This Month
- Exclusive
- Big four consultants
Big four ex-partner claims colleagues helped in tax exploitation scheme
The former partner, whose name is being suppressed along with that of the firm, hopes to file a limited defence to avoid incriminating himself.
- Max Mason and Neil Chenoweth
Why ASIC stopped naming and shaming the big four over audit quality
The corporate regulator has now flagged it is planning to begin reviewing the operations of the six largest firms from next year.
- Edmund Tadros and Patrick Durkin
- Exclusive
- Consulting
Big four partner alleged to have promoted tax exploitation scheme
A former partner at a major accounting firm is facing significant fines for allegedly promoting tax avoidance schemes to seven clients.
- Max Mason and Neil Chenoweth
PwC spin-off Scyne gets Canberra green light
The powerful Department of Finance has signed off on the private equity-backed consultancy, allowing it to do government work.
- Edmund Tadros
PwC tax leaks undermined shareholder trust in audits
The PwC tax leaks scandal concerned retail shareholders as it raised doubts about the firm’s ability to carry out corporate audits, the ASA has told an inquiry.
- Edmund Tadros
Deloitte UK partners paid more than $1.9m despite slowdown
A strong performance in the first half of the year helped offset slower growth in Deloitte UK’s advisory arm in the six months to the end of May.
- Irina Anghel
September
EY sets up six-way race to lead firm after break-up failure
The candidates include the leader of EY’s Canadian business and the heads of its American consulting and financial services practices.
- Stephen Foley
- Opinion
- The AFR View
The who, why and what of the PwC tax leak scandal
Finding a way to straighten out the structural issue would be the constructive way for the entire professional services sector to move on from a bad patch.
- The AFR View
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Haughty PwC made the same mistakes it preached about
Ziggy Switkowski’s review of PwC reads like a description of everything that went on inside the big banks before the royal commission – with one crucial difference.
- James Thomson
Big four shed UK staff after pandemic hiring boom
Overhiring in some areas has led consultancies to make job cuts, recruiters and analysts say.
- Robert Wright
The most powerful people in the consulting sector in 2023
Last year, the nation’s key players were from the top five firms. This year, they are all outsiders.
- Edmund Tadros
Deloitte UK to cut more than 800 jobs
The cuts come after growth slowed in the second half of the year because of falling client demand
- Irina Anghel
Legal experts doubt PwC’s ‘rule of three’ would be enforced by courts
The restriction demands partners involved in a “group departure” to a rival firm pay back the fees they generated in the previous year.
- Edmund Tadros
- Exclusive
- PwC tax scandal
PwC ‘rule of three’ forces partners who leave in groups to pay
To stem a rising tide, the firm is enforcing a rule that obliges anyone involved in a “group departure” to a rival firm to pay back fees generated in the previous year.
- Edmund Tadros
- Exclusive
- Big four consultants
Big four consultants investigated by Defence Department
Canberra heavyweight KPMG is the subject of two Defence investigations, and Deloitte, EY and Accenture are subject to one probe each.
- Ronald Mizen
PwC to curtail consulting work for US audit clients to reduce conflict risk
The move comes amid a worldwide debate over how to ensure accounting firms remain independent of the companies they audit.
- Stephen Foley and Michael O’Dwyer
Big four earn 99.3pc of top companies’ audit fees
The big four audited 96.5 per cent of Australia’s 200 largest companies in 2022, and lifted fees by 21 per cent.
- Maxim Shanahan
August
The firms with the most misconduct complaints, and the least
Staff are most willing to lodge complaints at KPMG and Deloitte and least likely at Accenture, figures disclosed by the five big consulting firms show.
- Edmund Tadros
EY revenue rises 11pc to $2.7b in ‘challenging year’
Demand for the firm’s services was strong in the second half of FY23, the reverse of the trend reported by KPMG when its results were released last week.
- Edmund Tadros
Scyne targets 1500 more PwC staff after nabbing 117 partners
The PwC partners who will join spin-off Scyne Advisory will be on similar incomes, but paid like executives in a corporation not via a share of profits.
- Edmund Tadros
