Tuesday, December 02, 2025

CA ANZ fines and suspends former PwC CEO in tax leaks fallout

 


Senator Pocock branded CA ANZ’s penalties against Mr Seymour as a “wet tickle for the secret sharing of government information”. 
“This behaviour clearly deserves the highest possible fine,” she said. 
“If this didn’t warrant the maximum fine from CA ANZ – what will?”
A CA ANZ spokeswoman said the group’s by-laws allowed it to “hold our members to account”. 
“Our independent disciplinary bodies work carefully to deliver their important function,” she said. 
“Outcomes from regulatory bodies provide important information for disciplinary investigations.” i
Senator Pocock also questioned why CA ANZ had been so slow moving in making a decision regarding Mr Seymour. 
“It’s taken a long time to get to this point,” she said. 
“The idea that a chief executive ... has been slapped with a mere $15k fine for their role in the PwC tax leaks scandal, is just gobsmacking.”




Former PwC chief executive Tom Seymour has been suspended as a chartered accountant and ordered to pay fines and costs of almost $25,000 over his role in the professional services giant’s tax leaks scandal.
Chartered Accountants ANZ, which also revoked his status as a fellow of the body, made the ruling following a sanction against Seymour by the Tax Practitioners Board for failure to act on signs that secret government information was being shared among the tax partners at PwC and for allowing an unethical culture to develop at the firm.
Seymour’s membership will be suspended for four years, according to a 43-page ruling published on Tuesday. He was also fined $15,000 and will have to pay costs of $9757. The professional body made the decision “on the papers”, or based on written evidence, after both parties agreed to dispense with a disciplinary hearing to speed up the matter.
Seymour, who was PwC’s chief executive from March 2020 until the leaks scandal forced him to step down in May 2023, had previously led the firm’s tax division when it became embroiled in a years-long fight with the Australian Taxation Office over advice it felt was overly aggressive.
The fallout from the scandal has been severe for the firmand the sector. PwC is a third smaller, the government has imposed stricter regulations on tax agents, and there has been a significant loss of trust in PwC and its rival big four consulting firms Deloitte, EY and KPMG.
Chartered Accountants said the sanctions reflected the seriousness of the tax board’s findings, Seymour’s seniority at the time, “his responsibility for supervision of senior partners with PwC and over the culture of PwC”, and “the seriousness of his conduct and the need for public deterrence”.
It ruled that Seymour’s conduct was “objectively very serious and [struck] at the heart of the public’s expectations that when they are dealing with a member of [Chartered Accountants] they are dealing with a person with a high degree of integrity”. It noted Seymour had “cooperated in the resolution of the matter and had no previous disciplinary history” and that there were no “exceptional circumstances to justify not publishing” his name.
Chartered Accountants noted that Seymour had complained that the Tax Practitioners Board ruling against him had been incorrectly decided.
The Tax Practitioners Board deregistered Seymour as a tax agent and banned him from reapplying for four years.
Comment was sought from Seymour.
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 leads our coverage of the professional services sector. He is based in our Sydney newsroom. Email Edmund at edmundtadros@afr.com.au

Former PwC boss Tom Seymour fined $25,000 and banned over tax leak scandal

Former PwC Australia boss Tom Seymour has been fined just $24,757 and banned from accounting for four years over his role in the firm's tax information scandal.
David RossDavid Ross
December 2, 2025 -
The Australian Business Network
    Chartered Accountants ANZ has fined former PwC Australia boss Tom Seymour $24,757 for his part in the firm’s tax-leaks scandal, drawing a stinging rebuke from Greens senator Barbara Pocock, who called it a “wet tickle for the secret sharing of government information”.
    Instead of its maximum $50,000 fine, CA ANZ handed Seymour a $15,000 penalty plus a further $9757 in fees, after accepting his proposed penalty earlier this year. 
    The decision, made on November 20 but only published on Tuesday, comes almost two years after Seymour first resigned from PwC. 
    CA ANZ’s maximum penalties were boosted to $50,000 in 2023 in response to the PwC tax scandal. 
    The accounting body, one of three that covers the sector, found the fines against Mr Seymour balanced the public interest, the reputation of CA ANZ, and the need to “support the integrity of the profession”.
    Mr Seymour, who has been contacted for comment, left PwC after the firm was revealed to have misused confidential government tax briefings to strike up new strategies for clients in a bid to front-run new laws. 
    The latest decision comes after Mr Seymour attempted to resign from CA ANZ in July, on the same day the Tax Practitioners Board made scathing findings regarding his time as PwC boss. 
    The TPB found Mr Seymour failed to act with integrity and did not properly manage conflicts of interest. CA ANZ found Mr Seymour co-operated by agreeing to a sanction.
    It also noted the “significant exclusion period imposed by the TPB” and that Mr Seymour was in “good financial standing with no previous disciplinary history”. 
    Senator Pocock branded CA ANZ’s penalties against Mr Seymour as a “wet tickle for the secret sharing of government information”. 
    “This behaviour clearly deserves the highest possible fine,” she said. 
    “If this didn’t warrant the maximum fine from CA ANZ – what will?”
    A CA ANZ spokeswoman said the group’s by-laws allowed it to “hold our members to account”. 
    “Our independent disciplinary bodies work carefully to deliver their important function,” she said. 
    “Outcomes from regulatory bodies provide important information for disciplinary investigations.” i
    Senator Pocock also questioned why CA ANZ had been so slow moving in making a decision regarding Mr Seymour. 
    “It’s taken a long time to get to this point,” she said. 
    “The idea that a chief executive ... has been slapped with a mere $15k fine for their role in the PwC tax leaks scandal, is just gobsmacking.”
    CA ANZ defended its slow progress dealing with the complaint concerning Mr Seymour, noting it had been set against a time frame “that allowed other regulatory bodies to complete their investigations”.
    “In this instance the Tax Practitioners Board completed its investigation and made its findings public in September 2025,” the spokeswoman said.
    “The Disciplinary Tribunal’s finding clearly outlines its view of Mr Seymour’s conduct, and while the tribunal’s suspension sanction is aligned to the TPB determination, it also adds a fine and the removal of his fellowship.” 
    Mr Seymour, who first joined CA ANZ in 1997, was found to have failed to question the source of information that was shared with him on several occasions between August 2014 and January 2016. 
    This came at the same time PwC’s former head of international tax Peter Collins was engaged in confidential consultations with Treasury over proposed tax laws aimed at stopping multinational companies offshoring profits. 
    CA ANZ has failed to take disciplinary action against others connected to the scandal, including Mr Collins, who was allowed to cancel his membership despite being under investigation. 
    CA ANZ previously fined PwC $100,000 over the tax scandal. 
    Mr Seymour previously told The Australian he had not been aware of confidential information being inappropriately shared within the firm. 
    “In fact, when I first became aware of this possibility, I immediately raised it with PwC’s legal and risk teams, and requested they investigate it,” he said. 
    “I was advised verbally, and in writing, that the issue was investigated and no breach of confidentiality had occurred.”
    Former PwC chief executive Luke Sayers has also denied knowledge of the leaks of confidential information, previously telling parliamentary committee hearings he had not been alerted to the issue. 
    However, this sits at odds with evidence from others, including PwC’s former general counsel Meredith Beattie and Australian Taxation Office second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn. Both claim Mr Sayers was warned PwC had an issue. No findings have been made.
    An Australian Federal Police investigation into the tax scandal remains under way, having been launched after the matter was referred to them in May 2023.
    Australia’s peak body for chartered accountants has suspended former PwC chief executive Tom Seymour for four years and fined him $15,000 for his role in the tax leaks scandal.
    The decision by Chartered Accountants ANZ follows damning rulings in July by the Tax Practitioners Board, which stripped Mr Seymour of his registration after finding he failed to rein in an unethical culture at PwC that included the sharing of confidential government information by the firm’s partners.
    PwC’s chief executive for three years until May 2023, Mr Seymour earlier headed the group’s tax division when a senior partner seconded to Federal Treasury passed on secret information on new tax laws to other PwC partners, who then used it to drum up business with multinational companies.
    The scandal blew up in 2023, triggering a ban on Government work by PwC and ultimately forcing the sale of its government consulting arm.
    The fallout seriously damaged the reputation of PwC and the broader consulting industry.
    Chartered Accountants ANZ noted that Mr Seymour had co-operated with its enquiries and agreed the matter be dealt with by its tribunal on an expedited basis without a hearing. However, he had reiterated that he disagreed with the tax board’s findings, arguing they were incorrectly decided.
    As well as the ban and the fine, Chartered Accountants ANZ said in a decision published on its website that Mr Seymour had been stripped of his status as a fellow of the organisation and ordered to pay costs of $9757.
    It said the sanctions reflected the seriousness of the Tax Practitioners Board’s findings and Mr Seymour’s oversight of other PwC partners, as well as the need to support “the reputation of CA ANZ and the ... integrity of the profession of accounting”.
    CA ANZ was “satisfied that the conduct to which the (tax board) determination related included conduct arising from the member’s professional or business conduct, competence and integrity, being conduct in the course of his role as a senior leader in tax services at PwC”.
    The Tax Practitioners Board found Mr Seymour “failed to act with integrity” by failing to recognise, “or otherwise permitted, a business culture to develop and operate” in PwC’s tax and legal services division that “resulted in the practice of sharing confidential information”.
    It said his conduct “had caused damage to the reputation of the tax profession and a loss of confidence in the integrity of the broader tax system”.


    CA ANZ fines and suspends former PwC CEO in tax leaks fallout
    2 December 2025 
    By Emma Partis

     CA ANZ has suspended the membership of former PwC managing partner Tom Seymour due to his involvement in the PwC tax leaks scandal.

    Accounting body CA ANZ has suspended the membership status of former PwC CEO Tom Seymour for the next four years in a disciplinary ruling released on Tuesday (2 December). The professional body also ordered him to pay almost $25,000 in fines and legal fees.


    The decision came after the Tax Practitioner’s Board (TPB) revoked Seymour’s registered tax agent status and banned him from re-applying for four years for failing to act with integrity or implement adequate conflict of interest safeguards within PwC’s Tax and Legal division. 


    In September 2025, Seymour was found by the TPB to have breached the Tax Agent Services Act (TASA) 2009 after he oversaw the PwC tax leaks scandal as the firm’s managing partner at the time.

    “The TPB’s findings about the Member’s conduct were objectively very serious and strike at the heart of the public’s expectations that when they are dealing with a member of CA ANZ they are dealing with a person with a high degree of integrity,” CA ANZ’s ruling read.


    “In all the circumstances of this particular matter … suspension of membership for the same period as the TPB tax agent registration exclusion period was appropriate, together with a fine of $15,000 and removal of the Member’s advanced status as a Fellow.”


    In coming to its decision, CA ANZ noted that the findings of the TPB had been “very serious” due to Seymour’s seniority within PwC, his responsibility to supervise senior partners and the nature of PwC’s conduct.


    In 2022, it came to light that PwC’s international tax chief, Peter-John Collins, had breached confidentiality by sharing sensitive government client information on upcoming multinational tax laws, tipping off multinational clients to the new laws.

    The scandal rocked the consulting industry and led to tighter code obligations and fresh breach reporting rules for tax agents.

    TPB chair Peter de Cure said that their investigation had revealed a “culture of sharing of confidential information” in PwC.


    “Despite frequent reminders in internal emails that this information was ‘confidential’ and should not be further disclosed, the practice persisted. This points to a deeply embedded culture within PwC that routinely disregarded formal confidentiality obligations,” de Cure said.


    “Alarmingly, Mr Seymour who was in a privileged position allowed this culture to persist. Mr Seymour’s conduct has fallen short of the standards that the community would expect from a person in the profession.”


    The TPB added that Seymour’s conduct had caused damage to the tax profession’s reputation, and a loss of confidence in the integrity of the broader tax system.


    “I want to assure the public the TPB is committed to upholding the highest standards of professional conduct in Australia’s tax profession and will continue to take strong action in cases of serious misconduct,” de Cure said of the decision.

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