Matthias Balk/Photographer: Matthias Balk/pict

Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund has temporarily banned Big Four firm PwC from advisory and consulting services contracts, people familiar with matter said, halting the firm’s progress in one of the world’s most lucrative markets. 

Executives at the $925 billion Public Investment Fund and its more than 100 subsidiaries have been told to stop handing out consulting projects to PwC until February 2026, the people said, declining to be identified as the information is confidential. The firm’s auditing projects will not be affected, they said.

The PIF did not explain reasons behind the move in messages sent to its portfolio companies. Representatives for the fund declined to comment, while a spokesperson for PwC didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The PIF’s decision comes two years after PwC received a license to open its regional headquarters in the kingdom, where it employs more than 2,000 people across Riyadh, Jeddah, AlUla, Al Khobar and Dhahran. In the Middle East, the company operates from more than 20 locations.

PwC’s non-audit services span areas like mergers & acquisitions and tax advisory, alongside its strategy and consulting work. For its most recent fiscal year, the Middle East was the fastest-growing geography within PwC UK, the corporate entity that includes the region. 

The Middle East generated £1.97 billion ($2.5 billion) in revenue for the company in the twelve months to June 30, up 26% from the same period a year earlier. The firm said its accounting models assumed revenue growth would remain robust in the region in 2025 and 2026, though it conceded that it might not reach last year’s levels.

The region also ranks among the strongest globally based on revenue and profitability for the likes of McKinsey & Co. and Boston Consulting Group Inc. Business from the Saudi wealth fund has been a key driver of that growth.

The PIF is anchoring the kingdom’s economic transformation plan, Vision 2030, and has set up about 100 portfolio companies. That includes Neom, a $1.5 trillion new city on the west coast, as well as other multibillion-dollar projects aimed at building out historic areas like Diriyah and AlUla into tourist destinations.

That’s handed a lifeline to the sector, which is grappling with an extended slump. PwC, echoing its competitors, reported slower global growth in 2024 as demand for consulting work waned and revenue shrunk in its Australia and China businesses.

Farmers and fishers who chose to forgo making estimated tax payments by January must generally file their 2024 federal income tax return and pay all taxes by March 3.

The usual March 1 deadline, which is a Saturday this year, is pushed back two days.

The March 3 deadline applies to anyone who qualifies as a farmer or fisher and did not make a 2024 estimated tax payment by last Jan. 15. Those who made a qualifying payment by that date can wait until the regular April 15, 2025, deadline to file and pay and still avoid estimated tax penalties.

A farmer or fisher is anyone who received at least two-thirds of their gross income from farming or fishing during either 2023 or 2024.

Taxpayers, including farmers and fishers, in disaster areas have more time to file and pay with an automatic extension. Taxpayers in the entire states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as parts of Alaska, New Mexico, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, have until May 1 to file and pay. California wildfire victims have until Oct. 15 and taxpayers throughout Kentucky have until Nov. 3 to file and pay.

KPMG today launched KPMG Law US, making it the first law firm owned by a Big Four firm in the U.S.

KPMG Law US will collaborate with KPMG’s global network of law firms, operating in more than 80 jurisdictions, to provide clients with legal managed services, legal operations consulting and legal technology innovation. It will provide legal services powered by artificial intelligence and KPMG Digital Gateway, a cloud-based and generative AI-enabled platform that serves as a “control tower” for a company’s tax and legal data and provides advanced analytics and reporting capabilities.

The law firm will operate as an independently managed subsidiary of KPMG LLP and maintain strategic alignment with the KPMG LLP Tax practice. It will build on the established presence of KPMG in Arizona, which currently serves over 100 clients.

“KPMG Law US is uniquely positioned to transform the delivery of legal services,” Rema Serafi, Vice Chair of tax at KPMG, said in a statement. “By combining cutting-edge artificial intelligence and advanced technology solutions with legal services, we are proud to be a first mover with this capability and to offer the most holistic range of tech-enabled services in the marketplace for our clients’ evolving needs.”

KPMG set up a subsidiary in January to establish the law firm. It leveraged a state program that began in 2021, ending a restriction on allowing non-lawyers to own law firms in an effort to alleviate the shortage of legal service providers. The firm aims to expand the law firm beyond Arizona after it receives approval from the state supreme court by leveraging state laws and its alternative business structure.

“We have been studying Arizona’s structure for years, and we’re excited by the possibility that it presents to us,” KPMG Tax principal Tom Greenaway, the designated principal on the application, said during a Jan. 14 court hearing. “We think the time is right now for us, given the advances that we have made in technology and the maturity of this market. We really think that we can bring innovation and a complete set of integrated legal solutions to our clients and to other clients here in Arizona.” 

Aprio, a private equity-backed Top 25 Firm based in Atlanta, is taking advantage of the same law by joining with Radix Law in Arizona to form Aprio Legal LLC, which will operate as a law firm.