An economic discipline applied to taxation in to try and prevent companies from shifting income to low tax or no tax jurisdictions.
In March I blogged about the first OECD draft guidance on the allocation of profits to commissionaire and other PE’s. Looking at the June OECD draft, further ideas have come up as to why the allocation of profits to absentees is not a good transfer pricing idea. I have great respect for the OECD’s work…
On June 7, 2017, India joined more than 65 countries in signing the OECD’s Multilateral Instrument to implement tax treaty-related base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) recommendations. The Instrument – developed under Action 15 of the BEPS project – seeks to transpose BEPS recommendations into over a thousand tax treaties in a “synchronized and efficient…
On 21 June 2017, the European Commission released its Proposal on transparency rules for tax intermediaries. It primarily seeks to address concerns raised by the ECOFIN Council and the European Parliament in trying to investigate and tackle the role of intermediaries in tax evasion and tax avoidance schemes of multinational companies. New rules impose an…
An analysis from a State Aid perspective. This contribution focuses on the profit split methodology in light of current EU Commission’s investigations in the area of tax rulings and transfer pricing[1]. Prior to my points, I shall make some brief preliminary comments to set the scene. According to the EU Commission a tax ruling confers…
In a 207 page opinion the Tax Court ruled March 23, 2017 that the IRS’s adjustment with respect to Amazon.Inc’s transfer pricing buy-in payment for an intragroup cost sharing agreement (CSA) is arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable [1]. Another major blow for the IRS in a string of such losses starting with VERITAS [2] (2009), the 2010 Xilinx [3] about-face…
If there was ever a need to demonstrate the need to improve international tax dispute resolution mechanisms, it was as a speaker at the TP Minds conference earlier this month. In the course of our panel discussion on dispute resolution post BEPS, I asked the audience of over 100 tax directors and managers of multinational…
Lower energy cost is a major factor for U.S. manufacturers … to be able to offer on par production costs to China, and 10 percent to 20 percent lower costs than European manufacture. I’ve been remiss in my blogging since the surprise victory of the presidential election. It is not because I think the apocalypse…
On 16 February 2017 the Public Consultation on the proposed introduction of rules at EU level to disincentivize promotion of aggressive tax planning schemes was closed. The rules under consideration focus on a Mandatory Disclosure Regime (MDR) – referred to also as a Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) regime. Under such rules, tax advisers…
On February 1, 2017, India’s Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, presented the country’s 2017-18 Budget, which contains several tax proposals in the area of international tax law, including the introduction of a new provision to provide for transfer pricing secondary adjustments and new thin capitalization rules. The Budget also contains much-needed clarity on the tax treatment…
A recent ruling in GE Money Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. v. DCIT, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has further contributed to the uncertainties in Transfer Pricing in India. The ruling is a drastic departure from international transfer pricing norms especially the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines and UN Transfer Pricing Manual. Brief Facts GE Money…
In the EU Commission’s view a tax ruling (hereinafter “APA”) confers on the beneficiary a selective advantage under Art. 107(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (hereinafter “TFEU”) insofar as it leads to a lowering of the tax burden by deviating from the tax that the beneficiary would otherwise be obliged…
Publication of text of The Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS Convention) by the OECD on 24 November 2016 is one of the key milestones in the OECD/G20 Project to tackle Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. The BEPS Convention will be open for signature from…
There are many things in life that we take for certainties, which are not, e.g. that it was the Scots that invented whiskey, the French champagne, or the Italians pizza. All not necessarily true. Similar certainties exist in tax and in transfer pricing. I recently had the honour of giving a training in France to…
To refresh memories, several months ago I posted part 1 of this study on Kluwer’s International Tax Blog: Application of TNMM to Starbucks Roasting Operation: Seeking Comparables Through Understanding the Market Part 1 briefly describes my advocated transfer pricing approach drawn from my transfer pricing law treatise and my corresponding research based upon it. My…
