A former tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been formally banned from providing financial services by ASIC today for disclosing confidential information.
Peter-John Collins of Sandringham, Victoria, was banned by ASIC from providing financial services or controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business for eight years.
He had been an authorised representative of PricewaterhouseCoopers Securities Limited from 1 March 2004 to 14 July 2006, and again from 9 December 2013 to 6 October 2022.
Collins hit the news at the start of the year when it was found he disclosed confidential information he obtained in his roles as a tax advisor to the Commonwealth Treasury and the Australian Board of Taxation.
He was part of a confidential consultation by Treasury to improve tax laws including new rules to stop multinationals avoiding tax by shifting profits from Australia to tax and secrecy havens. However, Collins made unauthorised disclosures of this confidential law reform information to partners and staff of PwC.
The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) found Collins failed to act with integrity, as required under his professional, ethical, and legal obligations, and terminated his tax agent registration. He was also banned for two years from working as a tax practitioner.
Accordingly, ASIC has now found that Collins is not a fit and proper person to provide financial services and that it was in the public interest to prevent him from working in the financial services industry.
He has the right to apply to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision and the banning is recorded on ASIC’s banned and disqualified register.
In August, Treasury announced an extreme crackdown on tax adviser misconduct in light of Collins’ actions.
The package of reforms cover strengthening the integrity of the tax system, increasing the power of regulators and strengthening regulatory arrangements to ensure they are fit for purpose.
Among the measures include an increase in the maximum penalty for advisers and firms who promote tax exploitation schemes from $7.8 million to $780 million, removing limitations on tax secrecy laws, protection for whistleblowers who give evidence of tax agent misconduct, and increasing the time limit for the ATO to bring Federal Court proceedings
