Former PwC partner who leaked Australian tax plans sought to tap Irish contacts

PwC’s Irish business has been dragged into the fallout over the leaking of confidential information by a former partner at the Big Four accountancy network’s Australian unit.

Former PwC Australia tax partner Peter-John Collins, who was banned in January from practising as a tax agent after sharing confidential information about Canberra’s plans to clamp down on multinational tax avoidance, sought to tap PwC Ireland’s contacts with technology companies in the United States to share his insights.

That is according to information contained in partially redacted internal PwC emails released last week by an Australian senate committee which is looking into the matter.

The emails showed how PwC Australia used confidential information provided by Mr Collins to win new business by advising clients on Australian anti-tax-avoidance rules before they were announced.

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Mr Collins was a member of an advisory group involved in discussions with Australia’s treasury department and had signed strict confidentiality agreements over briefings that took place between 2013 and 2018.

The released emails show that on April 17th, 2015, Mr Collins wrote to a colleague at PwC Ireland, whose identity has been blacked out, saying he was helping the Australian government “think about” tax proposals that he expected to be released in the country’s then forthcoming budget.

[ Former PwC partner banned for two years in Australia for leaking information ]

“There may be a few other items which will be of interest to IT companies too but no final decision has been made at this point about any of these proposals,” he wrote.

“I understand that you work closely with a number of companies in this sector but my experience has been that our relationships in this sector are patchy in the US. I just wanted to check if there is anyone you know in our network who I should chat to in relation to these measures; both from a perspective of learning from experiences elsewhere and/or helping these companies (if they need any) understand any new Australian rules.”

The PwC Ireland individual – whom the firm declined to name when asked by The Irish Times – responded in an email, copied to two other PwC Ireland staff members, that they had been following developments in Australia and suggested a “chat” the following week.

The are no details of any follow-up in the released email chain. There are also no suggestions that anyone at PwC Ireland was aware that Mr Collins was seeking to share information that was the subject of confidentiality agreements.

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A spokeswoman for PwC Ireland declined to say whether the firm had given Mr Collins a list of multinational tech companies that might be interested in his insights, or whether the firm had looked into the communications between the Irish practice and Mr Collins. The Republic is the European headquarters of a host of US tech giants.

Other emails were sent by Mr Collins to PwC network colleagues in Australia, the UK and the US, according to the Australian senate committee release.

Australia’s treasury department states on its website that it is “leading the global fight against multinational tax avoidance and is cracking down on taxpayer tax evasion with a number of reforms” announced as part of its 2016-2017 budget. However, accountancy firms have allegedly helped their clients find ways to minimise the impact of the rules.

An email circulated between PwC Australia staff members in January 2016 celebrated $2.5 million of project wins in the US that were “heavily helped by the accuracy of the intelligence that Peter Collins was able to supply”. It added that PwC Australia had worked with PwC US, PwC Singapore and PwC Netherlands on new business.

PwC Australia’s chief executive, Tom Seymour, resigned earlier this week after it emerged that he was among dozens of partners at the firm who received emails about confidential information obtained by Mr Collins.

Mr Seymour reportedly told PwC Australia partners that while he and another 30-40 partners had received the emails and were aware of a plan to use information on tax reforms to pitch to clients, he and the others in this group were not aware the intelligence was confidential.