The case concerns a Panamanian insurance company that ceded excess loss reinsurance premiums to a related party abroad in 2018. Following a transfer pricing audit the tax authorities rejected the profit level indicator (PLI) and external comparable used in the Insurance SA’s study, replaced it with operating margin as the PLI, recalculated the arm’s length margin excluding other operating income, and issued an additional assessment of B/.30,626.06 in income tax and B/.3,675.13 in supplementary tax, plus surcharges. Insurance SA argued in reconsideration and appeal that it had followed domestic rules and the OECD Guidelines, that its chosen PLI was appropriate for an insurance business with significant marketing and sales expenses, and that the tax authorities’ rejection of its key comparable based on alleged branch opening costs in 2016 was speculative and unsupported by the financial statements. It also claimed that its segmented analysis of premiums and ceded reinsurance costs showed a margin within the interquartile range of independent insurers. The ... Read more

In 2009 a British company – Bupa Insurance Limited – absorbed the Danish company International Health Insurance, whose shares it had acquired in 2005 and which had had a French branch since 1993. Following an audit for FY 2009 and 2010, the tax authorities considered that the French branch had passed on to Bupa Insurance Limited, free of charge, the customers associated with its insurance business in France, and considered this transaction to be an indirect transfer of profits within the meaning of Article 57 of the General Tax Code. The Administrative Court of Appeal set aside the assessment and an appeal was then filed with the Conseil d’État by the tax authorities. Judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court The Supreme Administrative Court upheld the decision from the CAA and dismissed the appeal of the tax authorities. Excerpts “3. It is clear from the statements in the judgment under appeal that the Marseille Administrative Court of Appeal held that the ... Read more

“XZ Insurance SA” is the parent company in a group engaged in insurance activities in its various branches, both life and non-life, finance, investment property and services. An audit was conducted for FY 2013-2016 and in 2020 an assessment was issued in relation to both controlled transactions and other transactions. Among outher issued the tax authorities determined that “XZ Insurance SA” did not receive any royalty income from the use of the XZ trademark by to other entities of the group, both domestic and foreign. In the assessment the tax authorities determined the arm’s length royalty percentage for use of the trademarks to be on average ~0,5%. “In order to estimate the market royalty, the first aspect to be studied is the existence of an internal comparable or comparable trademark assignment contracts. And we have already stated that the absence of valid internal and external comparables has led us to resort to the use of other generally accepted valuation methods and ... Read more

The issues were whether transactions executed by the company constituted insurance contracts for Federal income tax purposes and therefore, whether Reserve Mechanical Corp was exempt from tax as an “insurance company”. For that purpose the relevant factors for a captive insurance to exist was described by the court. According to the court in determining whether an entity is a bona fide insurance company a number of factors must be considered, including: (1) whether it was created for legitimate nontax reasons; (2) whether there was a circular flow of funds; (3) whether the entity faced actual and insurable risk; (4) whether the policies were arm’s-length contracts; (5) whether the entity charged actuarially determined premiums; (6) whether comparable coverage was more expensive or even available; (7) whether it was subject to regulatory control and met minimum statutory requirements; (8) whether it was adequately capitalized; and (9) whether it paid claims from a separately maintained account ... Read more