The Australian Taxation Office has told a judge it would be prepared to “give comfort” to PricewaterhouseCoopers that it will not prosecute the accounting giant for tax offences relating to documents at the centre of a court battle over privilege.
The ATO has refused to sign an undertaking that it won’t prosecute PricewaterhouseCoopers for tax crimes if it hands over thousands of documents at the centre of a legal professional privilege fight.
Meat processor JBS Australia has appointed new legal representation in a battle with the Australian Taxation Office over the scope of privilege attached to thousands of documents produced by its tax adviser, PricewaterhouseCoopers, after a judge raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest in PwC’s representation of its client.
Assurances that PwC can be a defendant in a privilege fight with the ATO while representing three other defendants in the proceedings and avoid a conflict of interest has failed to allay concerns raised by a Federal Court judge, who said the situation created “at least an appearance of tension”.
A court battle between the Australian Taxation Office and PricewaterhouseCoopers over the scope of legal professional privilege claimed by one of its major clients, meat processing giant JBS Australia, has hit a preliminary snag over the consulting giant’s representation of JBS, with a judge warning he might compel the company and its subsidiaries to engage independent lawyers.