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PwC tax scandal

This Month

John Green, PwC Independent non-executive Governance Board chairman at their Sydney office. John talks about his observations after six months. Sydney. March 7, 2025. Photo: Louise Kennerley AFR

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

Canberra’s addiction to consultants is unending.

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

Cate and Luke Sayers (middle) attend the 2024 Australian Open.

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.

Luke Sayers, pictured with wife Cate, is under scrutiny from the AFL.

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?

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Former PwC partner Wayne Plummer last year agreed to a financial settlement with his old firm.

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.

ATO boss Rob Heferen would be empowered to share taxpayer information more broadly, under new Treasury proposals.

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

The ATO and PwC were in a long-running battle over expansive claims before the tax scandal broke.

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.

The Fin podcast. Myriam Robin.

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.

The letters were sent from both PwC’s global general counsel Diana Weiss and current global chairman Lisa Sawicki and copied in the top global leaders in the firm as of mid-2023: global chairman Bob Moritz (from left), Asia Pacific and China chairman Raymund Chao, UK senior partner Kevin Ellis, senior US partner Tim Ryan and Europe chairman Petra Justenhoven. Only Ms Justenhoven remains in the Network leadership team.

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 retirement cuts

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.

Former PwC partner Paul McNab.

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.

ATO second commissioner Kirsten Fish will appear at CFO Live.

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.

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Populist attacks on supermarkets serve no one

Readers’ letters on attacks on Coles and Woolies; social media age bans; Archbishop of Canterbury’s resignation; a fix for high-density development; the UN climate conference; and the Senate’s financial services inquiry.

Big four

What the inquiry into the structure of the big four firms recommended

A summary of the key recommendations from the joint parliamentary inquiry into the structure of the big four consulting firms and what they mean for the sector.

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PwC settles for millions; Rex exit raised fares; Musk’s job cutters

Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.

Former PwC partners Wayne Plummer and Richard Gregg.

PwC Australia settles with three former partners for millions

The firm has entered into settlements worth millions with two partners forced to leave amid the tax leaks scandal and another former partner.

EY has the most Australian Olympians at the Paris Games.

Capping big four partnerships would ’cause great disruption’

Two conservative members of an inquiry committee that recommended capping accounting partnerships at 400 said the move would be an “extraordinary intervention” by the government.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/pwc-tax-scandal-6g22