Eight companies in the Dubai-based Emirates Group have lost a court bid to recoup more than $10.5 million paid to Australian staff during the COVID-19 pandemic on the mistaken belief that the money would be repaid as part of the federal government’s JobKeeper subsidy scheme.
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.
Wine making family Forbes and one of its companies, Zilzie Wines, have launched legal action against PricewaterhouseCoopers alleging the professional services firm provided it with shonky tax advice that resulted in over $200,000 in loss and damages.
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”.
Maurice Blackburn has come up short in its challenge to a multimillion dollar tax bill for a record settlement payout in the Black Saturday bushfire class actions.
A former executive of engineering giant Bechtel will be allowed to deduct over $11.8 million in share losses from his taxable income after successfully challenging a ruling to the Full Federal Court, in a decision that clarifies taxation law for income and capital regarding asset trades.
Deloitte chairman Tom Imbresi has defended a move by a firm partner to make off with the audit file of collapsed construction company Hastie after a court ordered it be produced to the applicant in a class action against the accounting giant.
Woolworths is facing a class action alleging it underpaid workers to the tune of $620 million, more than double what the supermarket giant estimated when it disclosed the underpayments scandal last month.
Supermarket giant Coles has lost an appeal over $40 million in tax credits it had claimed for fuel that evaporated or leaked from tanks at its service stations, after a judge described the supermarket giantās argument as āartificialā.
Insurance company Watchstone Group, which is facing a lawsuit by Slater & Gordon UK over a botched acquisition that brought the law firm to its knees, has secured approval to file a counterclaim alleging auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers engaged in “secret meetings” with the firm’s corporate finance adviser to gain leverage leading up to the deal.