PwC told client it could cut Australian tax by $70m, court documents in privilege fight show
The Australian Tax Office is auditing Brazilian meat processor JBS over tax restructure
Ben Butler
Sun 5 Jun 2022 13.30 EDT
Global accounting firm PwC told Brazilian meat multinational JBS it would save about $70m a year in Australian tax if the company followed advice that was deliberately structured as a legal service in order to prevent it being seen by authorities, according to documents released by the federal court.
PwC’s decision to provide tax advice to JBS as legal advice was legal, but the strategy backfired after the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) launched an audit of JBS.
The ATO is investigating JBS for alleged tax avoidance and launched a federal court lawsuit that resulted in PwC being forced to hand over some of the documents it had insisted should be kept from authorities because they contained legal advice. Neither JBS or PwC answered Guardian Australia’s questions with respect to the ATO’s tax avoidance allegation.
JBS, which has operations in Brazil, the US and Australia, where it is the nation’s biggest meat supplier, is controlled by brothers Wesley and Joesley Batista, who as Guardian Australia previously reported were involved in Brazil’s biggest-ever bribery scandal.
The company came to Australia in 2007, indirectly, through its purchase of US group Swift, which already had operations here. That deal was funded in part by a loan from a Brazilian government bank that prosecutors there alleged was fraudulently obtained. The allegations never went to trial and it is not suggested that JBS Australia is implicated in any wrongdoing.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/06/pwc-told-client-it-could-cut-australian-tax-by-70m-court-documents-in-privilege-fight-show
Joesley, Wesley
Joesley, Wesley
Wesley, enjoying a night of enchantment.
Wesley, shakin' that thang.
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This foreign meat company got U.S. tax money. Now it wants to conquer America.
By Kimberly Kindy
November 7, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. EST
President Trump delivers remarks in support of farmers and ranchers at the White House in May. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
This story has been updated.Two men in cowboy hats stood behind President Trump in May as he announced a $16 billion agricultural bailout. Trump said the financial relief from his trade war with China would help American farmers, reinforcing an earlier tweet when the president said the funds would help “great Patriot Farmers.”
But not all beneficiaries of the taxpayer-funded program are American farmers or patriots. JBS, a Brazilian company that is the largest meat producer in the world, has received $78 million in government pork contracts funded with the bailout funds — more than any other U.S. pork producer.
JBS’s winning hand in securing a quarter of all of the pork bailout contracts is one example of the power a small number of multinational meat companies now hold in the United States. JBS has become a major player in the United States even as it faces price-fixing and other investigations from the federal government.
. . .
JBS and the large multinational meat companies, including Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and Cargill, use their size and global presence to create efficiencies that enable them to produce a variety of quality foods at a lower price. But many agricultural economists and food marketing analysts say when so few companies control the market, they can drive smaller operators out of business, reducing competition and sometimes raising prices for consumers.
. . .
A Washington Post analysis of OSHA data from 2015 to 2018 shows that JBS has the highest rate of serious worker injuries — including those involving amputation and hospitalization — among meat companies in the United States, and the second highest rate of serious injuries among all companies in the United States.
. . .
But the small number of major players increases the possibility that companies could collude to increase prices, Malone and other economists say. A lawsuit filed in 2016 by a food service firm in New York alleges that JBS-owned Pilgrim’s Pride and other poultry companies intentionally destroyed flocks of breeder hens to reduce the poultry supply.
. . .
The ranchers and some Democratic members of Congress say the concentrated power of these companies gives them too much leverage over federal regulators. “These multinational corporations are taking over the food supply and federal government has been complicit in this; USDA has been complicit in this,” said Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.).
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/this-foreign-meat-company-got-us-tax-money-now-it-wants-to-conquer-america/2019/11/04/854836ae-eae5-11e9-9306-47cb0324fd44_story.html
