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Vacancies opened after two PwC-affiliated board members departed earlier in the year.
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Treasury ‘strengthens’ BoT with 2 appointments
19 December 2023
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Treasury has appointed two part-time members to the Board of Taxation, filling vacancies left in the wake of the PwC tax leaks scandal earlier in the year.
CEO Christina Sahyoun returned to PwC in January while member and ex-PwC partner Anthony Klein left in July, leaving the board short of staff to conduct reviews.
Judy O’Connell and Andrew Mills have been appointed for three-year terms, Treasury said in a statement on Friday, and it has also reappointed Julianne Jacques until the end of September 2025.
“These appointments will strengthen one of our most important advisory boards with more experience and more expertise,” it said.
Ms O’Connell was the Victorian small business commissioner from 2016 to 2021 and had worked at the ATO for more than 30 years, including as assistant commissioner for small business.
She had also worked as the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration’s head of unit, leading the development of the International Tax Dialogue, an initiative with governments and international organisations such as the World Bank and IMF.
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Mr Mills was most recently chair of the Financial Reporting Council and had 40 years of experience working in senior commercial, accounting and legal practice, government and academic roles.
He was an ATO second commissioner between 2014 and 2019, an executive director at the Tax Institute between 2020 and 2022, and a director-partner at Greenwoods & Freehills for over 20 years.
Ms Jaques was a chartered accountant, barrister at the Victorian Bar and had been a member of the board since 2017, serving as acting chair from 2019 to 2020.
“She has made a substantial contribution, including leading its review of GST on low value imported goods,” the Treasury said.
The BoT is a non-statutory advisory body that advises the government on tax policy, undertaking reviews and providing input on tax policy and law design matters.
Its review of the country’s tax treatment of digital assets and transactions, announced in 2021, has been underway since 2022.
While originally slated for release in December 2022, it has since been delayed until 2024.
The board’s latest appointments to the board replace the outgoings that occurred in the wake of the PwC tax leaks scandal in January.
On January 31, then-CEO Christina Sahyoun returned to PwC after completing an 18-month secondment at the board.
In July, Anthony Klein, the member in charge of the digital assets review, resigned only halfway into his three-year term.
Mr Klein had been a partner at PwC for 17 years until 2021. According to The Klaxon, he had worked directly with the former international tax partner at the centre of the scandal, Peter Collins, as recently as October 2018.
Mr Klein’s name also featured on PwC’s list of current and former partners and staff that received confidential tax policy briefings from the Treasury and BoT.
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