Inside the undoing of PwC

To the 900 partners tuning in to the webcast, from meeting rooms, client sites and offices around the country, Tom Seymour did not appear panicked about the controversy engulfing the firm.

Two days earlier, a bombshell report in The Australian Financial Review revealed the firm’s former head of international tax, Peter Collins, had shared with fellow partners confidential details about federal tax changes designed to combat multinational tax avoidance.

It was an explosive follow-up to a story first broken by award-winning senior writer Neil Chenoweth in January 2023.

This is the inside story of how PwC transformed from dull accountant into a sales-driven firm that would tear itself apart. Told in full, from the beginning, by one of the reporters who broke the story.

Part One: The Luke and Tom Show

On that call on May 5, 2023, Seymour’s manner suggested he felt he still had the support of the majority of the partnership, writes professional services editor Edmund Tadros , who spoke with more than 40 insiders for this series.

But attendees knew it was game over. “We thought Tom was going to go,” says one attendee. “We couldn’t believe it, he was quite cocky … when he said he was on the emails, that’s when I knew we were f---ed.”

Read part one here.

Part Two: The emails that almost destroyed PwC Australia

Mark Konza was getting increasingly angry. It was August 29, 2016 and the Tax Office’s then head of international was at PwC’s Sydney office. Three PwC partners had spent the last hour explaining a new tax structure the firm had developed for ride-share giant Uber.

The meeting would prove the final trigger for an all-out war between PwC and the Tax Office.

Read part two here.

Part Three: The Tax Office goes to war

It was 2018 and an unprecedented crisis. An angry ATO fired the first shot in what would prove a lengthy, hot war with PwC, and found its mark.

The head of PwC Australia was being forced to visit the firm's biggest clients and admit they got it wrong. It got worse.

Read part three here.

Part Four: The inside story of Seymour’s ascent

It was 2020 and candidates were vying for the $4 million top job at Australia’s biggest professional firm. PwC's governance board had their sights on a two-man shortlist: Tom Seymour or Sean Gregory.

What followed was politics, complete with unofficial campaign managers and developed manifestos.

Read part four here.

Part Five: 'Nerds gone wild'

It was November 2022, and most of PwC’s 950 partners had gathered in Hobart for a lavish three-day conference.

The event was the first get-together since COVID-19, and was in Hobart partly to help out the domestic tourism industry. It’s now described by many who attended as the last hurrah.

Read part five here.

Find part six at AFR.com, Saturday August 10.

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