Category Archives: Accountancy

UK recruiter emerges from insolvency for third time, avoiding millions owed in tax

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Hampshire business seems to have benefited from ‘phoenixism’, which costs the taxpayer about £800m a year

A UK recruitment business has been acquired out of administration for a third time in four years as part of a succession of deals that left some of the former management team in place and millions of pounds owed to the public purse.

The chain of insolvencies appears to contain more examples of phoenixism – a process when companies are liquidated and directors are able to rise from the ashes with a new entity, free of debts.

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Albanese government to lift ban on working with PwC Australia as police investigation continues

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Exclusive: Finance minister to consider feedback from senators before making decision final

The finance department has found consultancy firm PwC Australia is an ethically sound company and recommended the end of a long-term ban on it working with the government, despite an ongoing police investigation into the company.

But the firm, which sold its entire government consulting business for just $1 at the height of a scandal over the misuse of confidential Treasury information, will not be able to tender for government work until at least 2028 due to a non-compete clause with its spin-off, Scyne Advisory.

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UK watchdog investigates eight years of Deloitte audits of mining firm Glencore

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FRC examines whether accounting firm ‘gave sufficient consideration to risk of non-compliance with laws’

The accounting firm Deloitte is under investigation by the sector regulator over eight years of its audits into the FTSE 100 commodities and mining company Glencore and a UK subsidiary.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it was looking into whether Deloitte’s audits of Glencore and its subsidiary Glencore Energy UK for the financial years ending 2013 to 2020 “gave sufficient consideration to the risk of non-compliance with laws and regulations”.

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KPMG under investigation over audit of gambling company Entain

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FRC confirms inquiry into accounting firm’s 2022 audit of Ladbrokes, Coral and Sportingbet owner

The accounting firm KPMG is under investigation by the sector’s UK regulator over its audit of the 2022 accounts of the gambling company Entain.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said its enforcement division would be examining the conduct of the “big four” accounting firm, without saying what the investigation related to.

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China gives PwC record £47m fine and six-month ban over Evergrande

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Accountancy firm accused of issuing false audits says it has sacked six partners and five other staff have left

The China arm of the accountancy firm PwC has been banned for six months and fined a record 441m yuan (£47m) over its audit of the collapsed property developer Evergrande, according to Chinese authorities.

Beijing’s ministry of finance imposed a six-month business suspension on PwC Zhong Tian, the accounting firm’s main division in mainland China, along with a 116m yuan penalty.

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PwC to start tracking working locations of all UK employees

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Accounting firm tells its 26,000 workers move is to ensure workers spend ‘minimum of three days a week’ in office

The consultancy PwC has told its employees it is going to begin tracking their working locations to ensure that all workers spend “a minimum of three days a week” in the office or at client sites.

In a memo sent to its 26,000 UK employees, the big four accounting firm announced that it will start monitoring how often employees work from home in the same way it monitors how many chargeable hours they work.

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PwC expecting six-month China ban over Evergrande audit

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Company tells clients it also expects to receive a large fine following property developer’s collapse

The auditor PwC China has reportedly told clients that it expects to receive a six-month ban from Chinese authorities, and potentially a large fine, as a punishment for its role in auditing the collapsed property developer Evergrande.

PwC expects to be banned from conducting regulated activities in China, such as signing off on financial results, for six months starting in September, the Financial Times reported.

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PwC chief’s $1.2m bonus kept ‘secret for more than a year’, inquiry told

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Kevin Burrowes received additional salary from the firm’s international arm but did not initially reveal it to parliamentary inquiry into company

The chief executive of PwC Australia, Kevin Burrowes, received a $1.2m payment from the consulting company’s international arm which he did not initially reveal to the parliamentary inquiry into the 2015 leaking of confidential government tax reform information.

A parliamentary inquiry was told on Friday that Burrowes first told the corporations and financial services committee that he was paid an annual salary of $2.4m. That was later corrected to $2.8m.

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‘Incredible failure’: KPMG rejects claims it assessed ‘the wrong company’ before $423m payment to Paladin

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Exclusive: Firm’s denial comes after weeks of intense criticism, including accusations that it misled parliament

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Consultancy firm KPMG Australia has rejected claims it conducted due diligence on “the wrong company” before the federal government gave nearly half a billion dollars to a controversial company with no track record.

The firm’s objection to comments by a member of a Senate inquiry examining its conduct come after weeks of intense criticism and accusations it repeatedly misled parliament over its use of so-called power maps, which identify influential decision makers within departments.

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EY Oceania accused of potential conflict of interest over government contracts on climate policy

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Exclusive: Consultancy firm supported oil and gas industry lobbying while being paid for independent advice on Albanese’s signature climate policy

Consultancy firm EY Oceania was supporting the oil and gas industry’s lobbying efforts while being paid by the federal government for independent advice on its signature climate policy and gas emissions.

The firm, which is a member of the oil and gas lobby and audits Santos, insists there was no conflict of interest between its work for industry and government. But a bipartisan group of politicians and transparency advocates is not convinced and has demanded more information.

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Australian academics apologise for false AI-generated allegations against big four consultancy firms

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Case studies created by Google Bard AI as part of submission to parliamentary inquiry proven to be factually incorrect

A group of academics has offered an unreserved apology to the big four consultancy firms after admitting they used artificial intelligence to make false allegations of serious wrongdoing in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry.

The accusations have been met with scorn by the firms, concerned that inaccurate information has been given parliamentary privilege to unfairly tarnish the reputation of its staff.

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KPMG boss says Carillion auditing was ‘very bad’ as firm is fined record £21m

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Jon Holt says some employees ‘simply didn’t do their job properly’ in run-up to one of UK’s biggest corporate failures

The UK boss of KPMG has said he “simply cannot defend” the firm’s auditing work on the failed government contractor, Carillion, describing it as “very bad,” as the accounting giant was hit with a record £21m fine by Britain’s accounting watchdog.

The fine comes almost six years after the outsourcing firm collapsed with £7bn debts. Carillion had been one of the UK’s biggest construction and facilities management companies, with several major government contracts.

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PwC tax leak scandal not isolated to Australia, senators claim

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Accounting firm says no evidence confidential information used by partners outside Australia for commercial gain

The politicians who exposed PwC’s leak of government secrets have claimed the scandal is not isolated to Australia, citing emails that reveal global partners knew they received confidential material and provided assistance.

Confirmation that PwC Australia partners shared confidential details about multinational tax plans triggered an internal investigation, released on Wednesday, which exposed a culture where “revenue is king” and profit is sometimes prioritised above ethics.

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Poundland moves to buy 71 Wilko sites with possible jobs guarantee for staff

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PwC says owner plans to reopen stores under Poundland brand throwing lifeline to as many as 1,800 staff

Poundland is to acquire up to 71 Wilko sites that it intends to reopen under its own brand in a deal that could throw a lifeline to some of the about 1,800 staff who will lose their jobs at the stricken retailer.

Under the deal struck by administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) with Poundland’s parent company Pepco, the sites will be acquired only after all 408 Wilko stores are shut and more than 12,000 staff made redundant.

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Labor launches crackdown on tax adviser misconduct following PwC scandal

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Government says it will increase penalties for promoting tax avoidance schemes and bolster regulators’ powers

Penalties for promoting tax avoidance schemes will be increased tenfold and financial regulators will get much stronger powers as the federal government seeks to fix “severe shortcomings” in the nation’s financial systems exposed by the PwC scandal.

In what the treasurer, Jim Chalmers calls, “the biggest crackdown on tax adviser misconduct in Australian history”, advisers and firms promoting tax exploitation schemes would face fines up to $780m, while red tape that hamstrung regulators from better investigating PwC will be slashed. The Treasury department will also conduct a two-year whole-of-government response to the shortcomings exposed by the disclosure of confidential tax information.

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Economic growth to pick up but risks to recovery ‘elevated’, say UK forecasts

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Households and firms can expect more financial pain despite Britain dodging technical recession, says KPMG

Britain will be left with deep scars from the pandemic despite narrowly escaping a second recession within three years and growing signs of an economic pick up, according to new forecasts.

A new report by the accountancy firm KPMG has found that the economy has enjoyed a better start to the year than it had thought, and is now expected to grow by 0.3% this year, compared with its previous prediction of an uplift of just 0.1%.

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Australia’s leading super funds halt future contracts with PwC amid tax scandal fallout

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AustralianSuper, Australian Retirement Trust, Hesta and Aware Super say they won’t enter into new contracts with the firm

Australia’s biggest superannuation funds have either frozen, or are reviewing, future work contracts with PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia, as the fallout from the tax leaks scandal proves costly for the embattled firm.

Four of the country’s biggest funds, AustralianSuper, Australian Retirement Trust, Hesta and Aware Super, say they will not enter into new contracts with PwC, after the professional services firm used confidential information obtained through its work for the government for commercial gain.

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Labor senator accuses PwC of ‘deception and betrayal’ in misuse of Treasury information

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Deborah O’Neill has also raised concerns that other consultancy firms may have engaged in similar practices without being detected

An Australian senator has delivered a scathing rebuke of the consultancy firm PwC, arguing its misuse of Treasury information was a betrayal of professional ethics and standards while suggesting more resignations may be necessary.

On Monday night, the chief executive of PwC Australia, Tom Seymour, resigned after sustained criticism of the firm allegedly profiting from sharing confidential government tax policy with colleagues.

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EY plan to break up consultancy and audit divisions blocked by US office

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Accountancy firm confirms work has stopped on radical scheme after internal concerns about structure

EY has scrapped plans for a radical breakup of its global operations after internal disputes over the potential structure of the new businesses.

The company started laying the groundwork for separating its audit and advisory businesses – under the codename Project Everest – last year, as the big four accounting firms faced mounting criticism about conflicts of interest between the two divisions.

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Deloitte CEO in thinly veiled criticism of EY after rival’s split plans thrown into chaos

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Joe Ucuzoglu posts 20-minute video to Deloitte’s public website

Deloitte’s chief executive has launched a thinly veiled criticism of rival EY after its controversial plans to split the business into two were thrown into turmoil.

EY initially announced plans for a radical breakup of its global operations last year, that would separate its audit and advisory businesses.

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