Tax advisers must dob in colleagues and confess to their own misconduct under a major legal overhaul.Credit:Aresna Villanueva
“We’re kicking the foxes out of the hen house,” said Greens’ finance spokesperson Barbara Pocock. “Through this amendment,we’re fixing the loophole that allowed big consultants to regulate themselves.”
In January,former PwC partner Peter Collins wasbanned by the Tax Practitioners Board for leaking confidential government tax plans,including new rules to combat corporate tax avoidance,to other staff and partners at the firm.
The TPB also sanctioned PwC for failing to regulate conflicts of interest by partners and staff who knew the confidential information would be used to help clients sidestep the new tax laws and to attract new clients.
But the makeup of the TPB itself has come under scrutiny due to the presence of former big-four executives at the regulator,which Pocock said could give rise to perceptions of a conflict of interest.
Greens senator Barbara Pocock has been one of PwC’s fiercest critics.Credit:Martin Ollman
She said an amendment agreed to by Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones will ban any senior executives or partners currently working at a tax firm with more than 100 employees,or with ongoing financial links to large tax firms,from becoming a member of the TPB.
“Never again will we have members of the Tax Practitioner Board financially tied to those same large tax agents they are regulating,” she said.