TPB has no plan to suspend PwC despite leaks
It comes as leaders of the tax agent regulator fronted the Senate Economics Legislation Committee and revealed it had received thousands of documents relating to the leaks.
The TPB does not plan to suspend PwC despite the regulator revealing it had received thousands of documents related to the much-maligned firm’s tax leaks.
After being appointed as chairman of the Tax Practitioners Board last Friday (26 May), Peter de Cure fronted the Senate Economics Legislation Committee and said the regulator had imposed sanctions it found appropriate at the time and does not plan on suspending the firm.
Mr de Cure referred to the action the TBP took in January when it terminated the registration of former PwC tax partner Peter Collins for leaking confidential government tax information to other staff at the firm.
“When we completed our investigation, we went through the process of considering relevant things to impose a sanction,” said Mr de Cure.
“We imposed the sanctions on PwC that were about making sure that these problems did not occur again in the future, and we considered that to be appropriate at the time.”
“We currently have ongoing consideration of the matters surrounding the issue, and we are making some further inquiries, but we don’t have a current plan to suspend PwC.”
Mr de Cure said at the time of Mr Collins’ deregistration he demonstrated remorse for his conduct and that he did not expect him to reapply to be a tax agent even after his two-year cancellation period ended.
TPB chief executive secretary Michael O’Neill told the senate hearing that the regulator had received thousands of documents relating to the PwC leaks and other internal emails from the firm.
“On the second of April (2020), the intelligence we received was in the form of meeting with ATO colleagues,” said Mr O’Neill.
“They said to us a few things essentially: that they had copies of PwC documents that suggested unlawful disclosure that related to Mr Collins and his engagement with Treasury and that the unlawful disclosure may have involved PwC personnel and/or their clients.”
He said the TPB was compiling a detailed list of those named in the thousands of documents relating to the PwC tax leaks but cautioned that just because a person was named in the documentation did not mean they knew of Mr Collins’ confidential information leak.
“For the majority of the people on that list, we have very little or no information about what they knew at the relevant time in relation to Mr Collins’ affairs,” said Mr O’Neill.
He also revealed PwC has so far withheld the names of the nine partners Ms Stubbins said were put on leave in her open letter apology, despite the regulator requesting them, and that the regulator has opened a new investigation into the leaks.
“We are now looking at further inquiries that have a broader base than the first investigation,” Mr O’Neill said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used question time to label the action taken by PwC in leaking confidential tax information as “deeply troubling.”
“The breaches in confidentiality by PwC is an absolute scandal and it is deeply troubling,” said Prime Minister Albanese.
“I’m sure that anyone who has a look at the details that have been revealed for those events that occurred, of course, back in 2018 and around then, when PwC was giving advice to the then government on multinational tax changes, finds these revelations are shocking.”
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