Former PwC chief executive Luke Sayers denies knowledge of confidentiality breaches

Sayers Group boss and former PwC chief Luke Sayers says he was unaware of emails showing confidentiality breaches by the firm’s former head of international tax, Peter Collins.

Former PwC Australia chief executive Luke Sayers claims he was never told to read a trove of emails which revealed the firm’s former head of international tax Peter Collins shared confidential government tax briefings with partners at the firm.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Sayers, who ran the firm from 2012 to 2020, said he was not alerted to PwC’s misuse of confidential information during a meeting with the Australian Taxation Office in 2019 or at any time before leaving the firm.

Mr Sayers said he was not aware PwC had misused confidential information to design aggressive tax structures it pitched to clients to help them get around laws introduced in 2016 to force multinationals to pay more tax.

Mr Sayers said he 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,” he said.

Mr Sayers, who ran PwC’s tax practice before he was made CEO in 2012 but now heads his own consulting firm, Sayers Group, said he wanted to “address the commentary around my meetings with the ATO”.

“During my tenure as CEO it was public knowledge, and I knew, that the ATO was engaging with the big four in relation to multinational tax laws,” he said.

Australian Taxation Office deputy commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn. Picture: AAP

The ATO, in response to questions in parliament, revealed on Monday its deputy commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn had met Mr Sayers in 2019, advising him to “personally review the internal emails” handed over by the firm as it faced a probe into the tax structures being pitched to clients.

PwC allegedly engineered artificial partnership structures on behalf of clients, with almost the entire company held by an offshore company in a low-tax jurisdiction.

Mr Sayers said he was involved in the discussions with the ATO and took steps to “address the ATO’s concerns”.

Mr Sayers said he and other representatives of PwC met ATO officials to “discuss a number of issues relating to aggressive tax practices, promoter penalties, and claims of Legal Professional Privilege on behalf of clients of PwC”.

Mr Sayers said he “did not personally review the tens of thousands of documents and emails” PwC had provided to the ATO as part of the investigation into the firm, “nor do I recall that being suggested to me by the ATO” when he met Mr Hirschhorn.

“I was working through a number of issues with the ATO, but a breach of a confidentiality agreement was not one of them,” Mr Sayers said.

However, The Australian understands the ATO disputes this version of events.

Mr Hirschhorn is understood to have raised a range of issues with Mr Sayers in the meeting between the two.

Sources with knowledge of the meeting said the assistant tax commissioner recommended Mr Sayers read the emails to remove any suggestion he didn’t have knowledge of what had happened at PwC.

The ATO’s timeline has shown it investigated PwC over several years, issuing at least 46 notices to produce documents between 2016 and 2020.

However, PwC acting CEO Kristin Stubbins has previously said the firm only became aware of a confidentiality issue, in relation to Mr Collins, in March 2021.

PwC and the ATO battled for several years over the firm’s attempt to block access to documents, but by 2017 the ATO was growing increasingly concerned the firm’s tax strategies had been informed by confidential government documents.

The ATO had demanded PwC hand over a trove of emails detailing internal deliberations within the firm, as well as lists of clients and customers it had been seeking to target with new tax advice ­services.

The Australian understands ATO investigators picked up on references by PwC’s former head of global tax, Peter Collins, in emails to others within the firm, detailing the use of confidential information.

Mr Collins was banned from practising as a tax agent for two years after the Tax Practitioners Board found he shared confidential tax briefings with colleagues despite signing repeated deeds of confidentiality with Treasury.

Mr Sayers said he could “understand that there are questions about this matter”.

“I am available to participate as required in the reviews and processes under way,” he said.

Greens senator Barbara Pocock said it was “clear from the information” that Mr Sayers was involved in the conversation regarding the ATO’s concerns about PwC’s tax practices well before he left the firm”.

“I would welcome the opportunity to question Mr Sayers at an inquiry hearing.

“As the PwC partner at the apex of the firm throughout the whole period of the tax leaks scandal, his evidence is critical in order to get to the bottom of what went on and how it was handled by the PwC leadership,” she said.

A series of inquiries are running into PwC’s misuse of confidential information, including a probe by the Australian Federal Police and the Tax Practitioners Board.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he remained a close friend of Mr Sayers.

He said the state government had received no advice to change its arrangements in relation to his new consulting outfit, Sayers Group.

“I’m sure he’s got a rather different version of events,” Mr Andrews said.

“That will be the nature of humanity in many ways.”

The release of an ATO timeline into the tax scandal surrounding PwC comes as the audit and consulting giant is grappling with the sale of its government consulting arm to Allegro Funds for just $1, as well as installing new management under incoming CEO Kevin Burrowes.

However, PwC is also facing a court fight over its attempts to remove a number of partners from the firm in relation to their alleged misuse of confidential information and purported links to the tax scandal.

A court judgment in relation to PwC partner Richard Gregg – who has challenged attempts to remove him from the firm – is expected on Friday.

PwC declined to comment when contacted by The Australian.