Look What PwC Made the Australian Government Have to Do
The Australian government released exposure draft legislation yesterday in response to “the PwC matter” and the funniest part is the special email they made to receive comments: [email protected]. Not ConsultingReponse or Sept23TaxReform, specifically PwCResponse. In four separate exposure drafts that amend the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (TAA) and/or the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA), […]
Disgraced PwC Partner Who Got Forced Out Forgot to Mention the Disgrace in His Farewell LinkedIn Post
In what must surely be an oversight, mandatorily retired PwC Australia partner Peter van Dongen (again, great name) neglected to mention that he was forced out of the firm, saying he “agreed with PwC to bring forward my planned retirement by a few months.” AFR columnist Joe Aston writes: A month ago, embattled consultancy giant […]
PwC’s Mandated Conflict of Interest eLearning AKA a BuzzFeed Quiz on Ethics and Integrity
Which Tax Practitioners Board Code of Conduct violation are you? It seems that’s the question PwC Australia is trying to answer in its new conflict of interest training, born out of the absolute shitstorm that began years ago when former partner Peter Collins leaked confidential information he’d received about upcoming Australian tax legislation in consultation […]
PwC Australia Spammed Government Offices to Sell Solutions to Problems They Weren’t Supposed to Know About
The fallout from the PwC tax leak saga continues, this time it’s public servants complaining that PwC pursued and pestered them with unsolicited emails trying to sell them solutions based on information they weren’t supposed to have. Internal emails released by the Aussie agriculture department show one partner had no problem revealing they had insider […]
Fuel Up the Bus, PwC Australia Has Named and Shamed Eight Partners Tied to the Tax Leak Scandal
When PwC Australia CEO Tom Seymour stepped down in May after it was confirmed he’d received tainted emails containing confidential government tax intel leaked by former partner Peter Collins, it seems the firm hoped sacrificing him was enough to settle the matter and move on. Spoiler: it was not. While us Yanks were picking up […]
PwC Sold Off Its Scandal-Plagued Government Consulting Business For 67 Cents
That headline is not an exaggeration, they really did. Technically it was $1 AUD. Yesterday’s news cycle was quickly dominated by news that KPMG US would be slashing its workforce by 5% but we would be remiss not to remind everyone that while us Americans were blissfully snoozing away on Sunday night, PwC Australia sold […]
Naughty PwC Is Bleeding Big Pension Clients
A second large pension fund has severed ties with PwC Australia as a direct result of the leak of confidential tax intel the firm used to sell tax avoidance schemes to certain VIP clients. Australian Retirement Trust is the second largest pension fund in the country and joins largest fund AustralianSuper in breaking up with […]
PwC Australia is Very Very Sorry, You Guys
Presumably because the many apologies and decisions made before this letter have not sufficiently gotten the heat off their backs (and boy is it hot), PwC Australia published an open letter apology on their website Monday. The entire text, including the formatting, appears in below. At issue, if you make your residence under a rock, […]
Disgraced Ex-PwC CEO Tom Seymour Finally Shows His Face in Public
Don’t know why but this article is hilarious, it feels way more TMZ than you ever expect an article about disgraced former professional services leaders to be. The Australian has informed the world that scandal-plagued ex-PwC CEO Tom Seymour was spotted in public three days after the firm announced he would be retiring on September […]
PwC Issues a Groveling Apology Video (Not Really)
Satirist Mark Humphries has given us the closest thing we’ll get to an apology from PwC for their part in shattering the public trust and slandering the good name of professional services. A message from PwCpic.twitter.com/3DoR61BheQ — Mark Humphries (@markhumphries) May 18, 2023 The skit ran on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s evening news and said […]
PwC Australia Got in Trouble With Mom and Dad, Will Be Grounded For a While
Not satisfied with former CEO Tom Seymour as a sacrifice, the PwC tax leak scandal continues to claim victims and chip away at the good name of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Financial Times has reported that overlords from the global office “will seize” oversight of the Australian business because the Aussies screwed up, big time. The issue has […]
One Week After He Stepped Down as CEO, PwC Announces Tom Seymour Will GTFO Completely
Last Monday, PwC Australia’s Tom Seymour vacated his post as CEO after it came to light that he, along with a handful of other partners, received the low down on confidential government tax info that was then leveraged to advise clients on how to avoid upcoming tax changes. This has led to some less-than-favorable media […]
PwC Is Getting Rekt in the News
ICYMI, PwC Australia’s (former) CEO Tom Seymour stepped down on Monday which normally would inspire a hearty “who cares” from our primarily US-based audience but the issue surrounding his departure is prompting an attack on the entire professional services industry. Well, for now the attack is mostly laser-focused on PwC but the firm’s well-publicized tax […]
PwC’s Tom Seymour Just Stepped Down Because He Was On a Naughty Email Chain (UPDATE)
Ed. note: On May 15, 2023, one week after former CEO Tom Seymour vacated his role, PwC announced he will retire on September 30. While most of us were sleeping, PwC Australia was starting its Monday minus one CEO. Tom Seymour has stepped down following a board of partners discussion after it was revealed last […]
PwC Australia Says It Will Not Be Firing People Just Because Client Work Slows Down
A few short weeks ago, KPMG US cut a few hundred advisory jobs and KPMG Australia followed close behind with a reduction of about 200 or two percent of its approximately 10,000 staff. This, they said, was due to a slowdown in consulting work. When Australian Financial Review wrote up the KPMG cuts, they mentioned […]
Unable to Bill For It (Yet), PwC Australia Tells Staff They Can’t Use ChatGPT For Client Work
Hate to be the burster of bubbles for anyone out there excited to unload your work on ChatGPT but PwC Australia has told its people that for now, playing around with AI should happen strictly off the clock. Australian Financial Review reports that in this morning’s internal newsletter, PwCers were told not to feed client […]
PwC Poaches Someone From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Parts X and XI
While the Great Resignation in public accounting hasn’t slowed down much recently, there are still people who are jockeying for a better job in the Big 4 and have left one firm for another. In this case, it’s something we used to write about A LOT back in the day: people bolting KPMG for PwC. […]
Australian Senator Understands Big 4 Working Conditions Better Than a PwC Partner
“I’m not talking about billing hours, actual hours of work were 80 to 120 hours. There were people that were substantially underpaid. Wouldn’t you call that a sweatshop?” — Tony Sheldon, Labor senator and former union boss, asked PwC Australia partner Catherine Walsh during a Senate hearing on job security Dec. 8. Walsh was there […]
[UPDATED] PwC Australia Diversity and Inclusion Manager Who Mocked Chinese Accents Had to Be Told You Aren’t Supposed to Mock Chinese Accents
[Updated original post from Sept. 28 with additional information on PwC Australia’s internal investigation. Update is at the bottom of this article.] Australian Financial Review has a blockbuster of an exclusive this morning, one that involves “a human resources executive dressed as a bat from Wuhan” and a senior manager of diversity and inclusion mocking […]
KPMG Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part XVI
It looks like the hot spots for Big 4-on-Big 4 poaching lately are the U.K. and Australia, where KPMG Down Under recently made champagne wishes and caviar dreams come true for one PwC managing director. Australian Financial Review reported: Sally Torgoman, 38, has joined KPMG as a partner in the firm’s infrastructure business. Ms Torgoman was […]
Deloitte Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part V
Not in Australia this time around. In today edition of “Big 4-on-Big 4 Poaching From Around the World,” we head across the Atlantic where the Queen’s Deloitte has nabbed a longtime PwCer and magically turned her into a partner: Deloitte in the UK has hired Kanika Mehta as their latest Partner to join their Transaction Services team, after […]
Deloitte Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part IV
Yesterday we told you about the big poaching spree by Deloitte Australia, as the firm recently added six new partners to its risk advisory business. Most of that kontingent is komprised of soon-to-be former KPMGers who will officially join Deloitte in October. But another one of the six came from P to the W to […]
Thanks to Employee Surveys, PwC Australia Discovers the Startling Truth That Money Motivates Their People
Australian Financial Review is reporting today that PwC Australia is digging deep into their pockets and expanding the bonus pool based on input from employees who shocked the firm by making it clear that money is what motivates them above all else. PwC will increase the pay of its 8000-strong staff at a faster rate […]
Deloitte Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part III
Tom Carter had been away from Deloitte for about two and a half years, so now that he’s back, I’m sure there were a few new people in his office or on his team that he was Deloitted to meet for the first time yesterday. In today edition of “Big 4-on-Big 4 Poaching From Around […]
KPMG Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part XIV
Andrew Yates has put together a squad—six men (including Yates) and six women—who will act as his right hand when he takes over as CEO of KPMG Australia on July 1. One of the members of KPMG Australia’s new National Executive Committee is a recent refugee of PwC, according to a press release: External hire, Dorothy […]
KPMG Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part XI
Hey. Hope you are having a good Monday so far. Danielle Malone wasn’t as scared of KPMG coming after her as the dog in the video we posted on Sunday. In fact, she actually left PwC in Australia (the biggest of the Big 4 in terms of revenue) to join the Australian House of Klynveld […]
Layoff Watch ’20: PwC to Sever Ties with 5% of Its Workforce In Australia (UPDATE) PwC Limits Job Cuts to About 3%
[Updated on Aug. 3 with additional information.] PwC Australia CEO Tom Seymour said layoffs last month weren’t as large as anticipated—the firm let go of 250 PwCers instead of the 400 employees who had initially been targeted for involuntary departure by redeploying dozens of staff, according to the Australian Financial Review on Aug. 3: Mr […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: Wirecard Investors vs. EY, Australian Tax Office vs. PwC, Carillion vs. KPMG
Here’s a round-up of lawsuits filed against Big 4 firms in Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Ernst & Young Sued Over Wirecard as Accounting Woes Add Up [Bloomberg] Wirecard’s longtime auditor EY is being sued just days after the payment processing company’s headquarters were raided as part of a market-manipulation probe. The German lawsuit […]
BDO Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Parts II and III
With all this bad stuff like layoffs and pay cuts and furloughs going on in public accounting, it warms the cockles of my heart that there’s still a little competitive poaching going on. We have to go to Australia to find some, but like I tell my kids: You get what you get and you […]
PwC Australia Staffers Looking at Pay Cuts of Up to 40%
Another day, another big accounting firm slashing staff salaries during the COVID-19 pandemic. This time it’s PwC Australia. At least P. Dubs hasn’t laid anyone off (yet) like KPMG Australia did. The Australian Financial Review reported today: Big four consulting firm PwC will cut the hours and pay of under-utilised staff by up to 40 […]