Tax office denies trying to avert board probe into PwC

Treasury officials said they became aware of a possible breach in September 2018, several months after Mr Collins signed a new confidentiality agreement. The Senate committee was told Treasury had very little information on the possible breach at the time, and they passed that on to the Australian Tax Office for its investigation.

But Greens senator Barbara Pocock said further precautions should have been taken.

“A possible breach of something with a criminal consequence comes to you and you don’t have alarm bells go off? I am shocked,” Pocock said. “That is inappropriate. That is sleeping at the wheel in my view, this is a very important matter with millions and millions of dollars.”

Treasury deputy secretary Roxanne Kelley told the inquiry that a review of secrecy provisions would prevent a repeat of information not being able to be shared between the department and the ATO.

Also on Wednesday, Facebook owner Meta confirmed the Financial Review’s report that it was one of the tech giants using PwC for tax advice on the Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law, but denied it knew the firm’s advice was based on illegally obtained information.

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“Facebook had no knowledge that any of the advice provided by PwC in regard to the MAAL [Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law] was based upon improperly obtained information,” a Meta spokesman said.

“Facebook did not seek advice from PwC on how to comply with the MAAL until after Treasury issued the draft legislation, which is why we were surprised to learn of PwC’s alleged conduct.

Facebook co-operated with the TPB [Tax Practitioners Board] investigation and our external legal advisers responded directly, as we would for any regulatory inquiry.”

Microsoft, meanwhile, said PwC did not advise it on tax matters related to the scandal. The tax was labelled the “Google tax” – highlighting the tech giant’s reputation as an aggressive tax avoider.

Google was approached for comment.

With Tim Biggs and AAP

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