PwC tax scandal

The PwC tax scandal was a scandal involving PwC's abuse of the Australian Government's secrets to enrich itself and its corporate clients.

PwC, and other Big Four accounting firms, give advice to governments on writing tax law, and also corporations seeking to avoid those laws. This conflict of interest came to a head in 2015, when PwC leaked secret Australian Government tax plans to corporations, including Google, and used their privileged access to help corporations avoid a law they themselves helped write. The scandal has major implications for governments and consulting businesses in Australia, particularly PwC itself.

Following the scandal's public disclosure in 2022, PwC attempted to depict the scandal as a single individual acting alone, but later revelations indicated that the corruption was widespread, and included PwC Australia's CEO. Further revelations came to light that have implicated other organisations in the Australian public service and consulting industry, and which became the focus of a broader discussion about government outsourcing.

A Senate Committee concluded that PwC had engaged in a deliberate strategy over many years to cover up the breach of confidentiality.

Context

The scandal occurred in the context of increasing privatisation in Australia, which began to accelerate in the 1990s. In 2015, the size of the public service was capped to 167,596 employees, which saw the public sector become increasingly reliant on outsourced labour, particularly from consulting firms.

From 2013 to 2023, state and federal government contracts for the Big Four accounting firms increased by 400%, and 1,270% by the federal government alone. By 2023, total federal and state spending on consultants totaled $20.8 billion per year, with $5 billion spent by the federal government alone.