Living our societal purpose

Corporate responsibility

Corporate responsibility initiatives can make a meaningful contribution to socio-economic development. We endeavour to honour our values — act with integrity, make a difference, care, work together and reimagine the possible — through our commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen and creating sustainable value in the communities in which we operate. 

Our corporate responsibility programme aims to create measurable business and social value-enhancing outcomes in education, supporting entrepreneurship and building capacity in non-profit organisations. 

Our strategic priorities include:

• Enhancing the socio-economic impact of our engagement initiatives
• Improving the transparency and relevance of corporate responsibility reporting
• Positioning PwC’s social brand, in line with our focus areas

Building capacity for non-profit organisations

By providing skills and expertise pro bono, we support NGOs to better serve our communities by helping them report their results effectively and accurately. We perform audits and provide advisory services to a range of non-profit organisations through formal fee-waived engagements. We also lend our support to these organisations through the time that our partners and staff commit to board positions at non-profit organisations.

Our economic contribution

In today’s fast-changing world, business faces challenges that extend beyond the bottom line. Professional services firms, like PwC, are required to demonstrate their economic contribution, communicate with a broad range of stakeholders, maximise the social impacts of investments and accurately report on their broader economic and social impacts. In such challenging economic times, where society demands more, it’s important to express these impacts in a measurable way. 

To estimate our economic contribution, we conducted an economic impact assessment (EIA) of our South African business. With an internationally accepted approach, informed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, we quantified the economic value of PwC for the South African economy. The EIA enables us to capture the economic contribution of PwC, through showing the interdependencies between different sectors of the economy. 

PwC’s economic contribution to South Africa is estimated through its impact on national GDP, jobs, public finance and household income. Capital expenditure associated with our new building in Waterfall City and through the impact of our day-to-day operations has also been included. 

Estimated economic impact

PwC generated a range of economic benefits through capital expenditure

PwC’s new head office at Waterfall City, Midrand is an iconic 25-storey building — the first high-rise within the precinct. The building comprises 40 000m2 of modern offices, designed to house 3 500 PwC employees in an efficient and optimally designed workplace. 

Earthworks for the building started in late 2014 and construction began in the first quarter of 2015. The project spanned 31 months and was completed in the beginning of 2018, with the total capital expenditure amounting to R1.5 billion, over the three-year period.

The R1.5 billion investment supported real GDP growth, the creation of jobs and generation of additional tax revenue for South Africa. Approximately 11.5% of the value of capital goods was imported during the period, while 88.5% was purchased locally.

We estimated that the potential economic activity over the three-year period resulting from the local capital expenditure:

• Added an estimated R2.5 billion to GDP
• Created and/or sustained an estimated 3 200 direct and indirect jobs, on average, per year
• Added an estimated R440 million to total government revenue, through both the collection of direct and indirect taxes

These estimated economic impacts are only associated with the local investment spending between 2015 and 2017.

Contributing meaningful economic and fiscal value through our operations

The expenses incurred through our day-to-day operations and the people directly employed have a quantifiable beneficial impact on the South African economy. 

Our operations contribute meaningful economic and fiscal value to the South African economy.

• Adding R7.7 billion to GDP in 2018 and R9 billion in 2019.
• Creating and/or sustaining an estimated 14,700 and 16,800 direct and indirect jobs, on average, in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Our operations will continue to have a positive impact on the South African economy by delivering long-term economic benefits. Through these impacts, PwC is supporting Government to deliver on the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

Contribution to public finance

PwC’s contribution to public finances forms a major part of our positive impact on the societies in which we operate. Our contribution to public finances is both direct and indirect, through a wide range of taxes, as well as non-taxation revenue mechanisms. We also contribute indirectly to government tax revenue and stimulate economic activity throughout our operations, incorporating a wide range of producers and suppliers.

Building public trust

PwC is proud of its long history of supporting the disclosure of meaningful and relevant tax information, through our ‘Building public trust’ initiative. We consider tax as fundamental to meeting the SDGs and it’s a key mechanism to effectively raise and allocate domestic resources for governments, to deliver essential public services and achieve broader development goals.. We believe our purpose extends beyond creating value through profits: it includes our role in society, and the contribution we make to the economy and to the lives of employees, clients and the communities in which we work.

Responsible tax behaviour

We’re recognised for our leading role in the debate on tax reform, moral tax, and the reshaping of tax laws and regulations. We remain relevant by leveraging our expertise, investing in thought leadership, contributing to research and education and by leading the public debate. We see tax in a broader context, not only from a technical perspective, but also by focusing on tax governance, tax assurance and tax technology. We promote responsible, transparent tax behaviour and recognise the tax transparency initiatives of our clients.

Our Tax Code of Conduct

We’re opposed to tax evasion and the facilitation of tax evasion. In accordance with the PwC Tax Code of Conduct, it’s unacceptable for anyone providing services for or on behalf of PwC to evade tax or to facilitate tax evasion. Policies, training and procedures are in place to ensure that we advise clients that it’s not sufficient to look at compliance through the lenses of law and regulations alone. The societal perspective on how their conduct impacts the level of taxes paid and in what jurisdictions it is paid has become even more relevant. When we help our clients with their tax transformation, our objective is to put the processes, systems and risks we advise on in a broader context through the eyes of our clients’ stakeholders. Only then can we create value for our clients and serve the public interest at the same time.

Our total tax contribution

Structures are in place to ensure appropriate governance and internal control over the firm’s tax affairs. We foster constructive and professional relationships with tax authorities and other government departments. In addition, we ensure that profits are recognised and taxed in the locations in which the economic activity takes place.

In 2019, we made a substantial contribution to the South African economy through:

• the taxes borne by us: R68 million (direct taxes) 
• the taxes we collect on behalf of Government: R1.602 billion (indirect taxes) 
• the taxes generated in the economy through the payment of our suppliers: R2.236 billion (induced taxes). The induced taxes are associated with direct and indirect tax revenue collected from companies linked to PwC (i.e. our suppliers).

We contribute through taxes relating to the services we provide (VAT): R644 million and dividends tax: R20 million. In addition, a large proportion of our fiscal impact comes from the taxes we pay and collect on behalf of our people — including PAYE and related levies — as well as the taxes our partners pay on their profits. These taxes total R938 million and represent 30% of our total tax impact.

Our total economic contribution also includes the taxes our suppliers pay, relating to the goods and services we purchase from them and the taxes that our workforce and the employees of our suppliers pay through spending their personal income in the general economy: R2.236 billion (induced taxes). Our induced contribution from suppliers, people and profit taxes constitutes a further 60% of our total tax impact.

To assess the induced tax contribution, we employ an economic impact assessment model, which identifies economically-related industry clusters to analyse the inter-linkages of the various sectors in the economy. This enables us to analyse the extent to which spending by PwC affects various economic areas. We measure the size of the additional economic activity generated by taxation using the multiplier effect. The different rounds of the multiplier effect, from the initial spending in the sector, through to employees spending their salaries on goods and services, as well as the resultant taxes associated with this spending, are then estimated as the induced tax contributions made to the economy.

Our societal contribution

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as a universal call to action to countries and private institutions to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. These goals are endorsed by 193 countries, including South Africa, and are generally seen as the cornerstone of socially-responsible business conduct.

National Treasury’s spending objectives are generally not directly linked to the SDGs, so we created a breakdown of all government spending and linked the categories to an SDG. We linked the Treasury’s spending by function to the SDGs, using the definition of each goal as defined by the UN and the spending details as per the National Treasury’s 2018/19 Budget. While we can link some of the spending categories to certain UN goals, some show no direct linkages and other spending functions can be linked to more than one SDG.

In looking to address big societal needs through long-term value creation strategies, PwC recognises its role in supporting government to deliver on the SDGs. This is expected to lead to an improved response to the economic, social and environmental challenges the world faces and unlock new opportunities for growth and long-term value for our stakeholders.

The total economic contribution of PwC is intrinsically linked to development as it provides the revenue for government to mobilise resources.

Through these impacts, PwC is supporting Government to deliver on the following SDGs

PwC’s purpose means we want to work with others to help solve important problems facing the world today and to do so in a manner that builds trust in society. Through our socio-economic contribution, we drive growth in the South African economy and, in turn, ongoing improvements in many people’s lives.