PwC sends transcript to London

PwC Australia has told the senate it has forwarded extracts from Hansard to PwC International Limited to inform its global network the Australian parliament is grumpy about its failure to release the Linklaters report.

The news that the accounting firm has sent the transcript of the February 9 hearing to its global firm is contained in the latest response from PwC to questions on notice by senators Richard Colbeck, Deborah O’Neill and Barbara Pocock.

Colbeck told the firm at the February committee hearing that a report is coming at the end of the process and that it is unlikely to be flattering if the firm continues to be uncooperative and fails to produce the international report that details how local confidential information was used across the firm network.

“You’ve got a huge piece of work to do to rebuild your reputation,” Colbeck said. “There’s no plug in the sink while that document is hiding behind the wall of legal professional privilege — let me promise you that.

“That’s a commitment from, I think, all of us. This morning we’ve heard evidence that this matter is not just being discussed here in Australia. It’s of interest internationally, to taxation agencies and to oversight agencies.”

PwC Australia’s chief executive officer Kevin Burrowes told the committee he would ensure he informed the global firm of the committee’s concerns.

The firm has since provided excerpts from a publicly available transcript of a hearing webcast via parliament’s website to the private company registered in London that sets its global brand and risk management strategy.

PwC’s response to the parliamentary committee revealed that the firm had paid $659 million in taxes during the 2022-23 financial year and that the average tax rate of partners was 37%.

“We will continue to public annually the average tax rate of partners, this percentage includes all partners regardless of whether they have an Everett assignment or not,” the firm’s response says.

“We expect all of our partners to comply with Australian tax law and their tax obligations, it would be impractical to provide an accurate view on the tax effect of our partners in an Everett scheme, against those that are not, given the individual circumstances of each individual partner and those of the individuals to whom the Everett assignments have been granted.”

PwC’s answers have emerged as the firm confirmed it would make 329 roles redundant. Up to 37 partners would also be “accelerated to their retirement” over the next nine months.

It announced it was also reconfiguring its management leadership team to add a chief information officer and chief financial officer.

PwC said the changes “will result in the simplification of our enabling functions, the strategic combination of business units and a reconfiguration of the firm’s leadership team”.

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