Sayers denies knowledge of PwC tax leaks, or ATO advice to read internal emails
By Colin Kruger
PwC’s former chief executive, Carlton Football Club president Luke Sayers, denies knowing about the leak of confidential tax plans embroiling the firm despite meetings with the Tax Office in the years after it knew of the leaks.
“I was working through a number of issues with the ATO [Australian Tax Office], but a breach of a confidentiality agreement was not one of them. I was not aware of the existence of a confidentiality agreement signed by [former PwC partner] Peter Collins until I read about it in the media this year,” Sayers said in a statement.
Carlton president and former PwC chief executive Luke Sayers.
Collins, a former tax partner at PwC, was deregistered in November 2022 as a tax agent for integrity breaches associated with the leak, including a two-year ban on becoming a registered tax practitioner.
Sayers said he did not recall a suggestion from the ATO’s second commissioner, Jeremy Hirschhorn, to review a cache of internal emails regarding the firm’s tax work. These may have revealed the evidence that Collins, and other PwC partners, had used confidential tax information to market workarounds to some of the world’s largest tech companies.
“I did not personally review the tens of thousands of documents and emails which PwC provided to the ATO as part of these processes, nor do I recall that being suggested to me by the ATO.”
The ATO released information about its meetings with Sayers on Monday in a response to queries from Labor senator Deborah O’Neill, via Senate estimates.
The PwC tax leak scandal has triggered a number of investigations, including a criminal probe by the Australian Federal Police.
The ATO response to O’Neill’s query also reveals the Tax considered charging PwC with criminal offences relating to its use of legal claims that served to block the ATO’s access to information about the firm’s tax schemes and clients.
The ATO document reveals a detailed timeline that includes a meeting between Sayers and the ATO’s second commissioner, Jeremy Hirschhorn, on August 29 in 2019. It reports that: “The meeting covered a range of ATO concerns related to PwC conduct and the formal notice process.”
It said Hirschhorn suggested that Sayers “personally review the internal emails”.
The document does not state whether Collins or the confidential information leak were discussed at this meeting. This meeting was held months after the AFP determined that the ATO had not provided sufficient information to support a referral for a criminal investigation.
That changed in May this year when Treasury referred the matter to the AFP for a criminal investigation, following the release of more than 140 pages of emails detailing the scale of PwC’s attempts to profit from the confidential government plans.
The ATO document shows a later meeting between Hirschhorn and Sayers in February 2020, before the firm’s election of a new chief executive.
“The PwC board should ensure that it is fully abreast of the range of concerns the ATO has had with PwC Tax Group’s behaviour,” Hirschhorn told Sayers.
The meeting was held months after the AFP determined that the ATO had not provided sufficient information to support a referral for a criminal investigation.Credit: Bloomberg
There was a final meeting between Sayers and Hirschhorn in April 2020 – just weeks after the Tax Office referred the Collins matter to the Tax Practitioners Board over the potential confidentiality breach. It was just before Sayers retired from PwC and set up his own firm.
The document does not reveal what was discussed at this meeting.
Former acting chief executive at PwC Australia Kristin Stubbins told a NSW inquiry in June this year that PwC might not even have been aware of the confidentiality agreement with Collins until March 2021.
The information released by the Tax Office on Monday also details its escalating legal battle with PwC over the firm’s controversial claims of legal professional privilege to try to shield the tax schemes and clients that used them.
“As the ATO considered many [legal professional privilege] claims baseless, it wished to explore whether this constituted criminal non-compliance with the formal notices,” the ATO said.
The ATO was advised by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions that there was insufficient evidence to instigate a prosecution.
The ATO has been questioned by Senate committees about its communications with the AFP, which led to the original pursuit of criminal charges being dropped in 2019.
It said this response on Monday was designed to provide some transparency without jeopardising the current AFP investigation.
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