracts this year alone doesn’t sound like the government is cutting consultant spending.
‘Man in a hurry’: Luke Sayers’ bumpy road to the top of PwC
Before he became boss of the auditing and consulting giant, the ambitious partner was fined for behavioural breaches and apologised to a group of female partners for unspecified past behaviour.
January
Very pubic display hangs over Sayers’ PwC pension
The Melbourne man-about-town may have been forced to quit the Carlton presidency, but his friends are still in overdrive on damage control.
Lewd photo scandal sparks AFL investigation for Melbourne’s Mr Teflon
Is this how Luke Sayers, PwC’s youngest CEO and the head of one of Melbourne’s most popular football clubs, finally comes undone?
Disciplinary body drops investigation into former PwC tax partner
CA ANZ has discontinued an investigation into Wayne Plummer, but says other former partners are still being investigated.
Government floats loosening ATO secrecy on money-laundering, takeovers
The proposals are the latest in the government’s ongoing response to the PwC tax leaks scandal.
December 2024
Harsher penalties urged for PwC-style false privilege claims
The changing nature of law firms is making privilege claims more difficult to determine, a federal government discussion paper says.
Rear Window’s year in review: scoops, scandals, and power plays
This week on The Fin podcast, Rear Window editor Myriam Robin on the megalomaniac trying to solve Australia’s housing crisis, the column’s scoop of the year and the Clubland rebellion.
What Defence spent on consultants could run submarine fleet for a year
What would Defence’s $811 million in spending on the big five consulting firms in 2022-23 buy? Turns out the answer is quite a lot.
PwC in talks to offload insolvency unit to Teneo
Insolvency teams have a long history of moving in and out of the big four firms as they become frustrated at being constantly conflicted out of work.
Why PwC global put its own man in to run PwC Australia
PwC International parachuted in UK partner Kevin Burrowes to run the Australian firm after becoming frustrated with the local firm’s “failure to co-operate”.
November 2024
PwC Australia to cut payments to retired partners by at least 25pc
About 700 former partners will have their retirement payments cut after profits dropped due to hundreds of partners leaving after the tax leaks scandal.
PwC sues ex-partner Paul McNab over tax leaks scandal
The firm is suing him back and claiming he was personally responsible for the massive financial damage the scandal has wrought on the accounting giant.
Tax Office tells CFOs to question their lawyers and accountants
Businesses should learn from the PwC tax scandal by testing the tax advice of accountants and lawyers to avoid being shamed in public, the ATO says.