On 1 February 2010, E.K. and its subsidiary, E. S.A, concluded an agreement on the transfer of E.K.’s trade marks to E. S.A. Following the transfer (on the same day), E.K. concluded with E. S.A. an agreement to grant a licence for the use of the marks in return for payment to the licensor (E. S.A.) of a monthly remuneration. In 2011, E.K. recognised as a deductible expense the royalties paid to E. S.A. According to the tax authorities this resulted in E.K. understating its corporate income tax liability for 2011. According to the tax authorities, E. S.A. did not participate in any way in the creation of revenue, with the result that the profits generated by E.K. were ‘passed on’ in the form of royalties to a related company – E. S.A. The remuneration payable to the legal owner of the trademarks did not take into account the very limited functions performed by that entity in creating the value ... Read more

Tiger Flex was a fully fledged footwear manufacturer that was later restructured as a contract manufacturer for the Gucci Group. It had acquired goodwill which was written off for tax purposes, resulting in zero taxable income. The tax authorities disallowed the depreciation deduction. It found that the acquired goodwill had benefited the group as a whole and not just Tiger Flex. Tiger Flex filed an appeal with the Regional Tax Commission. The Regional Tax Commission decided in favour of Tiger Flex. The tax authorities then filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. Judgement of the Supreme Court The Court set aside the decision of the Regional Tax Commission and refered the case back to the Regional Tax Commission in a different composition. Excerpt “It is not disputed that the Tiger and Bartoli factories were profitable assets, endowed with productive and earning capacity. What is disputed, however, is the recorded purchase value which, legally spread over the decade, anaesthetises any contributory ... Read more

ST Dupont is a French luxury manufacturer of lighters, pens and leather goods. It is majority-owned by the Dutch company D&D International, which is wholly-owned by Broad Gain Investments Ltd, based in Hong Kong. ST Dupont is the sole shareholder of the distribution subsidiaries located abroad, in particular ST Dupont Marketing, based in Hong Kong. Following an audit, an adjustment was issued where the tax administration considered that the prices at which ST Dupont sold its products to ST Dupont Marketing (Hong Kong) were lower than the arm’s length prices. “The investigation revealed that the administration found that ST Dupont was making significant and persistent losses, with an operating loss of between EUR 7,260,086 and EUR 32,408,032 for the financial years from 2003 to 2009. It also noted that its marketing subsidiary in Hong Kong, ST Dupont Marketing, in which it held the entire capital, was making a profit, with results ranging from EUR 920,739 to EUR 3,828,051 for the ... Read more

V. sp. z o.o. was part of the E group, in which the parent company was E. S.A.. V.’s principal activity was wholesale of tobacco products. The authority issued an assessment based on finding of irregularities consisting in the company’s overstatement, in its VAT purchase registers and tax returns for the periods indicated, of the net purchase value and input VAT resulting from invoices issued to it by: 1) L. sp. z o.o. and I. sp. z o.o. for marketing services for e-cigarettes, 2) E. S. sp. z o.o. for data processing services, 3) E. S. sp. z o.o. concerning re-invoicing of purchases incurred by E. S. sp. z o.o.. The tax authorities did not find that V. sp. z o.o. was entitled to reduce output tax by the input tax shown on the disputed invoices issued to it by: L. sp. z o.o. and I. sp. z o.o., relating to marketing services, and E. sp. z o.o., relating to ... Read more

LAKUM KTL, a. s. had deducted from its taxable income costs for the purchase of advertising and promotional services from PRESSTEX MEDIA and PAMBROKE Media. Following an audit, the tax authorities concluded that LAKUM had entered into a legal relationship with PRESSTEX and PAMBROKE for the purpose of reducing the tax base. The tax authorities established reference prices on the basis that LAKUM could have entered into the contract for advertising and promotional services directly with the club concerned and, from the price range thus established, determined the arm’s length price for the services and increased the tax base accordingly. Decision of the Regional Court The Regional Court ruled in favour of the tax authorities on the pricing issue. Excerpts “37. The applicant first argued that the conditions for the application of the first sentence of Article 23(7) of the Income Tax Act were not met. According to that provision, if the prices agreed between related parties differ from the ... Read more

In 2013, DFH Haus CZ s.r.o. filed amended tax returns for 2006, 2010, and 2011, following the German tax authority’s adjustment of its transfer prices in 2006, in order to claim the resulting tax loss for 2006 and apply it against its tax liability in the Czech Republic for 2010 and 2011. The tax authorities disallowed these amendments. A complaint filed by DFH with the regional court was dismissed and an appeal was then filed with the Supreme Administrative Court. Judgement of the Court The Supreme Administrative Court rejected DFH’s appeal and upheld the decision of the tax authorities. Excerpts “[34] On the basis of the foregoing, the Supreme Court of Justice, like the Regional Court, considers that the complainant’s tax loss for 2006, as a relevant fact in terms of the reopening of proceedings, was incurred, assessed and could be deducted from the tax base pursuant to Section 34(1) of the ITA only on 8 July 2013, when it ... Read more

In 2013, DFH Haus CZ s.r.o. filed amended tax returns for 2006, 2010, and 2011, following the German tax authority’s adjustment of its transfer prices in 2006, in order to claim the resulting tax loss for 2006 and apply it against its tax liability in the Czech Republic for 2010 and 2011. The tax authorities disallowed the amendments. A complaint filed by DFH with the district court was dismissed and an appeal was then filed with the Supreme Administrative Court. Judgement of the Court The Court rejected DFH’s arguments that the tax loss must be allowed under the Czech-German income tax treaty. DFH could not reduce its tax liabilities in the Czech Republic in 2010 and 2011 with the 2006 tax loss resulting from the German transfer pricing adjustment. The Court noted that the usual purpose of double taxation treaties is to regulate the place where income is taxed, but the actual rules for taxation or the deduction of expenses ... Read more

ST Dupont is a French luxury manufacturer of lighters, pens and leather goods. It is majority-owned by the Dutch company D&D International, which is wholly-owned by Broad Gain Investments Ltd, based in Hong Kong. ST Dupont is the sole shareholder of distribution subsidiaries located abroad, in particular ST Dupont Marketing, based in Hong Kong. Following an audit, an adjustment was issued where the tax administration considered that the prices at which ST Dupont sold its products to ST Dupont Marketing (Hong Kong) were lower than the arm’s length prices. “The investigation revealed that the administration found that ST Dupont was making significant and persistent losses, with an operating loss of between EUR 7,260,086 and EUR 32,408,032 for the financial years from 2003 to 2009. It also noted that its marketing subsidiary in Hong Kong, ST Dupont Marketing, in which it held the entire capital, was making a profit, with results ranging from EUR 920,739 to EUR 3,828,051 for the same ... Read more

The work on Action 14 of the BEPS Action Plan directly addresses the obstacle that domestic law time limits may present to effective mutual agreement procedures. Element 3.3 of the Action 14 minimum standard includes a recommendation that countries should include the second sentence of paragraph 2 of Article 25 in their tax treaties to ensure that domestic law time limits (1) do not prevent the implementation of competent authority mutual agreements and (2) do not thereby frustrate the objective of resolving cases of taxation not in accordance with the Convention ... Read more

Where a bilateral treaty does not override domestic time limits for the purposes of the mutual agreement procedure, tax administrations should be ready to initiate discussions quickly upon the taxpayer’s request, well before the expiration of any time limits that would preclude the making of an adjustment. Furthermore, OECD member countries are encouraged to adopt domestic law that would allow the suspension of time limits on determining tax liability until the discussions have been concluded ... Read more

Paragraph 2 of Article 25 of the OECD Model Tax Convention addresses the time limit issue by requiring that any agreement reached by the competent authorities pursuant to the mutual agreement procedure shall be implemented notwithstanding the time limits in the domestic law of the Contracting States. Paragraph 29 of the Commentary on Article 25 recognises that the last sentence of Article 25(2) unequivocally states the obligation to implement such agreements (and notes that impediments to implementation that exist at the time a tax treaty is entered into should generally be built into the terms of the agreement itself). Time limits therefore do not impede the making of corresponding adjustments where a bilateral treaty includes this provision. Some countries, however, may be unwilling or unable to override their domestic time limits in this way and have entered explicit reservations on this point. OECD member countries therefore are encouraged as far as possible to extend domestic time limits for purposes of ... Read more

Time limits for finalising a taxpayer’s tax liability are necessary to provide certainty for taxpayers and tax administrations. In a transfer pricing case a country may under its domestic law be legally unable to make a corresponding adjustment if the time has expired for finalising the tax liability of the relevant associated enterprise. Thus, the existence of such time limits and the fact that they vary from country to country should be considered in order to minimise double taxation ... Read more

Relief under paragraph 2 of Article 9 may be unavailable if the time limit provided by treaty or domestic law for making corresponding adjustments has expired. Paragraph 2 of Article 9 does not specify whether there should be a time limit after which corresponding adjustments should not be made. Some countries prefer an open-ended approach so that double taxation may be mitigated. Other countries consider the open-ended approach to be unreasonable for administrative purposes. Thus, relief may depend on whether the applicable treaty overrides domestic time limitations, establishes other time limits, or links the implementation of relief to the time limits prescribed by domestic law ... Read more

In order to avoid double taxation, “Fashion Distributor A/S” had requested the Danish Tax Authorities, in parallel to the review of a transfer pricing assessment, to conduct a mutual agreement procedure under Article 6 of the EC Arbitration Convention 1990. The Danish Tax Authorities rejected the request on the grounds that it did not contain the minimum information required by paragraph 5(a) of the Code of Conduct for the effective implementation of the Convention on the elimination of double taxation in connection with the adjustment of profits of associated enterprises (EU Code of Conduct 2006). Judgement of the High Court The Court held that the reference in Article 7(1) of the EC Arbitration Convention to Article 6(1) had to be understood as referring only to the ‘timely presented case’ and did not imply that case was also ‘submitted’ within the meaning of Article 7(1). Furthermore, the Court found that the company’s complaint of double taxation undoubtedly appeared justified, and that ... Read more

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

This case deals with arm’s length pricing of various inter-company loans which had been granted – free of interest – by Cypriot company Ltd. to an affiliate group company. Following an audit of Cypriot company Ltd, an upwards adjustment of the taxable income was issued. The adjustment was based on a comparison of the terms of the controlled transaction and the terms prevailing in transactions between independent parties. The lack of interest on the funds provided (deposit of a remittance minus acceptance of a remittance) was not considered in accordance with the arm’s length principle. Cypriot company Ltd disagreed with the assessment and filed an appeal with the tax court. Judgement of the Tax Court The Tax Court dismissed the appeal of Cypriot company Ltd. in regards of the arm’s length pricing of the loans. Excerpt “It is evident from the above that the bond loan taken is related to the outstanding balance of the debt as at 31/12/2014 and ... Read more

An employee (tax manager) of Amdocs Inc did not cooperate with the Canada Revenue Agency during several audits of the company and did not inform his superior about the audits. The audits resulted in tax reassessments for FY 2012 – 2014. The reassessment concerning FY 2012 resulted in income tax payable by $3,353,906, but by the time the employee informed his superior of the reassessment in 2019, Amdocs was time barred from objecting by virtue of the limitation periods. With respect to the assessments for FY 2013 and 2014 the limitation period for objections had not yet elapsed. Amdocs Inc filed an appeal with the court in regards of the denied access to object on the assessment for FY 2012. Judgement of the Federal Court The court dismissed the appeal of Amdocs and decided in favor of the tax authorities. Excerpts “…I find the Minister’s decision is reasonable. The Minister’s decision is internally coherent and justified in relation to the ... Read more

PJSC Vimpelcom-Communications submitted to the tax authority a revised notice of controlled transactions for 2017, under which contract numbers for 68 transactions were adjusted, including an agreement with a foreign counterparty Veon Wholensale Services B.V. (Netherlands) for the provision of agency-services (the “Controlled Transactions”), and information was also provided on another transaction with another foreign counterparty. Based on the revised notification, the Russian Tax Authorities issued a decision on 29 December 2020 to conduct an audit with respect to pricing of the Company’s Controlled Transactions for 2017. The Company held that the tax authority’s decision as unlawful. The Company insisted that the Russian Tax Authorities had missed the two-year deadline for issuing a decision on the appointment of an audit, and therefore lost its right to conduct a price audit in respect of the 2017-transactions in question. Judgement of the Arbitration Court The court dismissed the complaint and decided in favor of the tax authorities. The court concluded that the ... Read more

In 2005 an agreement was entered between the UK tax authority and GE Capital, whereby GE Capital was able to obtain significant tax benefits by routing billions of dollars through Australia, the UK and the US. HMRC later claimed, that GE Capital had failed to disclose all relevant information to HMRC prior to the agreement and therefore asked the High Court to annul the agreement. In December 2020 the High Court decided in favour of HMRC GE Capital then filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal. Judgement of the Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and set aside the decision of the High Court and thus the assessment af the HMRC. HMRC-v-GE CAPITAL 2021 ... Read more

DIGITEX INFORMATICA S.L. had entered into a substantial service contract with an unrelated party in Latin America, Telefonica, according to which the DIGITEX group would provide certain services for Telefonica. The contract originally entered by DIGITEX INFORMATICA S.L. was later transferred to DIGITEX’s Latin American subsidiaries. But after the transfer, cost and amortizations related to the contract were still paid – and deducted for tax purposes – by DIGITEX in Spain. The tax authorities found that costs (amortizations, interest payments etc.) related to the Telefonica contract – after the contract had been transferred to the subsidiaries – should have been reinvoiced to the subsidiaries, and an assessment was issued to DIGITEX for FY 2010 and 2011 where these deductions had been disallowed. DIGITEX on its side argued that by not re-invoicing the costs to the subsidiaries the income received from the subsidiaries increased. According to the intercompany contract, DIGITEX would invoice related entities 1% of the turnover of its own ... Read more

C. SA provides “services, in particular in the areas of communication, management, accounting, management and budget control, sales development monitoring and employee training for the group to which it belongs, active in particular in the field of “F”. C. SA is part of an international group of companies, G. group, whose ultimate owner is A. The G group includes H. Ltd, based in the British Virgin Islands, I. Ltd, based in Guernsey and J. Ltd, also based in Guernsey. In 2005, K. was a director of C. SA. On December 21 and December 31, 2004, an exclusive agreement for distribution of “F” was entered into between L. Ltd, on the one hand, and C. SA , H. Ltd and J. Ltd, on the other hand. Under the terms of this distribution agreement, L. Ltd. undertook to supply “F” to the three companies as of January 1, 2005 and for a period of at least ten years, in return for payment ... Read more

In 2005 an agreement was entered between the UK tax authority and GE Capital, whereby GE Capital was able to obtain significant tax benefits by routing billions of dollars through Australia, the UK and the US. HMRC later claimed, that GE Capital had failed to disclose all relevant information to HMRC prior to the agreement and therefore asked the High Court to annul the agreement. The High Court ruled that HMRC could pursue the claim against GE in July 2020. Judgement of the High Court The High Court ruled in favour of the tax authorities. UK vs GE 2021 COA 1716 ... Read more

In this case, A. S.A. had granted interest free loans to an affiliate company – Poiana Ciucas S.A. The tax authorities issued an assessment of non-realised income from loans granted. The tax authorities established that the average interest rates charged for comparable loans granted by credit institutions in Romania ranged from 5.45% to 19.39%. The court of first instance decided in favor of the tax authorities. An appeal against this decision was lodged by S S.A. According to S S.A. “The legal act concluded between the two companies should have been regarded as a contribution to the share capital of Poiana Ciucaș S.A. However, even if it were considered that a genuine loan contract (with 0% interest) had been concluded, it cannot be held that the company lacked the capacity to conclude such an act, since, even if the purpose of any company is to make a profit, the interdependence of economic operations requires a distinction to be made between ... Read more

In February 2019, Colegio de Abogados de La Libertad (CALL) in Peru filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court claiming that tax debts of at least 9 billion soles (USD 2,5 billions) owed by 158 large companies could not be collected by the tax authorities (SUNAT) due to the statute of limitation in Legislative Decree 1421. By four votes against and one vote for, the Constitutional Court rejected the claim. NoCOMPANY/TAXPAYERSTATUTE OF LIMITATIONS INVOKEDSTATUTE OF LIMITATIONS NOT INVOKEDTOTAL 1COMPAÑIA DE MINAS BUENAVENTURA S.A.A.2.083.106.4842.083.106.484 2SCOTIABANK PERU SAA1.076.546.4201.076.546.420 3COMPAÑIA MINERA ANTAPACCAY S.A.2.961.028725.065.302728.026.330 4MINERA LAS BAMBAS S.A.698.986.212698.986.212 5SOCIEDAD MINERA CERRO VERDE S.A.A542.560.586542.560.586 6TELEFONICA DEL PERU SAA301.180.21257.714.287358.894.499 7LATAM AIRLINES PERU S.A.332.312.17118.782.845351.095.016 8CONSORCIO MINERO S.A. EN LIQUIDACION122.737.710171.965.780294.703.490 9EMPRESA MINERA LOS QUENUALES S.A.255.456.549255.456.549 10AMERICA MOVIL PERU S.A.C.246.510.566246.510.566 11ENEL GENERACION PERU S.A.A.236.223.504236.223.504 12VOLCAN COMPANIA MINERA S.A.A161.464.638161.464.638 13SUPERMERCADOS PERUANOS SOCIEDAD ANONIMA 'O ' S.P.S.A33.294.659104.866.817138.161.476 14UNIVERSIDAD PERUANA DE CIENCIAS APLICADAS S.A.C128.889.678128.889.678 15COMPANIA MINERA ANTAMINA S.A119.550.076119.550.076 16ELECTROCENTRO S.A.111.905.388111.905.388 17UNION ANDINA DE CEMENTOS S.A.A. - UNACEM S.A.A15.132.22692.121.037107.253.263 18UNIVERSIDAD INCA GARCILASO DE ... Read more

A UK PE of the Royal Bank of Canada had (through its Canadian head office) advanced loans of CAD $540 million in the early 1980s to Sulpetro Limited (“Sulpetro”), a Canadian company, to help fund the exploitation by its group of companies of rights to drill for oil, largely in the Buchan field of the North Sea. The Sulpetro group sold its interest in the Buchan oil field to the BP group in 1986, in exchange for various sums including an entitlement to contingent royalty payments on production from the oil field (linked to the excess of the market price of the oil in question above a benchmark level) (“the Payments”). Sulpetro was already in financial difficulties at the time of the sale to BP and ultimately went into receivership in 1993, by which time some Payments had started to be made due to the rise in oil prices. After the remainder of its assets were realised, Sulpetro still owed ... Read more

C. SA provides “services, in particular in the areas of communication, management, accounting, management and budget control, sales development monitoring and employee training for the group to which it belongs, active in particular in the field of “F”. C. SA is part of an international group of companies, G. group, whose ultimate owner is A. The G group includes H. Ltd, based in the British Virgin Islands, I. Ltd, based in Guernsey and J. Ltd, also based in Guernsey. In 2005, K. was a director of C. SA. On December 21 and December 31, 2004, an exclusive agreement for distribution of “F” was entered into between L. Ltd, on the one hand, and C. SA , H. Ltd and J. Ltd, on the other hand. Under the terms of this distribution agreement, L. Ltd. undertook to supply “F” to the three companies as of January 1, 2005 and for a period of at least ten years, in return for payment ... Read more

The tax authorities had issued a TP adjustment for FY 2013 later than 18 month after initiating an audit of “O.P.A.P. PROVISION OF SERVICES S.A.” “O.P.A.P. PROVISION OF SERVICES S.A.” disagreed with legal basis for the assessment and filed an appeal. Judgement of the Supreme Court The Supreme Court allowed the appeal of “O.P.A.P. PROVISION OF SERVICES S.A.” and dismissed the assessment issued by the tax authorities. Since, the tax authorities had not carried out and completed its own tax audit within 18 months, these cases were considered definitively closed and time-barred after the 18-month period has passed. In other words, for these cases, the limitation period of the State’s audit right is 18 months and not five years. According to the Supreme Court, a re-inspection could only be carried out after the 18-month period, but within the normal five-year limitation if serious offenses were found concerning money laundering from criminal activities or transactions with non-existent tax companies or issuing ... Read more

In FY 2005 Shell Timur Sdn Bhd in Malaysia had sold its economic rights in trademarks to a group company, Shell Brands International AG. The sum (RM257,200,000.00) had not been included in the taxable income, but had – according to Shell – been treated as a capital receipt which is not taxable. The tax authorities conducted a transfer pricing audit beginning in June 2015 and which was finalized in 2018. Following the audit an assessment was issued where the gain had been added to the taxable income of Shell Timur Sdn Bhd. According to the tax authorities they were allowed to issue the assessment after the statutory 5-year time-bar in cases of fraud, wilful default or negligence of a taxpayer. An application for leave was filed by Shell. Courts decision The Court dismissed the application. Excerpt “I am, by the doctrine of stare decisis, bound by these pronouncements of the Court of Appeal and Federal Court. Hence, it is crystal ... Read more

ST Dupont is a French luxury manufacturer of lighters, pens and leather goods. It is majority-owned by the Dutch company, D&D International, which is wholly-owned by Broad Gain Investments Ltd, based in Hong Kong. ST Dupont is the sole shareholder of distribution subsidiaries located abroad, in particular ST Dupont Marketing, based in Hong Kong. Following an audit, an adjustment was issued for FY 2009, 2010 and 2011 where the tax administration considered that the prices at which ST Dupont sold its products to ST Dupont Marketing (Hong Kong) were lower than the arm’s length prices, that royalty rates had not been at arm’s length. Furthermore adjustments had been made to losses carried forward. Not satisfied with the adjustment ST Dupont filed an appeal with the Paris administrative Court. Judgement of the Administrative Court The Court set aside the tax assessment in regards to license payments and resulting adjustments to loss carry forward but upheld in regards of pricing of the ... Read more

During an audit for the FY 2010 “Doc Request SA” was requested to submit information and supporting documentation on expense accounts, acquisitions of goods and services, ISC commission accounts paid etc. after the ordinary one-year audit period established by Article 62º-A of the Tax Code had already expired. The taxpayer filed a complaint arguing that the exception to this one-year period provided for in paragraph 3 of Article 62º-A, referring to the audits carried out in regards of transfer pricing rules, was not applicable, given that the requested information and documentation did not related to transfer pricing. Decision of the Court The Court decided in favour of “Doc Request SA”. Excerpt “…the complainant was requested to submit information and supporting documentation on expense accounts, acquisitions of goods and services recorded in the Book, charges to the ISC commission accounts paid and unreported airline tickets flown, additions and deductions via affidavit, credits to expense accounts, charges to income accounts and bad ... Read more

The Spanish Tax administration made an income adjustment of Citresa (a Spanish subsidiary of the Schweeps Group) Corporate Income Tax for FY 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, resulting in a tax liability of €38.6 millon. Citresa entered into a franchise agreement and a contract manufacturing agreement with Schweppes International Limited (a related party resident in the Netherlands). The transactions between the related parties were not found to be in accordance with the arm’s length principle. In the parent company, CITRESA, the taxable income declared for the years 2003 to 2005 was increased as a result of an adjustment of market prices relating to the supply of certain fruit and other components by Citresa to Schweppes International Limited. In the subsidiary, SCHWEPPES, S.A. (SSA), the taxable income declared for the years 2003 to 2006 was increased as a result of adjustment of market prices relating to the supply of concentrates and extracts by the entity Schweppes International Limited, resident in Holland, to SSA. The taxpayer ... Read more

A tax assessments based on anti-avoidance doctrine “gjennomskjæring” were set aside. The case dealt with the benefits of a multi-currency cash pool arrangement. The court held that the decisive question was whether the allocation of the benefits was done at arm’s length. The court dismissed the argument that the benefits should accure to the parent company as only common control between the parties which should be disregarded. The other circumstances regarding the actual transaction should be recognized when pricing the transaction. In order to achieve an arm’s length price, the comparison must take into account all characteristics of the controlled transaction except the parties’ association with each other. While the case was before the Supreme Court, the Oil Tax Board made a new amendment decision, which also included a tax assessment for 2002. This amendment, which was based on the same anti-avoidance considerations, was on its own to the company’s advantage. Following the Supreme Court judgment, a new amended decision was made in 2009, which reversed the anti-avoidance decision for all three years ... Read more

This case concerned the Danish company, Swiss Re, Copenhagen Holding ApS, which was wholly owned by the US company, ERC Life Reinsurance Corporation. In 1999 the group considered transferring the German subsidiary, ERC Frankona Reinsurance Holding GmbH, from the US parent company to the Danish company. The value of the German company was determined to be DKK 7.8 billion. The purchase price was to be settled by the Danish Company issuing shares with a market value of DKK 4.2 billion and debt with a market value of DKK 3.6 billion. On 27 May 1999, the parent company and the Danish company considered to structure the debt as a subordinated, zero-coupon note. Compensation for the loan would be structured as a built-in capital gain in order to defer recognition of the compensation for the period 1 July 1999 to 30 June 2000. The Danish company would be unable to use a deduction in income year 1999. A built-in capital gain should ... Read more