Varian Medical Systems Iberica S.L. is the Spanish subsidiary of the multinational company Varian Medical Systems and carries out two types of activities – distribution and after-sales services. The products sold was purchased from related entities: Varian Medical Systems Inc., Varian Medical Systems UK Ltd., Varian Medical Systems International AG and Varian Medical Systems HAAN GmbH. The remuneration of Varian Medical Systems Iberica S.L. had been determined by application of the net margin method for all transactions and resulted in a operating margin of 2.86% in 2005 and 2.75% in 2006. In 2010 an audit were performed by the tax authorities for FY 2005 and 2006, which resulted in an adjustment. The tax authorities accepted the net margin method, but made various corrections in its application. The adjustments made by the tax authorities resulted in a operating margin of 6.45% in the two years under review, The tax administration argued that the margins determined by Varian Medical Systems Iberica S.L ... Read more

Following an audit the tax authorities issued an assessment regarding various intra group costs of sales deducted for tax purposes by “E-S. Sales Corp”. An appeal was filed by the company. Judgement of the Tax Court The court partially upheld the assessment, but in regards of application of the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines, the assessment was set aside. For the years in question the OECD guidelines had not yet been implemented by El Salvador. Excerpt “In this regard, it should be noted that the seventh paragraph of the aforementioned article provides that “””If, for any reason, the market price cannot be determined, the Tax Administration shall establish it by adopting the price or the amount of the consideration that the taxpayer under audit has received from purchasers of goods or providers of unrelated services other than those to whom it transferred goods or provided services at a price lower or higher than the market price”””. Therefore, if it had been ... Read more

A Oy had operated as the marketing and sales company of an international group in Finland. With the exception of 2008, the company’s operations had been unprofitable in 2003-2011, while at the same time the Group’s operations had been profitable overall. A Oy had purchased the products from the contract manufacturers belonging to the group. The method used in the Group’s transfer pricing documentation for product purchases had been characterized as a modified cost-plus / profit margin method (TNMM). The tested parties were contract manufacturers belonging to the group, for whom four comparable independent companies had been found in a search of the Amadeus database. According to the documentation, the EBITDA target margin for the Group’s contract manufacturers was set at two percent. When submitting A Oy’s tax return for 2010, the tax Office had considered, on the basis of the OECD’s 2010 Transfer Pricing Guidelines (paragraphs 1.70 – 1.72), that in independent business transactions the sales company would have ... Read more

In this case, the French tax authorities questioned the method implemented by GE Healthcare Clinical Systems to determine the purchase price of the equipment it was purchasing from other General Electric subsidiaries in the United States, Germany and Finland for distribution in France. The method used by the GE Group for determining the transfer prices was to apply a margin of 5% to all direct and indirect production costs borne by the foreign group suppliers. For the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 the tax authorities applied a TNM-method based on a study of twenty-six comparable companies. The operating results of GE Healthcare France was then determined by multiplying the median value of the ratio “operating result/turnover” from the benchmark study to the turnover in GE Healthcare Clinical Systems. The additional profit was declared and qualified as constituting an indirect transfer of profits to the related party suppliers in the General Electric Group. The GE Group disagreed and brought the case ... Read more

During the period from 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2005 all the products marketed by GE Healthcare Clinical Systems (France), a company wholly owned by the American company GE Medical Systems Information Technologies and the exclusive distributor in France of medical equipment produced by the General Electric group, were supplied to it by its German subsidiary, GE Medical Systems Information Technologies (MSIT) GmbH, of which it held 100% of the capital. Transfer prices were determined based on the cost plus method. Following an audit of the accounts of GE Healthcare Clinical Systems, the tax authorities dismissing the cost plus method and instead set up a sample of eight companies considered comparable to GE Healthcare Clinical Systems. The difference between the operating loss declared by this company and its arm’s length operating results, calculated on the basis of the median of the net operating margin of the eight companies deemed to be comparable, constituted an indirect transfer of profits granted ... Read more