In 2009 the BlackRock Group acquired Barclays Global Investors for a total sum of $13,5bn. The price was paid in part by shares ($6.9bn) and in part by cash ($6.6bn). The cash payment was paid by BlackRock Holdco 5 LLC – a US Delaware Company tax resident in the UK – but funded by the parent company by issuing $4bn loan notes to the LLC. In the years following the acquisition Blackrock Holdco 5 LLC claimed tax deductions in the UK for interest payments on the intra-group loans. The tax authorities (HMRC) denied tax deductions for the interest costs on two grounds: (1) HMRC claimed that no loans would have been made between parties acting at arm’s length, so that relief should be denied under the transfer pricing rules in Part 4 of the Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Act 2010. (2) HMRC also maintained that relief should be denied under the unallowable purpose rule in section 441 of the ... Read more

Singapore Telecom Australia Investments Pty Ltd entered into a loan note issuance agreement (the LNIA) with a company (the subscriber) that was resident in Singapore. Singapore Telecom Australia and the subscriber were ultimately 100% owned by the same company. The total amount of loan notes issued to the Participant was approximately USD 5.2 billion. The terms of the LNIA have been amended on three occasions, the first and second amendments being effective from the date the LNIA was originally entered into. The interest rate under the LNIA as amended by the third amendment was 13.2575%. Following an audit, the tax authorities issued an assessment under the transfer pricing provisions and disallowed interest deductions totalling approximately USD 894 million in respect of four years of income. In the view of the tax authorities, the terms agreed between the parties deviated from the arm’s length principle. Singapore Telecom Australia appealed to the Federal Court, which in a judgment published on 17 December ... Read more

On 17 April 2015, “Loan Ltd” entered into a bond loan agreement with related parties. The effective interest rate charged to “Loan Ltd” (borrowing costs) in the years under consideration (2016 and 2017) was 8.1%. The interest rate had been determined based on the CUP method and external comparable data. The tax authorities determined the arm’s length interest rate for the loan to be 4,03% and issued an assessment of the additional taxable income resulting from the lower borrowing costs. A complaint was filed by “Loan Ltd” Decision of the Board The Board dismissed the complaint and upheld the assessment of the tax authorities. Excerpt “Because the applicant claims that the audit used inappropriate/non comparable data. Because, however, the audit chose the most reliable internal data in accordance with the OECD Guidelines, namely the interest rate agreed with a third independent bank for the provision of a credit facility (2.03%), which it adjusted by the percentage of the guarantee fee ... Read more

The tax authorities had issued a notice of assessment in which payments for a parent company guarantee had been adjusted on the basis of the arm’s length principle. The Administrative Court of Appeal annulled the assessment. The tax authorities filed an appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court. Judgement of the Court The Supreme Administrative Court upheld the decision of the Administrative Court of Appeal and dismissed the appeal of the tax authorities. According to the Court, I – The Tax Administration may, under the provisions of article 58 of the CIRC, make corrections to the taxable income whenever, by virtue of special relations between the taxpayer and another person, whether or not subject to IRC, different conditions have been established in certain operations from those that are generally agreed upon between independent persons and these particular conditions have led to the profit ascertained on the basis of accounting being different from that which would have been ascertained had such special ... Read more

In 2009 the BlackRock Group acquired Barclays Global Investors for a total sum of $13,5bn. The price was paid in part by shares ($6.9bn) and in part by cash ($6.6bn). The cash payment was paid by BlackRock Holdco 5 LLC – a US Delaware Company tax resident in the UK – but funded by the parent company by issuing $4bn loan notes to the LLC. In the years following the acquisition Blackrock Holdco 5 LLC claimed tax deductions in the UK for interest payments on the intra-group loans. Following an audit in the UK the tax authorities disallowed the interest deductions. The tax authorities held that the transaction would not have happened between independent parties. They also found that the loans were entered into for an unallowable tax avoidance purpose. A UK taxpayer can be denied a deduction for interest where a loan has an unallowable purpose i.e, where a tax advantage is the company’s main purpose for entering into ... Read more

Singapore Telecom Australia Investments Pty Ltd entered into a loan note issuance agreement (the LNIA) with a company (the subscriber) that was resident in Singapore. Singapore Telecom Australia and the subscriber were ultimately 100% owned by the same company. The loan notes issued totalled approximately $5.2 billion to the subscriber. The terms of the LNIA was amendet on three occasions – the first amendment and the second amendment were expressed to have effect as from the date when the LNIA was originally entered into. The interest rate under the LNIA as amended by the third amendment was 13.2575% Following an audit the tax authorities issued an amended assessment under the transfer pricing provisions and denied interest deductions totalling approximately $894 million in respect of four years of income. According to the tax authorities the conditions agreed between the parties differed from the arm’s length principle. Singapore Telecom Australia appealed the assessment to the Federal Court. Judgement of the Federal Court ... Read more

K-GAS Corp had issued loans and performance guarantees to overseas subsidiaries but received no remuneration in return. The tax authorities issued an assessment where additional taxable income was determined by application of the arm’s length principle. An appeal was filed by K-GAS with the district court. Decision of the Court The court upheld the decision of the tax authorities and dismissed the appeal of K-GAS Corp. Excerpts related to loans “In light of the following circumstances, which can be known by the above acknowledged facts, in light of the above legal principles, it is not economically reasonable for the Plaintiff to decide not to receive interest on the self-financing portion of the case loan to the subsidiaries in question 1 until the end of the exploration phase, and there is no illegality in the method of calculating the normal price of the Defendant. … …the Plaintiff lent the money raised from the outside to the subsidiaries in the first issue, ... Read more

At issue was whether a payments for an intra group loan guarantee was deductible. In 2008 an agreement was concluded between Verbund AG and the former Albanian Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy, with the object of construction, operation, maintenance and transfer of the project of a new hydropower plant in Ashta. Based on this agreement, the local company Energji Ashta received a loan in the amount of 140 million euros from two Austrian banks. Having no assets to guarantee the loan, the foreign banks have accepted guarantees for the fulfillment of obligations by Energji Ashta from two group companies EVN AG and Verbund AG. The guarantee for Energji Ashta was made against a commission of 2% of the disbursed amount. Following a tax audit Energji Ashta was informed that the commission paid to EVN AG and Verbund AG would not be allowed as a deductible expense. Not agreeing with the above decision Energji Ashta appealed. Judgement of the Supreme ... Read more

Aegis Ltd had advanced money to an assosiated enterprice (AE)  and recived preference shares carrying no dividend in return. The Indian Transfer Pricing Officer (TPO) held that the “acqusition of preference shares” were in fact equivalent to an interest free loan advanced by Aegis Ltd to the assosiated enterprice and accordingly re-characterised the transaction and issued an assessment for 2009 and 2010 where interest was charged on notional basis. Aegis Ltd disagreed with the assessment of the TPO and brought the case before the Tax Tribunal. The Tribunal did not accept the conclusions of the TPO. “The TPO cannot disregard the apparent transaction and substitute the same without any material of exceptional circumstances pointing out that the assessee had tried to conceal the real transaction or that the transaction in question was sham. The Tribunal observed that the TPO cannot question the commercial expediency of the assessee entered into such transaction.” The Indian Revenue Service then filed an appeal to the High ... Read more

In this case a US subsidiary, Container Corp, had paid guaranty fees to its foreign parent company Vitro in Mexico. In the US tax return, the fee had been considered analogous to payments for services, and the income was sourced outside the United States and not subject to withholding tax. The IRS held that the guaranty fees were more closely analogized to interest and thus subject to withholding taxes of 30 %. The Tax Court issued an opinion siding with Container Corp. The Commissioner brought the opinion before the US Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals also found in favor of Container Corp. “To determine what class of income guaranty fees fall within or may be analogized to, the court must look to the “substance of the transaction”. The Commissioner contends the guaranty fees are more closely analogized to interest, while Container Corporation argues that the fees are more closely analogous to payment for services.” “The source of payments ... Read more

In the case of General Electric Capital, Canada, the issue was if a 1% guarantee fee  paid by General Electric Capital Canada Inc. to its AAA-rated US parent company satisfied the arm’s length test. The Canadian tax administration argued  that implicit support resulted in General Electric Canada having a AAA credit rating, so that the guarantee provided by the US parent had no value. Taxpayer argued that the 1% guarantee fee did not exceed arm’s length pricing and that implicit support from the US parent should be ignored since it stemmed from the non-arm’s length relationship. The Tax Court agreed with the tax administration that implicit support should be taken into account and applied a “yield approach,” comparing the interest rate the Canadian company would have paid with and without the guarantee. The Tax Court found that credit rating of the Canadian company – with implicit support but without the guarantee – was at most BBB-/BB+ and the 1% guarantee was arm’s length. The Federal Court of Appeal approved of both the Tax Court’s yield approach and its ... Read more