TPB terminates former PwC CEO’s tax agent status following tax leaks failures
The TPB has terminated the registered tax agent status of former PwC CEO Tom Seymour for his conduct during the infamous PwC tax leaks scandal.
Tom Seymour, the former managing partner at PwC, was found by the Tax Practitioner’s Board (TPB) to have breached the Tax Agent Services Act (TASA) 2009 after he oversaw the PwC tax leaks scandal.
The TPB revoked his registered tax agent status and banned him from re-applying for four years, in the highest-profile sanction associated with the infamous PwC tax leaks scandal.
In 2022, it came to light that PwC’s international tax chief, Peter-John Collins, had breached confidentiality by sharing sensitive government client information on upcoming multinational tax laws, tipping off multinational clients to the new laws.
The scandal rocked the consulting industry and led to tighter code obligations and fresh breach reporting rules for tax agents.
The TPB determined that Seymour had been "senior leader of PwC Australia who had responsibility for the supervision of the firm’s senior partners and overall responsibility for the culture, policies and procedures of PwC’s Tax and Legal Services division," while the tax leaks unfolded.
TPB chair Peter de Cure said that their investigation had revealed a “culture of sharing of confidential information” in PwC.
“Despite frequent reminders in internal emails that this information was ‘confidential’ and should not be further disclosed, the practice persisted. This points to a deeply embedded culture within PwC that routinely disregarded formal confidentiality obligations,” de Cure said.
“Alarmingly, Mr Seymour, who was in a privileged position, allowed this culture to persist. Mr Seymour’s conduct has fallen short of the standards that the community would expect from a person in the profession.”
The TPB found that Seymour had breached his TASA obligations by failing to act with integrity and failing to have adequate arrangements to manage conflicts of interest that arose within PwC’s Tax and Legal services division.
More specifically, it found that Seymour failed to recognise and address a business culture which accepted and resulted in the widespread sharing of confidential information.
He also failed to manage conflicts of interest, which resulted in confidential Treasury information being shared amongst PwC partners and employees “for the purpose of assisting PwC to position itself ahead of its competitors, advance its position in the market and to expand its client base,’ the TPB found.
Seymour’s conduct had caused damage to the tax profession’s reputation and a loss of confidence in the integrity of the broader tax system, the TPB said.
“I want to assure the public the TPB is committed to upholding the highest standards of professional conduct in Australia’s tax profession and will continue to take strong action in cases of serious misconduct,” de Cure said of the decision.
The Greens welcomed the TPB's decision, but said that more should be done to deter unethical conduct, including tighter procurement controls for government contracts.
“Removing one bad apple doesn't change the organisational culture that enabled the tax scandal. The organisational culture remains, the lack of integrity remains - which is why we urgently need greater transparency and stronger procurement protections from corrupt contractors," Greens senator Barbara Pocock said.
“The Australian Greens introduced a bill last week that would allow the Commonwealth to debar dodgy contractors, like PwC, from entering into government contracts and it would deter unethical conduct."
Article updated to include the Greens' commentary.
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