The Argentinian company Materia Pampa S.A. exported products to a Brazilian company, Companhia De Bedidas Das Americas in Brazil (Ambev), via a related party in Uruguay, Maltería Uruguay S.A. There was a significant difference between the price declared on export to Uruguay and the price used for the subsequent final shipment to Brazil. An assessment was made by the tax/customs authorities, which resulted in an upward adjustment of the price received for the products from the related party in Uruguay, which in turn resulted in additional taxes and VAT. The price adjustment was based on the guidance provided in the OECD TPG, and in relation to the application of the arm’s length principle in determining prices for customs purposes, reference was made to the guidance provided in paragraph 1.137 of the 2017 TPG, which states. “The arm’s length principle is broadly applied by many customs administrations as a principle of comparison between the value attributable to goods imported by associated ... Read more

Eli Lilly ČR imports pharmaceutical products purchased from Eli Lilly Export S.A. (Swiss sales and marketing hub) into the Czech Republic and Slovakia and distributes them to local distributors. The arrangement between the local company and Eli Lilly Export S.A. is based on a Service Contract in which Eli Lilly ČR is named as the service provider to Eli Lilly Export S.A. (the principal). Eli Lilly ČR was selling the products at a lower price than the price it purchased them for from Eli Lilly Export S.A. According to the company this was due to local price controls of pharmaceuticals. At the same time, Eli Lilly ČR was also paid for providing marketing services by the Swiss HQ, which ensured that Eli Lilly ČR was profitable, despite selling the products at a loss. Eli Lilly ČR reported the marketing services as a provision of services with the place of supply outside of the Czech Republic; therefore, the income from such ... Read more

The issue was whether “technical fees” received after a purported “transfer of patent rights” instead constituted business income – royalties – earned from continuous and recurring activities for profit and therefore subject to a higher income tax and VAT. During an audit, the tax authority found that “IP developer” had entered into a “technology transfer agreement” with a related party to transfer patent rights on four occasions between 2008 and 2020. Upon entering into the agreement, “IP developer” was to receive a “technology fee” of 5% of the annual sales of the subject technology. “IP developer” had registered a total of 78 patents, 8 design rights and 15 trademark rights, and had also entered license agreements with third parties and received income from these agreements in the form of royalty. On that basis the tax authorities considered that “IP developer” was engaged in the continuous and repeated act of licensing patent rights, and therefore the “technical fees” in question constituted ... Read more

This case deals with VAT treatment of disallowed deductions for intra-group services. Following an audit, an adjustment of the taxable income was issued to “VAT Ltd.” by the tax authorities where intra-group services had been disallowed and VAT had been adjusted as a result. “VAT Ltd.” disagreed with the adjustment and filed an appeal. Judgement of the Tax Court The Tax Court upheld the assessment of the tax authorities. Click here for English translation ... Read more

A ruling was issued by the Italian Revenue Service on the following question on the VAT treatment of Transfer Pricing adjustments. 1) an internal CUP (Compared Uncontrolled Price) methodology is used, on the basis of which, net of appropriate adjustments, the price of goods charged by ALFA S.p.A. to its EU affiliates is compared with the price applied by the same company in transactions with independent third parties. The adjustments applied to the price identified by the CUP method, as clarified by the same applicant in the note forwarded at the time of submitting the supplementary documentation, consist of a discount of XX on the price of finished products that can be applied to independent third parties; this last reduction would be attributable to the higher costs borne by the subsidiaries compared to third party resellers; 2) at the end of the year, a corroborative analysis (sanity check) is carried out using the TNMM (Transactional Net Margin Method), aimed at ... Read more

In this case the assessed company had imported goods from a related party. It did not fail to declare the relation to the exporter, but indicated in the completion of its import declarations that this relation did not influence the price. It therefore adopted the first method of customs valuation; the transaction value, to establish the basis for calculation and collection of taxes. The authorities found evidence that the relation did influence the declared price and on that basis ruled out the use of the first method for customs valuation. In compliance with Brazilian customs legislation, the tax authorities started to evaluate the possibility of using other customs valuation methods. The second (identical goods), third (similar goods), fourth (deductive) and fifth (computed goods) methods were not found applicable, which left the sixth and final method. The sixth method is a last resort method where the tax authorities uses information and transfer prices calculated based on article 18 of Law 9,430/96 ... Read more

Malteria Pampa S.A in Argentina exported malt to a related intermediary in Uruguay that in turn sold on the goods to the brewery in Brazil at a higher price. The tax authorities applied the Sixth method and issued an assessment where the export price was determined based on the latter price used in the transaction with the brewery in Brazil. Furthermore a substantial fine was issued to the Malteria Pampa S.A. for non compliance. In February 2019 the Tax Court decided in favour of the tax authorities. “That the factual and legal points considered by the customs verification – corroborated in this pronouncement – complied with the application parameters of the TP rules invoked in the Technical Report, forming a solid conviction that the transactional prices of the sale declared in the field “Merchandise Value” of the PE 07-003-EC01-004994-P and PE N° 07-003- EC01-004995-Z of Maltería Pampa S. A. are manifestly inaccurate, constituting an under-invoicing that causes the plaintiff to ... Read more

SARL SRN Métal’s business is trading in industrial metal and steel products. Following an audit of the company for FY 2011 to 2012 and assessment was issued related to VAT, Transfer Pricing and Withholding Tax. In regards to transfer pricing, the administration considered that (1) the sales of goods made by SRN Métal to B-Lux Steel, established in Luxembourg, were invoiced at a lower price than that charged to the company’s other customers and (2) that commissions paid to Costa Rica – a privileged tax regime – were not deductible as SRN Metal did not provided proof that the expenses corresponded to real operations and that they are not abnormal or exaggerated. The company requested the administrative court of Strasbourg to discharge the assessments. This request was rejected by the court in a judgement issued 29 October 2019. This decision of the administrative court was appealed by the company to the Supreme Administrative Court Judgement of the Supreme Administrative Court ... Read more

Levi Strauss South Africa (Pty) Ltd, has been in a dispute with the African Revenue Services, over import duties and value-added tax (VAT) payable by it in respect of clothing imports. The Levi’s Group uses procurement Hubs in Singapore and Hong Kong but channeled goods via Mauritius to South Africa, thus benefiting from a favorable duty protocol between Mauritius and South Africa. Following an audit, the tax authorities issued an assessment in which it determined that the place of origin certificates issued in respect of imports from countries in the South African Development Community (SADC) and used to clear imports emanating from such countries were invalid, and therefore disentitled Levi SA from entering these goods at the favorable rate of zero percent duty under the Protocol on Trade in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Region (the Protocol). The tax authorities also determined that the transaction value of the imported goods on which duty was payable should include certain commissions ... Read more

New Wave Norway AS is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swedish New Wave Group AB. The group operates in the wholesale market for sports and workwear and gift and promotional items. It owns trademark rights to several well-known brands. The sales companies – including New Wave Norway AS – pay a concept fee to New Wave Group AB, which passes on the fee to the concept-owning companies in the Group. All trademark rights owned by the group are located in a separate company, New Wave Group Licensing SA, domiciled in Switzerland. For the use of the trademarks, the sales companies pay royalties to this company. There is also a separate company that handles purchasing and negotiations with the Asian producers, New Wave Group SA, also based in Switzerland. For the purchasing services from this company, the sales companies pay a purchasing fee (“sourcing fee”). Both the payment of royalties and the purchase fee are further regulated in the group’s ... Read more

A tax assessment had been issued for FY 2013 resulting in additional taxes of to CZK 227,162,210. At first the tax administration disputed that the applicant had purchased 1 TB SSDs for the purpose of earning, maintaining and securing income. It therefore concluded that the Starcom Internatioal had not proved that the conditions for tax deductions were met. On appeal, the tax administrator changed its position and accepted that all the conditions for tax deductions were met, but now instead concluded that Starcom Internatioal was a connected party to its supplier AZ Group Czech s.r.o. It also concluded that the transfer prices had been set mainly for the purpose of reducing the tax base within the meaning of Section 23(7)(b)(5) of the ITA. It was thus for the tax authorities to prove that Starcom Internatioal and AZ Group Czech s.r.o. (‘AZ’) were ‘otherwise connected persons’ and that the prices agreed between them differed from those which would have been agreed ... Read more

A Swiss company, Ashland Industries Europe GmbH, had not declared a presence in Spain for VAT purposes and did not charge VAT for local sales. However, the Swiss company used the resources of its Spanish subsidiary when performing these local sales of goods in Spain. On that basis, the Spanish tax authorities found that the company had a permanent establishment for in Spain for VAT purposes and issued an assessment. An appeal was filed by Ashland Industries, but the appeal was dismissed by the courts. The Spanish Supreme Court concluded that: “First. To determine whether a permanent establishment can be deemed to exist in the Spanish territory of application of VAT where the only transactions carried out subject to that tax are supplies of goods other than supplies of gas, electricity, heat or refrigeration. Second. If the answer to the previous question is in the affirmative, what conditions are necessary to establish that a Spanish subsidiary constitutes a permanent establishment ... Read more

Atlas Copco Tanzania Ltd. is part of Atlas Copco Group, a conglomerate of multinational companies headquartered in Sweden. The group produces and sell compressors, vacuum solutions, generators, pumps, power tools etc. Apart from supplying generators in Tanzania on its own, Atlas Tanzania sold generators as an agent of its sister companies which had no presence in the country. For the latter type of sales, known as “indent sales”, Atlas Tanzania earned a commission. Being oblivious that the commission income attracted Value Added Tax (“VAT”), Atlas Tanzania did not file any VAT returns on indent sales until its external auditors, KPMG, informed it of the requirement. By then, Atlas Tanzania had posted in its sales ledgers commission income amounting to TZS. 134,413,682,281.00 for FY 2007 and 2008. Atlas Tanzania then accounted for VAT on the commission for the years 2007 and 2008 amounting to TZS. 5,692,574,000.00, which was paid through the VAT returns filed in 2009. This amount was much smaller ... Read more

“P Services! provided services to a Peruvian consortium. In 2014, the parties entered into an interest-free loan agreement. According to the loan agreement, payment for the services performed in 2013 was going to be offset against the funds received under the agreement. The tax authorities found that the “loan arrangement”, in reality constituted advances for the services provided by “P Services”- According to the authorities the arrangement had been established for the purpose of avoiding VAT on the advances received for the services. Decision of the Tax Court The tax court issued a decision in favour of the tax authorities. Click here for English translation Click here for other translation ... Read more

At issue was deduction of VAT on purported costs incurred for intra-group services, which had been deemed non-deductible for tax as well as VAT purposes by the Italien Tax Authorities, as the taxpayer had not been able to prove the effectiveness and relevance of these services. The Supreme Court found that in order for intra-group cost to be deductible (and VAT deductible) taxpayer must prove that, a real service have been received which is objectively determinable and adequately documented. This burden of proof had not been lifted by the taxpayer and VAT payments on the purported services were consequently non-deductible. Click here for English translation ... Read more

Kenya Fluospar Company Ltd (KFC) had been issued an assessment related to VAT and transfer pricing – leasing of mining equipment, mining services and management services. The assessment was later set aside by the Tax Tribunal and an appeal was then filed by the tax authorities with the High Court THE JUDGEMENT The High Court dismissed the appeal of the tax authorities and decided in favour of KFC. Excerpts “B. Whether the Commissioner was right in the using Transactional Nett Margin Method (TNMM) instead of Split Profit Method (SPM) in determining how to share the income tax between KFC EPZ. 48. Rule 7 thus gives the various methods of choice, one of them being the profit split method. In this regard also, Rule 8(2) provides as follows – 8(2). A person shall apply the method most appropriate for his enterprise, having regard to the nature of the transaction, or class of related persons or function performed by such persons in ... Read more

Eli Lilly ČR imports pharmaceutical products purchased from Eli Lilly Export S.A. (Swiss sales and marketing hub) into the Czech Republic and Slovakia and distributes them to local distributors. The arrangement between the local company and Eli Lilly Export S.A. is based on a Service Contract in which Eli Lilly ČR is named as the service provider to Eli Lilly Export S.A. (the principal). Eli Lilly ČR was selling the products at a lower price than the price it purchased them for from Eli Lilly Export S.A. According to the company this was due to local price controls of pharmaceuticals. Eli Lilly ČR was also paid for providing marketing services by the Swiss HQ, which ensured that Eli Lilly ČR was profitable, despite selling the products at a loss. Eli Lilly ČR reported the marketing services as a provision of services with the place of supply outside of the Czech Republic; therefore, the income from such supply was exempt from ... Read more

A ruling was issued by the Italian Revenue Service on the following question on the VAT treatment of Transfer Pricing adjustments. “Alfa represents that it is part of a multinational Group (hereinafter, the “Group”). The Group is implementing a new integrated development plan, aimed at the joint creation of products and platforms necessary for the production and marketing of goods under brand X. The legal and economic ownership of the X trademark and of the relevant know-how belongs to the non-EU company Beta, which acts as “Principal” and assumes all risks connected to the production and marketing of the goods, granting the trademark and the know-how free of charge to the subsidiaries engaged in the production and marketing of the X goods. The plaintiff entered into an intra-group agreement (the ‘Agreement’) with Beta, whereby Beta undertakes to act as contract assembler for the purpose of manufacturing X products, putting its own equipment at the disposal of Gamma (a company incorporated ... Read more

The French Supreme Court issued a decision on 4 April 2018, concluding that a permanent establishment (PE) existed in France for purposes of determining nonresident companies’ exposure to French VAT in a case involving a transport commissionaire arrangement. The decisions clarify the criteria for determining whether a service provider will be considered to have sufficient substance in France to enable the services to be performed in an independent manner, and thus constitute a PE. A UK sea carriage commissionaire signed a client assignment contract with a French company carrying out the same activity, as well as a contract for the French company to organize and provide transport services. The UK company was required to approve any new clients or suppliers. The UK company also managed the reservation systems for clients to book the transport and communicated with the clients regarding the transport and the insurance linked to the business. The French company was responsible for the overall development of the ... Read more

Following a judgement by Regional Administrative Tribunal an appeal was filed by Coim S.p.A Among various other issues Coim S.p.A. complains of breach and misapplication of Article 9 of Presidential Decree No 917 of 22 December 1986, pursuant to Article 360(1)(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure, on the ground that the Regional Administrative Tribunal held that the recovery of the higher price calculated on the basis of the presumed normal value of the transfers made by the taxpayer to certain subsidiaries was lawful. The taxpayer claims that the appeal judges erred in finding that the Office had correctly applied the so-called CUP (comparable uncontrolled price method) price comparison method to determine normal value, in particular as regards the identification of the relevant market, the different stage of marketing of the goods tested compared to the comparative goods and the different commercial functions performed by the subsidiaries compared to the comparators. Judgement of the Supreme Court Indeed, the grounds of ... Read more

CF (Pvt) Ltd’s main business was import, distribution and marketing of motor vehicles and spare parts of a specified brand. Following an audit CF had been issued a tax assessment related to the transfer pricing and VAT – import prices, management fees, audit costs etc. Judgement of the High Court The High Court issued a decision predominantly in favor of the tax authorities. In its judgement, the court stated that either the general deduction provision under section 15 (2) or section 24 or section 98 of the Income Tax Act could be employed to deal with transfer pricing matters. Excerpts: “It seems to me that the unsupported persistent assertions maintained by the appellant even after the concession of 14 November 2014 were indicative of both corporate moral dishonesty and a lack of good faith. I therefore find that the appellant through the mind of its management evinced the intention to evade the payment of the correct amount of tax as contemplated ... Read more

The case concerns the effect of transfer pricing year-end adjustments on VAT – the relationship between transfer pricing and the valuation of goods for customs (VAT) purposes (Hamamatsu case C-529/16). Hamamatsu Photonics Deutschland GmbH (Hamamatsu) is a German subsidiary of the Japanese company Hamamatsu, and it acts as a distributor of optical devices purchased from the parent company. The transfer pricing policy of the group, which is covered by an Advanced Pricing Agreement (APA) with the German Tax Authorities, provides that the consideration paid by Hamamatsu to purchase the goods sold allows Hamamatsu Photonics a target profit. Hamamatsu accounted for an operating margin below the threshold agreed upon in the APA. The Japanese parent company consequently carried out a downward adjustment to allow the achievement of the target profitability by its German subsidiary. Hamamatsu filed a refund claim for the higher customs duties paid on the price that was declared to customs at the time of importation. Customs, at that ... Read more

On the basis of the detailed evidence provided by the tax administration, the defendant stated that the essence of the case is to assess whether the applicant has proved that the taxable supply declared in invoice No 2010036 took place, i.e. that Dosnetex plus s.r.o. provided the invoiced supply (production of graphic designs) to the applicant. However, it found that Dosnetex plus had become uncontactable at the end of 2010 and had filed a VAT return for the previous period, but that procedures for the removal of doubts had been initiated and that the company had not paid the actual tax assessed on the basis of those procedures. The company did not file an income tax return for 2010. It was established from the Commercial Register that on 12 November 2010 there was a change in the company’s composition, when the company’s managing director, Mr J.S., was replaced by Mr R.T., who also became the sole shareholder. Mr T. is ... Read more

Refrescos Envasados, S.A. – a Coca-Cola subsidiary in Spain – bought soft drink concentrate manufactured by Coca-Cola companies in Ireland and France. According to the tax authorities the prices paid for the concentrate were above market prices. Hence, an assessment was issued where the prices for the concentrate had been lowered resulting in additional taxable profits. In regards to the tax assessment, the tax authorities argued that they were not bound by the valuation carried out for customs purposes. Judgement of the Supreme Court According to the Supreme Court the pricing applied for the purpose of calculating the customs, is linked to the pricing applied for transfer prices purposes. The tax authorities can choose a transfer pricing method, but the method chosen must be used for both CIT and customs purposes. Click here for english translation Click here for other translation ... Read more

At issue in the Philip Morris case was the scope of the definition of permanent establishments – whether or not activities in Italy performed by Intertaba s.p.a. constituted a permanent establishment of the Philip Morris group. According to the tax authorities the taxpayer had tried to conceal the P.E. in Italy by disguising the fact that the Italian company was also acting in the exclusive interest of the Philip Morris group. On the basis of a tax audit report the Revenue Department – VAT office of Milan, by means of separate adjustment notices for the years 1992 to 1995, charged AAA, and on its behalf BBB s.p.a, for having failed to invoice the amounts paid by the State Monopolies Administration for the supply-distribution in the national territory of cigarettes under the CCC brand. In addition, according to the Administration, the company had failed to self-invoice the amounts for transport and distribution of the tobacco in the national territory. The Court ... Read more

An Australian subsidiary of Estee Lauder paid a licence fees to licensor on sales of cosmetics in Australia whether imported or made locally. At issue is whether this fees should be taken into account in determining price and thus “transaction value” of goods for purposes of assessing customs duty. Judgement of the Federal Court The Court found that the fee should not be included. “The royalties will also be part of the price of the goods if it were open to a Collector to conclude that the licence agreement was so closely connected with the contracts of sale pursuant to which the goods were imported and to the goods that together they formed a single transaction. I do not think there is any basis for the taking of such a view. The licence agreement was made in 1969 and appointed the applicant exclusive licensee of the relevant trade marks in Australia. The agreement entitled the applicant to use the trade ... Read more