TPcases

The Australian Taxation Office’s draft Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2025/D2 explains how the ATO assesses the tax risk of inbound cross-border related-party financing arrangements and the factors it takes into account. It also sets out the compliance framework the ATO follows when determining the appropriate interest rate or other pricing for such arrangements. Because the document is still in draft form, it has no effect until it is finalised. When issued, it will apply exclusively to inbound cross-border related-party financing arrangements ...

On 23 May 2025, the OECD issued guidance on common errors made by multinational enterprise (MNE) groups when preparing their country-by-country (CbC) reports. These reports contain valuable information on the global allocation of income, taxes paid, and the location of economic activity among the tax jurisdictions in which an MNE group operates. This information can be used for a high-level transfer pricing risk assessment, the assessment of other BEPS-related risks, and economic and statistical analysis, if appropriate. However, this information can only be used effectively for these purposes if the ...

Germany has issued guidance on a recent addition to German taxpayers’ transfer pricing documentation obligations. The transaction matrix now required under Section 90 (3) sentence 2 no. 1 AO is a structured, tabular overview of relevant information on the taxpayer’s transactions and business relationships with related parties and permanent establishments, which is intended to support risk-oriented case and audit field selection. Click here for an unofficial English Translation ...

12 December 2024, the German Federal Ministry of Finance published updated administrative principles on transfer pricing 2024 (VWG VP 2024). The updates mainly concern the chapter on financial transactions, where paragraphs 3d and 3e have recently been added to the AStG. Paragraph 3d concerns the determination of arm’s length interest rates, group or stand-alone rating and whether capital should be treated as a loan or equity, and paragraph 3e concerns the treatment of financing arrangements, i.e. cash pools, hedging, etc. New guidance is also provided on the application of OECD ...

1 October 2024, the New Zealand Inland Revenue published a new 2024 edition of its Multinational Enterprises Compliance Focus. According to the publication (page 23), the provision of risk indicators will assist MNE’s in self-assessing their compliance with anti-BEPS measures and identifying potential deficiencies. A self-assessment can be conducted using the flowchart below. According to the publication (page 24), the top ten base erosion and profit shifting risks in New Zealand are According to the publication (page 27), the Inland Revenue has conducted targeted BEPS campaigns focusing on specific sectors ...

9 September 2024, the Peruvian tax authority – SUNAT – issued guidance on the qualification of services, transfer pricing methods for services and the application of the “benefit test”. Click here for English translation ...

30 August 2024 the Inland Revenue of New Zealand issued Commissioner’s Statement CS 24/02. The Statement that sets out the Commissioner’s position in relation to the withholding tax obligations that may arise from transactions that constitute a transfer pricing arrangement ...

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has applied for special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia against the Full Federal Court’s decision in PepsiCo, Inc. v Commissioner of Taxation [2024] FCAFC 86. At issue was the ‘royalty-free’ use of intangible assets under an agreement whereby PepsiCo Singapore sold concentrate to Schweppes Australia. According to the ATO, part of the payments made by Schweppes Australia to PepsiCo Singapore were in fact royalties for the use of trademarks and trade names, which were subject to Australian withholding taxes. See also ATO’s ...

In 2013, Airbnb entered into a technology and licensing agreement with its Irish subsidiary, which included a cost-sharing arrangement for the use and development of its proprietary intellectual property. As part of this arrangement, the Irish affiliate made a lump-sum platform contribution transaction (PCT) payment of $35 million in exchange for rights to Airbnb’s IP. To determine the PCT amount, Airbnb applied the income method, using discount rates ranging from 25% to 35% and estimating the useful lives of the licensed intangibles. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) challenged this ...

On 17 June 2024, additional guidance and lists of qualifying and coverred jurisdictions under Amount B was released by the OECD. The additional guidance includes: The definitions of qualifying jurisdictions within the meaning of section 5.2 and 5.3 of the Amount B guidance. These definitions will facilitate adjustments to the return calculated under the simplified and streamlined approach for tested parties located in those qualifying jurisdictions. The respective definitions are now incorporated into the Amount B guidance in the annex to Chapter IV of the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. The definition of ...

On 27 March 2024, new paragraphs (3d) and (3e) were added to the German Foreign Tax Act (Außensteuergesetz – AStG) regarding intragroup financing. Paragraph (3d) concerns the determination of arm’s length interest rates, group vs. stand-alone rating and whether capital is treated as a loan or equity. Paragraph (3e) concerns the treatment of financing arrangements, i.e. cash pools, hedging, etc ...

On 19 February 2024, the OECD announced the release of the report on Amount B, which provides a simplified and streamlined approach to the application of the arm’s length principle to baseline marketing and distribution activities. The report, which introduces two options for implementation for jurisdictions that opt into the simplified and streamlined approach from January 2025, describes the circumstances under which a distributor is within scope of Amount B including cases where it also performs certain non-distribution activities, such as manufacturing. It also sets out the activities that may ...

The Swiss Federal Tax Authorities have published an Article on the status of transfer pricing legislation in Switzerland as of 1 January 2024. The Article describes the existing legal basis for the application of the arm’s length principle in Switzerland and reference is made to the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines as well as to Swiss administrative practice and case law. The article is available in French, German and English. The English version is provided below ...

On January 19, 2024, the Maltese Commissioner of Taxes and Customs published local guidelines in relation to the transfer pricing rules introduced in Malta in November 2022. The local guidelines refer to the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines 2022 in relation to the application of transfer pricing methods, comparability analysis, transfer pricing documentation, etc ...

17 January 2024 the Australian Taxation Office published the final version of its Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2024/1 Intangibles migration arrangements. The PCG has previously been released in drafts as PCG 2021/D4 and PCG 2023/D2 Intangibles arrangements. The final version sets out ATO’s compliance approach to the tax risks associated with certain cross-border related party intangibles arrangements involving: restructures or changes to arrangements involving intangible assets (referred to as ‘migrations’ in the PCG) the mischaracterisation or non-recognition of Australian activities connected with intangible assets. Changes and additions included in the ...

According to various articles in Australian media, Coca-Cola is now defending itself in a case pending before the Federal Court over unpaid withholding tax on royalties received from Coca-Cola Amatil Australia – a local bottler and distributor in which Coca-Cola has a minority shareholding. The case is very similar to that against PepsiCo, where the Federal Court, in a judgment dated 30 November 2023, found PepsiCo liable for additional taxes and penalties. According to the Australian Tax Office, Coca-Cola licensed intangibles (trademarks, branding etc.) to Coca-Cola Amatil Australia, but misclassified ...

On 23 October 2023, the United Arab Emirates issued a comprehensive practical Transfer Pricing Guide. The guide is designed to provide general guidance on the Transfer Pricing regime in the UAE with a view to making the provisions of the Transfer Pricing regulations as understandable as possible to readers. UAE’s Transfer Pricing regulations are contained in Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 on the Taxation of Corporations and Businesses, Chapter 10 ...

11 October 2023 Microsoft announced that the IRS has claimed that it owes $28.9 billion in back taxes for the years 2004 to 2013, plus penalties and interest. The claim relates to cost-sharing arrangements used by Microsoft to allocate profits between countries during this period. According to Microsoft, its subsidiaries shared in the costs of developing certain intellectual property and, therefore, the subsidiaries were entitled to the related profits under the IRS cost-sharing regulations ...

29 September 2023 Brazil published normative instructions (IN RFB nº 2.161/23) for its new transfer pricing rules, which will apply from FY 2024 onwards. Brazil’s transfer pricing legislation is now in line with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. In fact, the new legislation is the result of a joint project between the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service (Receita Federal do Brasil) and the OECD. The normative instructions deal with the general aspects of the new law, which form the basic part of the new system and apply to all transactions falling ...

12 September 2023, the European Commission published a new proposal to simplify tax rules and harmonise transfer pricing rules across the EU. According to the press release, the proposal, called “Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation” (BEFIT), will make life easier for both businesses and tax authorities by introducing a new, single set of rules to determine the tax base of groups of companies. This will reduce compliance costs for large businesses who operate in more than one Member State and make it easier for national tax authorities to ...

12 July 2023 138 members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework agreed an Outcome Statement recognising the significant progress made and allowing countries and jurisdictions to move forward with historic, major reform of the international tax system. The Two‐Pillar Solution to Address the Tax Challenges Arising from the Digitalisation of the Economy will ensure a fairer distribution of profits and taxing rights among countries and jurisdictions with respect to the world’s largest Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). The Outcome Statement agreed at the 15th Meeting of the Inclusive Framework follows 20 months of ...

14 June 2023 Brazil issued it’s new updated transfer pricing legislation, which is now aligned with OECD transfer pricing guidelines. Click here for unofficial English translation ...

6 June 2023 Germany published it’s new updated administrative principles on transfer pricing. The new publication includes expanded guidance on transfers of functions (and valuation – see English translation) and financial transactions. With regard to the latter, reference is made to two recent decisions of the Federal Fiscal Court (BFH) on intra-group loans (BFH of 18 May 2021, I R 4/17, and of 13 January 2022, I R 15/21). With the exception of the new content on transfer of functions, the new principles can be applied retroactively by the tax ...

On 29 May 2002, Malaysia updated its existing TP rules. The new rules are largely in line with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines, but there are minor differences. For example, the new rules state that the arm’s length range is defined as the range between the 37.5th and 62.5th percentiles of a data set. Furthermore, according to the new rules, the tax authorities may make adjustments to the median or any point above the median, even if a taxpayer’s price is already within the arm’s length range where there is ...

24 March 2023 the Polish Ministry of Finance issued Tax clarifications on transfer pricing No. 5: Resale Price Method The resale price method (RPM) is one of the traditional transaction methods and probably most useful where it is applied to distribution operations.. Application of the RPM for determining the price of a controlled transaction begins with the price at which a product that has been purchased from an associated enterprise is resold to an independent enterprise. This price (the resale price) is then reduced by an appropriate gross margin on ...

The German Federal Ministry of Finance issues draft law for the implementation of the EU Directive to ensure a global minimum level of taxation for multinational groups of companies and large domestic groups in the Union The aim of the draft law is to implement key elements of the international agreements on Pillar 2 of the so-called two-pillar solution. The post-taxation provisions contained therein are intended to ensure a global effective minimum taxation, to counteract harmful tax competition and aggressive tax structuring and thus to contribute to the promotion of ...

20 February 2023 Ampol Limited announced entering a $157 million tax settlement agreement with the Australian Tax Office in a dispute over pricing of transactions between Ampol Limited and the group’s Singapore procurement hub. Ampol is an Australian based petroleum distributor and retailer, with more than 1,900 Ampol-branded gas stations across the country. Ampol Singapore was established in late 2013 and is the trading and shipping arm of the Group. According to an announcement issued by Ampol, the settlement relates to financial years ended 31 December 2014 to 2022, as ...

14 February 2023 the Council of the European Union published an updated list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions. The British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, the Marshall Islands and Russia have been added to the list, which now comprises 16 jurisdictions: American Samoa Anguilla Bahamas British Virgin Islands Costa Rica Fiji Guam Marshall Islands Palau Panama Russia Samoa Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands US Virgin Islands Vanuatu This revised EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions includes countries that either have not engaged in a constructive dialogue with the EU on ...

3 February 2023 the Inland Revenue of New Zealand issued an interpretation statement explaining the Commissioner’s view of the law on tax avoidance in New Zealand. It sets out the approach the Commissioner will take to the general anti-avoidance provisions in the Income Tax Act 2007 – ss BG 1 and s GA 1. Where s BG 1 applies, s GA 1 enables the Commissioner to make an adjustment to counteract a tax advantage obtained from or under a tax avoidance arrangement. The Supreme Court in Ben Nevis considered it ...

1 February 2023 OECD published guidance on Multilateral MAP and APAs. The Manual is intended as a guide to multilateral MAP and APA processes from both a legal and procedural perspective and provides tax administrations and taxpayers with information on the operation of these procedures and suggests different approaches based on the practices of jurisdictions, without imposing a set of binding rules. The Manual is divided into the following sections: Introduction: This section comprises the outline of the project, the challenges that generally arise in multilateral cases and the overview ...

17 January 2023 the South African Revenue Service (SARS) released an interpretation note (IN 127) titled “DETERMINATION OF THE TAXABLE INCOME OF CERTAIN PERSONS FROM INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS: INTRA-GROUP LOANS” which provides guidance on how SARS will determine arm’s length pricing for intra-group loans. The Note also provides guidance on the consequences for a taxpayer if the amount of debt, the cost of debt or both are not arm’s length. According to the note an intra-group loan would be incorrectly priced if the amount of debt funding, the cost of the ...

28 December 2022 Brazil published draft legislation on implementation of the arm’s length principle as described in the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. The new provisions came into effect on the date of publication and must be converted into law by the National Congress. The new transfer pricing regime will be optional for taxpayers for 2023 and mandatory as of 2024. Unofficial English Translation ...

21 November 2022 the US Supreme Court denied Whirlpool its request for judicial review of the December 2021 judgment of the Court of Appeal (Sixth Circuit). 10 August 2022 Whirlpool filed a “petition for writ” with the Supreme Court of the United States. “Petitioners Whirlpool Financial Corporation & Consolidated Subsidiaries and Whirlpool International Holdings S.à.r.l. & Consolidated Subsidiaries collectively, “Whirlpool”) respectfully petition this Court for a writ of certiorari to review the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in this case.” The case revolves ...

In a press release dated November 7, 2022, TELE2 announced a SEK 1,8 billion win related to tax deductions for foreign exchange losses on intra-group loans, that had previously been disallowed by the Swedish tax authorities in an assessment issued back in 2019. According to the tax authorities the company would not – at arms length – have agreed to a currency conversion of certain intra-group loans which resulted in the loss. Tele2 appealed the decision to the Administrative Court where, during the proceedings, the authorities acknowledged deductions in part ...

In a press release dated October 27, 2022, Caterpillar announced that a $740 million settlement had been reached with the IRS related to tax issues for FY 2007 through 2016. In the third quarter of 2022, the company reached a settlement with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that resolves all issues for tax years 2007 through 2016, without any penalties. The company’s settlement includes, among other issues, the resolution of disputed tax treatment of profits earned by Caterpillar SARL (CSARL) from certain parts transactions. The company vigorously contested the ...

A settlement agreement between the French Financial Public Prosecutor and Credit Suisse was announced in the Paris Court of Appeal 24 October 2022. The “CJIP” agreement brings an end to investigations in France over whether the Swiss bank facilitated and aided clients in tax avoidance. (English translation of the press release from the French Public Prosecutor) On 24 October 2022, the President of the Paris Judicial Court validated the judicial public interest agreement (CJIP) concluded on 21 October 2022 between the Financial Public Prosecutor (PRF) and CREDIT SUISSE AG pursuant ...

On 14 October 2022 OECD published updated guidance on CbC reporting. The guidance contains definitions of items in the CbC reporting template – revenue, related parties, tax accrued and paid, fair value accounting, positive and negative figures etc. Issued related to particular reporting entities is also addressed (investment funds, major shareholding, deemed listing provisions and permanent establishment information. Guidance is provided on common issues such as currency fluctuations, definition of consolidated revenue, long and short accounting periods, mergers – demergers and acquisitions, and errors made by MNE groups in preparing ...

On 28 September 2022 OECD published a new manual for entering bilateral advance pricing arrangement (APA’s) which has been approved by the Inclusive Framework on BEPS, as well as all members of the FTA, on 6 July 2022. The Bilateral Advance Pricing Arrangement Manual (“BAPAM” or “Manual”) is intended as a guide to tax administrations and taxpayers for streamlining the bilateral APA process. In addition to detailing several Best Practices for engaging in bilateral APAs, it also includes practical resources for tax administrations and taxpayers, such as templates and examples. It ...

Italian financial institute, Banca Generali, has signed a agreement with the Italian Revenue Agency, whereby the parties agreed upon the terms and conditions for the settlement of tax claims in relation to transfer pricing for FY 2014 to 2018. Under the agreement, Banca Generali will incur an additional tax charge of €45.99 million for FY 2014-2018. The tax dispute relates to remuneration for a transfer in 2008 of fund management activities in Italian to a newly established Luxembourg company, BG Fund Management Luxembourg S.A. According to the announcement, no penalties ...

Uber files – confidential documents, leaked to The Guardian newspaper shows that Uber in 2015 sought to deflect attention from its Dutch conduits and Caribbean tax shelters by helping tax authorities collect taxes from its drivers. At that time, Uber’s Dutch subsidiary received payments from customers hiring cars in cities around the world (except US and China), and after paying the drivers, profits were routed on as royalty fees to Bermuda, thus avoiding corporate income tax. In 2019, Uber took the first steps to close its Caribbean tax shelters. To ...

As part of a multinational tax integrity package aimed to address the tax avoidance practices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and improve transparency through better public reporting of MNEs’ tax information, the Australian Treasury issued a Consultation Paper in August 2022. This paper seeks to consult on the implementation of proposals to: amend Australia’s existing thin capitalisation rules to limit interest deductions for MNEs in line with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s recommended approach under Action 4 of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) program (Part 1); ...

The ATO is currently reviewing treaty shopping arrangements designed to obtain the benefit of a reduced withholding tax (WHT) rate under a double-tax agreement (DTA) in relation to royalty or dividend payments from Australia. Typically, this benefit is sought via the interposition of one or more related entities between an Australian resident and the ultimate recipient of the royalty or dividend, where the interposed entity is a resident of a treaty partner jurisdiction. The ultimate recipient is generally located in a jurisdiction that either does not have a DTA with Australia ...

On 20 July 2022 Australian mining group Rio Tinto issued a press release announcing that a A$ 1 billion settlement had been reached with the Australian Taxation Office. “The agreement resolves the disagreement relating to interest on an isolated borrowing used to pay an intragroup dividend in 2015. It also separately resolves the pricing of certain transactions between Rio Tinto entities based in Australia and the Group’s commercial centre in Singapore from 2010-2021 and provides certainty for a further five-year period. Rio Tinto has also reached agreement with the Inland ...

On 5 July 2022, the Federal Ministry of Finance in Germany published draft legislation regarding application of the arm’s length principle to cross-border relocation of functions. According to the general provisions A function is a business activity that consists of a grouping of similar operational tasks performed by specific units or departments of an enterprise. It is an organic part of an enterprise, without the need for a sub-operation in the tax sense. A transfer of functions within the meaning of section 1(3b) of the Foreign Tax Act occurs if ...

July 1 2022 the State Secretary of Finance has issued updated guidance on the profit allocation to permanent establishments – Decree no. 16683. The purpose of the guidance is to clarify the way in which the Tax and Customs Administration assesses the profit allocation to permanent establishments. Attention is paid to the introduction of the object exemption in the Corporate Income Tax Act 1969 (Corporate Tax Act 1969) in 2012, a number of editorial changes have been made and references to other decrees and documents have been updated. Click here ...

On 1 July 2022, the tax authorities in the Netherlands published Decree No. 2022-0000139020 of 14 June 2022 containing local guidance on application of the arm’s length principle. The Decree is based on article 9 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines and also contains references to local case laws. In the Decree, particular focus is on areas that have been updated in the most recent releases of the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines – Legal ownership, DEMPE functions, Services, HTVI and Valuation Methods, Government policies ...

On 16 June 2022 McDonald’s France entered into an settlement agreement according to which it will pay €1.245 billion in back taxes and fines to the French tax authorities. The settlement agreement resulted from investigations carried out by the French tax authorities in regards to abnormally high royalties transferred from McDonald’s France to McDonald’s Luxembourg following an intra group restructuring in 2009. McDonald’s France doubled its royalty payments from 5% to 10% of restaurant turnover, and instead of paying these royalties to McDonald’s HQ in the United States, going forward ...

The Federal Tax Administration of Argentine (AFIP) has published a non exhaustive list of 41 Low and No Tax Jurisdictions (LNTJ). The list related to Law 27,430 from 29 December 2017 which introduced certain adverse tax implications for transactions with LNTJs. For instance, according to the Law transactions with unrelated parties in LNTJs are not deemed arm’s length for transfer pricing purposes. Furthermore such transactions are required to be reported to the tax authorities. LNTJs refers to jurisdictions where the income tax rate is 60% lower than the minimum 25 ...

On 24 May 2022, the Italian Tax Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) released CIRCULAR NO. 16/E containing operational instructions on issues relating to application of the arm’s length range. The circular – which is based on the OECD transfer Pricing Guidelines, guidance on benchmark studies issued by the Joint Transfer Pricing Forum, and relevant Italian case laws – provides operational instructions regarding the correct interpretation of the notion of “arm’s length range”, as also specified in Article 6 of the Decree of 14 May 2018, when applying the provisions set forth ...

Amgen, in its quarterly report for the period ended March 31, 2022, disclosed that, not only has the group been issued a notice of assessments from the IRS for FY 2010-2012 resulting in additional taxes of approximately $3.6 billion plus interest – as previously reported – it has also received a Revenue Agent Reports (RAR) for 2013-2015 resulting in additional taxes of approximately $5.1 billion, plus interest and penalties of approximately $2.0 billion. Furthermore, it is disclosed that Amgen is currently under examination by the IRS for the years 2016, ...

In a decision issued on March 10, 2022 the Tokyo High Court upheld a 2020 decision from the district court and ruled mostly in favour of NGK INSULTATORS, LTD. in an appeal filed against a transfer pricing correction issued in 2012 by the Japanese tax authorities. The case At issue was whether the royalties received by NGK Insulators, the HQ of a Japanese group, from its Polish subsidiary, were lower than the arm’s length price. Due to the tightening of European emission regulations, only two companies at the European market, ...

In a press release dated February 18, 2022, Exor announced that a €746 million settlement had been reached with the Italian Tax Authorities (“Agenzia delle Entrate”) related to a cross-border merger in December 2016 that resulted in all the activities of the group being moved from Italy to the Netherlands. According to Exor the exit tax claimed by the tax authorities was a result of a changed interpretation of Italien Participation Exemption rules issued by the authorities: Principio di diritto n. 10/2021 ...

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has published a comprehensive Interpretation Note on intra-group loans. The note provides taxpayers with guidance on the application of the arm’s length principle in the context of the pricing of intra-group loans. The pricing of intra-group loans includes a consideration of both the amount of debt and the cost of the debt. An intra-group loan would be incorrectly priced if the amount of debt funding, the cost of the debt or both are excessive compared to what is arm’s length. The Note also provides ...

On 20 January 2022 the OECD released the 2022 edition of the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations. The OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines provide guidance on the application of the “arm’s length principle”, which represents the international consensus on the valuation, for income tax purposes, of cross-border transactions between associated enterprises. In today’s economy where multinational enterprises play an increasingly prominent role, transfer pricing continues to be high on the agenda of tax administrations and taxpayers alike. Governments need to ensure that the taxable profits of ...

Effective as of 1. January 2022 Finnish Transfer Pricing legislation has been updated to align the rules with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines in regards to non-recognition and recharacterisation. Going forward the arm’s length provision in the Tax Procedure Act, section 31, will include the possibility for non-recognition and recharacterisation which according to Finnish Case Law has not been possible under the previous wording of the provision. Case NameDescriptionDateCountryKeywords ...

The appeal court in Paris has confirmed that the Swiss UBS banking group is guilty of having facilitated tax evasion and money laundering in France, and on that basis the banking group was issued a €5,625 million fine plus confiscation of €1 billion and damages in the sum of €800 millions. Read the December 2021 judgment here ...

The European Commission has proposed a Directive ensuring a minimum effective tax rate for the global activities of large multinational groups. The proposal delivers on the EU’s pledge to move extremely swiftly and be among the first to implement the recent historic global tax reform agreement, which aims to bring fairness, transparency and stability to the international corporate tax framework. The proposed directive follows closely the international agreement and sets out how the principles of the 15% effective tax rate – agreed by 137 countries – will be applied in ...

The OECD has published detailed rules to assist in the implementation of a landmark reform to the international tax system, which will ensure Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) will be subject to a minimum 15% tax rate from 2023. The Pillar Two model rules provide governments a precise template for taking forward the two-pillar solution to address the tax challenges arising from digitalisation and globalisation of the economy agreed in October 2021 by 137 countries and jurisdictions under the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS. The rules define the scope and set out ...

1 December 2021 the Polish Ministry of Finance issued Tax clarifications on transfer pricing No. 4: Transactional Net Margin Method (TNMM) Clarification on application of the TNMM is provided in these areas: A. Principles of TNMM use A.1. Scope of application of the method A.2. Tested party A.3. Determination of net profit margin A.4. Definition of the base A.5. Choice of profitability indicator A.6. Profitability comparison B. Criteria for comparability of transactions and entities C. Difficulties in applying TNMM D. Comparison with other methods E. Practical application of TNMM Click ...

ResMed – a world-leading digital health company – in an October 2021 publication of results for the first quarter of FY 2022, informs that a $381.7 million tax settlement agreement has been entered with the Australian Tax Office. The dispute concerns the years 2009 through 2018, in which the ATO alleged that ResMed should have paid additional Australian taxes on income derived from the company’s Singapore operations. Excerpts from the announcement “Operating cash flow for the quarter was negative $65.7 million and was impacted by a payment to the Australian ...

A new huge leak of financial records revealed by ICIJ, once again shows widespread use of offshore accounts, shell companies and trusts to hide wealth and/or avoid taxes. The new leak is known as the Pandora Papers and follows other recent leaks – lux leak, panama papers, paradise papers. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists obtained 11.9 million confidential documents from 14 separate legal and financial services firms, which the group said offered “a sweeping look at an industry that helps the world’s ultrawealthy, powerful government officials and other elites ...

Major reform of the international tax system finalised today at the OECD will ensure that Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) will be subject to a minimum 15% tax rate from 2023. The landmark deal, agreed by 136 countries and jurisdictions representing more than 90% of global GDP, will also reallocate more than USD 125 billion of profits from around 100 of the world’s largest and most profitable MNEs to countries worldwide, ensuring that these firms pay a fair share of tax wherever they operate and generate profits. Following years of intensive negotiations ...

In 2001, Singtel, through its wholly owned Australian subsidiary, Singapore Telecom Australia Investments Pty Limited (Singtel Au), acquired the majority of the shares in Cable & Wireless Optus for $17.2 billion. The tax consequences of this acqusition was decided by the Federal Court in Cable & Wireless Australia & Pacific Holding BV (in liquiatie) v Commissioner of Taxation [2017] FCAFC 71. Cable & Wireless argued that part of the price paid under a share buy-back was not dividends and that withholding tax should therefor be refunded. The ATO and the ...

Pharmaceutical group Perrigo has settled a €1.6 billion case with the Irish Revenue Commissioners for €297 million. Perrigo was issued a tax assessment in 2018. The assessment related to Perrigo’s tax treatment of income generated by the sale of the rights to Tysabri – a drug for the treatement of multiple sclerosis. The tax authorities held that proceeds form the sale of these rights – more than $ billion – was a capital transaction taxed at a rate of 33%, while Perrigo had treated the proceeds as trading income taxed ...

German legislation on transfer pricing has been updated to align the rules with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines 2017. The new amendments are effective as of fiscal year 2022. The update includes revised content on Substance over form Risk analysis Best method rule Use of interquartile range Aggregation of transactions Determination of actual ownership vs legal ownership DEMPE functions Valuation of Hard to value intangibles Click here for unofficial English translation ...

A OECD statement has been issued where 130 countries and jurisdictions have agreed to join and support the two pillar plan. A small group of 9 countries have not yet joined the Statement. “The two-pillar package aims to ensure that large Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) pay tax where they operate and earn profits, while adding much-needed certainty and stability to the international tax system. Pillar One will ensure a fairer distribution of profits and taxing rights among countries with respect to the largest MNEs, including digital companies. It would re-allocate some ...

The G7 has agreed to back an international agreement on global tax reforms aimed at ending the reign of tax havens and have big international companies start paying their fair share of taxes. Under Pillar One of the reform, multinationals will be required to pay tax in the countries where they sell there products – and not just where they have their headquarters. The rules would apply to largest global firms with at least a 10% profit margin – and would see 20% of profit above the 10% margin reallocated ...

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has issued draft Compliance Guidelines on intangible arrangements, PCG 2021/D4. These Guidelines will (when finalised)  set out the ATO’s compliance approach to international arrangements connected with the development, enhancement, maintenance, protection and exploitation of intangible assets, specifically, the potential application of the transfer pricing, general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) and the diverted profits tax (DPT) provisions. The capital gains tax and capital allowances provisions will also be discussed in this Guideline where these may be considered alongside, or relevant to, the ATO’s transfer pricing, GAAR or ...

Paraguay’s new Transfer Pricing Decree in effect as of April 2021. Click here for English Translation ...

In a letter dated 28. April 2021 the US Senate Committee on Finance has request records related to tax schemes involving Caterpillar and Renaissance Technologies. “In 2015, Caterpillar disclosed that a federal grand jury in Illinois had begun investigating an alleged tax scheme involving the company’s Swiss subsidiary. This investigation led to raids by federal agents on three different Caterpillar offices in March 2017. 4 Days after the raids, Caterpillar announced it retained Mr. Barr “to take a fresh look at Caterpillar’s disputes with the government, get all the facts, ...

On 27 February 2021 UN released a new 2021 Practical Manual on Transfer Pricing. “…this third edition of the Manual makes improvements in usability and practical relevance, updates and improves the existing text, including on Country Practices (Part D) and has new content, in particular, on financial transactions, profit splits, centralized procurement functions and comparability issues. Improved capacity development based on the Manual has encouraged and contextualized developing country feedback, helped identify these priority areas for improvement and contributed to better targeting the messages in the Manual and examples used.” ...

According to the IRS, Bristol-Myers Squibb reduces its U.S. taxes by holding valuable intangibles in an Irish subsidiary. In a legal analysis, the IRS concluded that the Irish scheme saves Bristol-Myers Squibb up to $1.38 billion in US taxes. From Bristol-Myers Squibb’s 2019 10-K form, “Note 7. Income Taxes” “BMS is currently under examination by a number of tax authorities which have proposed or are considering proposing material adjustments to tax positions for issues such as transfer pricing, certain tax credits and the deductibility of certain expenses. It is reasonably ...

31 March 2021 the Polish Ministry of Finance issued tax clarifications on transfer pricing – No. 2: Transfer Pricing Adjustments Click here for unofficial English translation ...

31 March 2021 the Polish Ministry of Finance published tax explanations on transfer pricing No. 3 regarding the CUP method The explanations covers: the rationale for using the comparable uncontrolled price method, variants of the comparable uncontrolled price method, comparison of the comparable uncontrolled price method with other methods, typical areas of application of the comparable uncontrolled price method, difficulties in applying the comparable uncontrolled price method, example of using the comparable uncontrolled price method. Click here for unofficial English translation ...

On 25 February 2021, a note was released by the Spanish Tax Agency on number of practical issues relating to application of the arm’s-length range. The note – which is based on the OECD transfer Pricing Guidelines, guidance on benchmark studies issued by the Joint Transfer Pricing Forum, and relevant Spanish case laws – answers the following questions: – How is the range of values determined? – Is it possible to determine a range of values in which the figures are relatively equally reliable? – How to proceed if a ...

French guidance on application of the arm’s length principle to intra-group loans and interest deductions. Click here for unofficial English translation ...

Airbnb is under examination by the Internal Revenue Service for its income taxes in 2013 and 2016, according to the company’s December 2020 SEC filing. According to the filing a draft notice of adjustment from the IRS proposes that the company owes an additional $1.35 billion in taxes plus interest and penalties for the years in question. The assessment is related to valuation of its intellectual property that was transferred to a subsidiary in FY 2013. Airbnb then had had two subsidiaries outside the United States – Airbnb International Holdings Ltd ...

The Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine is a joint venture between Turquoise Hill Resources (which is 50.8 per cent owned by Rio Tinto), and the Mongolian Government. The Mongolian government has not been satisfied by the result of the joint venture and has concerns that increasing development costs of the Oyu Tolgoi project has eroded the economic benefits it anticipated receiving. “It is calculated that Mongolia will not receive dividend payments until 2051 and will incur debts of US$22 billion,” said Mongolia’s deputy chief cabinet secretary, Solongoo Bayarsaikhan. “In addition, Oyu ...

Diageo (British multinational beverage and alcohol group – owner of numerus brands including Jonny Walker, Captain Morgan, Gordons Gin, Smirnoff and Guinness) is facing difficult tax challenges according to the group’s August 2020 SEC-filings. During 2017 Diageo was in discussions with UK tax authorities to seek clarity on Diageo’s transfer pricing and related issues, and in the first half of the year ending 30 June 2018 a preliminary assessment for diverted profits tax notice was issued. Final charging notices were issued in August 2017 and Diageo paid £107 million in ...

Unique economic conditions arising from COVID-19 and government responses to the pandemic have led to practical challenges for the application of the arm’s length principle. For taxpayers applying transfer pricing rules for the financial years impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and for tax administrations that will be evaluating this application, there is an urgent need to address these practical questions. The OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations 2017 (“OECD TPG”) are intended to help tax administrations and multinational enterprises (“MNEs”) find mutually satisfactory solutions to transfer ...

Unique economic conditions arising from COVID-19 and government responses to the pandemic have led to practical challenges for the application of the arm’s length principle. For taxpayers applying transfer pricing rules for the financial years impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and for tax administrations that will be evaluating this application, there is an urgent need to address these practical questions. The OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations 2017 (“OECD TPG”) are intended to help tax administrations and multinational enterprises (“MNEs”) find mutually satisfactory solutions to transfer ...

In december 2020 the tax authorities in Peru issued a new administrative ordinance related to use of the most appropriate method to determine the market value of services. Click here for English translation ...

In december 2020 the Federal Ministry of Finance in German issued a new administrative ordinance related to various transfer pricing issues. Among the issues are enhanced requirement to cooperate and submit additional documentation related to controlled transactions, but most notable may be the conditions under which estimated tax assessments can be issued. Below is an unofficial translation of the document. Click here for the original document  ...

Ørsted is a Danish energy group that develops, constructs, and operates offshore and onshore wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, renewable hydrogen and green fuels facilities, and bioenergy plants. According to a company announcement issued in December 2020, Ørsted has received an administrative decision from the Danish Tax Agency requiring Danish taxation of the company’s British offshore wind farms Walney Extension and Hornsea 1 in the tax years 2015 and 2016. The Danish Tax Agency’s claim amounts to DKK 5.1 billion, plus interest amounting to DKK 1.5 billion. According ...

Insurance group AXA S.A. is now paying back millions of euros in taxes after French tax authorities found that a Luxembourg-based structure had been used by the group for tax avoidance. According to the French tax authorities AXE S.A. had undeclared taxable profits of at least 130 million in FY 2005 and 2010.    The scheme involved use of a group entity in Luxembourg granting loans to AXA’s foreign subsidiaries. The entity in Luxembourg benefited from a tax ruling issued by Luxembourg’s authorities that allowed it to be tax-exempt. According ...

According to investigations by SOMO – an independent center for Research on Multinational Corporations – the annual accounts of Pharma Group Qiagen shows that the group has avoided tax on profits by passing internal loans through an elaborate network of letterbox companies in European tax havens including Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta. It is estimated that, since 2010, the group has avoided at least  €93 million in taxes and has accumulated tax deduction in an amount of €49 million ...

The European Commission has decided to appeal the decision of the EU General Court in the State Aid case of Apple and Ireland. According to the European Commission Ireland gave illegal tax benefits to Apple worth up to €13 billion, because it allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses. In a decision issued july 2020 the General Court held in favor of Apple and Ireland. This decision will now be reviewed by the European Court of Justice. “Statement by Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager on the Commission’s decision ...

September 8, 2020 the IRS released a new guide to Transfer Pricing Examination Process. The Transfer Pricing Examination Process (TPEP) provides a guide to best practices and processes to assist with the planning, execution, and resolution of transfer pricing examinations consistent with the Large Business & International (LB&I) Examination Process (LEP), Publication 5125. This guide will be shared with taxpayers at the start of a transfer pricing examination, so they understand the process and can work effectively with the examination team. Transfer pricing examinations are factually intensive and require a ...

The agreement, according to which Facebook France will pay 106 million euros in back taxes and penalties, was reached after French tax authorities had carried out an extensive audit covering FY 2009-2018. Furthermore, Facebook’s French revenues were increased last year after the company decided to include advertising income from French companies in its local accounts, instead of declaring them in Ireland, where Facebook’s international operations are based. As a result, Facebook will pay 8.4 million euros in taxes in France this year – 50% more than last year. These changes ...

Starbucks Korea is now being investigated for overpricing goods and services imported from abroad. Officials from the National Tax Service have seized accounting records and data held at Starbucks’ Korean head office in Seoul. Subject of the investigation is transfer pricing of coffee beans and others products for sale at its more than 1,370 local shops. In 2019 Starbucks Korea reported sales of over 1.87 trillion won ($1.53 billion) and net profits of 132.8 billion won ...

Washington, DC – The United States Trade Representative announced today that his office is beginning investigations into digital services taxes that have been adopted or are being considered by a number of our trading partners. The investigations will be conducted under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act. This provision gives the USTR broad authority to investigate and respond to a foreign country’s action which may be unfair or discriminatory and negatively affect U.S. Commerce. “President Trump is concerned that many of our trading partners are adopting tax schemes designed ...

In March 2020 the Australian Taxation Office issued an tax assessment regarding transfer pricing to Rio Tinto’s aluminium division according to which additional taxes in an amount of $86.1 million must be paid for fiscal years 2010 – 2016. According to the assessment Rio’s Australian subsidiaries did not charge an arm’s length price for the aluminium they sold to Rio’s Singapore marketing hub. This new aluminum case is separate to Rio’s long-running $447 million dispute with the ATO over the transfer pricing of Australian iron ore. Rio intents to object ...

Fiat Chrysler has reached a settlement with the Italian tax agency over taxable gains related to a transfer of the U.S. Chrysler business from Fiat SpA Italy to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (Netherlands). The Italian tax agency claimed that the value of the U.S. Chrysler business had been underestimated and issued a preliminary assessment with an additional taxable gain of 5.1 billion euros. The agency had valued Chrysler at 12.5 billion euros, while Fiat SpA had declared it to be worth less than 7.5 billion. Under the terms of the ...

Altera has asked the US Supreme Court for a judicial review of the Decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over the validity of Internal Revenue Service regulations  that requires related companies to share the cost of stock-based employee compensation when shifting their intangible assets abroad applying US Cost Sharing regulations. In the decision a divided panel in the Court of Appeal upheld the regulation as “permissible” and therefore entitled to deference under Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984) ...

The ATO is currently reviewing international arrangements that mischaracterise Australian activities connected with the development, enhancement, maintenance, protection and exploitation (DEMPE) of intangible assets. Such arrangements may be non-arm’s length or structured to avoid tax obligations, resulting in inappropriate outcomes for Australian tax purposes. One of the issues is whether functions performed, assets used and risks assumed by Australian entities in connection with the DEMPE of intangible assets are properly recognised and remunerated in accordance with the arm’s length requirements of the transfer pricing provisions in the taxation law. These ...

Today, the OECD has released the report Transfer Pricing Guidance on Financial Transactions. The guidance in the report describes the transfer pricing aspects of financial transactions and includes a number of examples to illustrate the principles discussed in the report. Section B provides guidance on the application of the principles contained in Section D.1 of Chapter I of the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines to financial transactions. In particular, Section B.1 of this report elaborates on how the accurate delineation analysis under Chapter I applies to the capital structure of an ...

Google’s tax affairs are back in the spotlight after filings in the Netherlands have showed that billions of dollars were moved to Bermuda in 2016 using the “double Irish Dutch sandwich”. According to the Washington Post, Google’s cash transfers to Bermuda reached $27b in 2016. Google uses the double Irish Dutch sandwich structure to shield the majority of it’s international profits from taxation. The setup involves shifting revenue from one Irish subsidiary to a Dutch company with no employees, and then on to a Bermuda-mailbox owned by another company registered ...

Malaysian Energy Group – TENAGA Nasional Bhd – has begun legal proceedings against the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia. In November 2019, the Inland Revenue Board issued a tax assessment  according to which taxes of RM3.98 bil (or USD 1 billion) is owed for years 2015-2017. After reciving the assessment, TENAGA responded “Based on the legal advice obtained from our tax solicitors, TNB has a good basis to contend that there is no legal and factual basis for IRB to issue the said notices”  “Accordingly, TNB will be appealing against the ...

Imposed and proposed unilateral measures to adress taxation of the Digital Economy CountryMeasurePercentageDecriptionEffective data Czech Republic DST (Law on selected digital services tax)The Czech Ministry of Finance submitted a finalized proposal to the Czech Government on Sept. 5, 2019, which is now pending the Czech Parliament’s approval. Effective date: to be determined, but likely sometime in 2020. January 18 - The Czech government approved a 7% digital tax proposal on Monday aimed at boosting state coffers by taxing advertising by global internet giants like Google and Facebook, the Finance Ministry ...

Microsoft’s tax affairs have been in the spotlight of tax authorities all over the World during the last decade. Why? The setup used by Microsoft involves shifting profits from sales in the US, Europe and Asia to regional operating centers placed in low tax jurisdictions (Bermuda, Luxembourg, Ireland, Singapore and Puerto Rico). The following text has been provided by Microsoft in a US filing concerning effective tax and global allocation of income: “Our effective tax rate for the three months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016 was 18% and 17%, respectively. Our ...

Letter from the US treasury to the OECD concerning the proposed Unified Approach on taxation of the Digital Economy, and the reply to the letter from the OECD ...

Public prosecutors in Italy have opened a preliminary probe into the taxation of Netflix on the basis that servers and cables constitute a digital infrastructure that makes revenues taxable under Italian law. Italian media, Corriere della Sera, says that the prosecutors are working with Italy’s fiscal police to determine whether revenues from Netflix’s estimated 1.4 million Italian subscribers are subject to Italian taxation, even though Netflix operates out of the Netherlands. Italian prosecutors have recently also probed into the taxation of other U.S. tech giants such as Apple, Amazon and ...

According to the 2018 financial statement, British American Tobacco group has been hit by a £902 million tax assessments in the Netherlands. “The Dutch tax authority has issued a number of assessments on various issues across the years 2003-2016 in relation to various intra-group transactions. The assessments amount to an  aggregate net liability across these periods of £902 million covering tax, interest and penalties. The Group has appealed against the assessments in full. The Group believes that its companies have meritorious defences in law and fact in each of the above matters ...

The French cosmetic group L’Oréal announced in September 2019 that it would pay 320 million euros to the French tax authorities to “settle a dispute” related to the payment of corporate tax for three of its subsidiaries for fiscal years 2014 and 2018. In detail, the charge was 47 million euros for Lancôme Parfums et Beauté, 115 million euros for Active International Cosmetics and 158 million euros for Prestige and Collections International ...

The draft Guideline provides guidance to entities in applying the arm’s length debt test in Division 820 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 19972 and should be read in conjunction with draft Taxation Ruling TR 2019/D2 Income tax: thin capitalisation – the arm’s length debt test. This Guideline also provides a risk assessment framework that outlines our compliance approach to an application of the arm’s length debt test in certain circumstances that are identified as low risk. The arm’s length debt test is one of the tests available to establish ...

In a public statement the French General Directorate of Public Finance clarified that tax treatment of interest deductions taken by a French company on interest payments to a related Belgian company that benefits from the Belgian notional interest rate scheme. According to French Law, interest paid to foreign group companies is only deductible if a minimum rate of tax applies to the relevant income abroad. Click here for translation ...

Telenor Norway has received a tax assessment according to which the company will have to pay additional taxes in Norway of 2.5 billion Norwegian crowns for tax year 2013. A deduction expenced in 2013 for a loss suffered in 2012 due to settlement of bank guarantees given in respect of external funding in its Indian subsidiary Unitech Wireless has been disallowed for tax purposes by the Norwegian Tax Authorities Telenor decided to enter the market in India in 2008. In 2012, the Supreme Court of India revoked the licenses of ...

BHP Group has agreed to pay the state of Western Australia A$250 million to end a dispute over royalties paid on iron ore shipments sold through its Singapore marketing hub. The State government found in January that the world’s biggest miner had underpaid royalties on iron ore shipments sold via Singapore stretching back over more than a decade. BHP reached a deal to pay A$529 million in additional taxes to the Australian government late last year to settle a long-running tax dispute over the miner’s Singapore hub on its income ...

18 June 2019 the Polish Minister of Finance issued the first explanations on transfer pricing concerning – technical aspects of preparing comparability analyses and transfer pricing documentation. With regard to the technical aspects of preparing comparability analyses, the explanations cover such detailed issues as: data comparability vs. locality feasibility of using internal data feasibility of using bid data the appropriateness of using comparables that are not publicly available (so-called secret comparables) reasonableness of discarding from the comparables sample entities with extreme results (including those with loss) minimum sample size for ...

The report on Transfer Pricing Examination Process (TPEP) provides a framework and guide for transfer pricing examinations. The guide will be updated regularly by the IRS based on feedback from examiners, taxpayers, practitioners and others ...

May 2019 the Czech Republic issued new local transfer pricing instructions D-34. These new instruction replaces the 2011 Instruction D-334.  Simultaneously with the new instruction, the Czech translation of the OECD Guidelines on Transfer Pricing for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations, as amended in the 2017 version, was also published in the Financial Bulletin of the Ministry of Finance No. 5/2019. Click here for unofficial English Translation Click here for translation ...

In July 2013 the Irish pharma company Elan was acquired by the US based Perrigo group for $8.6 billion (£5.6 billion). Ireland’s corporation tax rate was one of the main attractions for Perrigo and the deal was said to give Perrigo substantial tax savings due to a corporate tax inversion. The Irish 12.5 % corporate tax rate compared US rate of 30 % was further augmented by the trading losses built up over a number of years by Elan in its business as a drug development group. That meant that even ...

The Kering group – owner of Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent and Pomellato –  has settled a case with the Italian tax agency for an amount of euro 1.250 billion in taxes and penalties relating to fiscal years 2011-2017. The case was started by the Italian tax police in 2017 and resulted in a recommendation to charge the president and chief executive officer of the Italian company Guccio Gucci S.p.A. with the crimes of tax evasion and failure to file Italian income tax return. Guccio Gucci S.p.A., the Italian operating ...

The European Commission has published a non-confidential version of the decision to open a state aid investigation into tax rulings granted by the Luxembourg tax authorities to the Huhtamaki Group in relation to the treatment of interest-free loans granted by an Irish group company to a Luxembourg group company, Huhtalux S.a.r.l. The investigation will focus on three rulings obtained by a Luxembourg subsidiary of a group from the Luxembourg tax administration in 2009, 2012 and 2013. The Luxembourg subsidiary which carried out intra-group financing activities was granted interest-free loans from an ...

In the annual report for 2018 Facebook Inc. has included the following statement on current tax disputes with the IRS. “…The tax laws applicable to our business, including the laws of the United States and other jurisdictions, are subject to interpretation and certain jurisdictions are aggressively interpreting their laws in new ways in an effort to raise additional tax revenue from companies such as Facebook. The taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements, which could increase our ...

Western Digital has been issued a $549 million tax assessment for fiscal years 2008 – 2012 by the IRS relating to transfer pricing with the Company’s foreign subsidiaries and intercompany payable balances. In the Annual Report for 2018 the following is stated by Western Digital on the case: “The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) previously completed its field examination of the Company’s federal income tax returns for fiscal years 2008 through 2012 and proposed certain adjustments. As previously disclosed, the Company received Revenue Agent Reports from the IRS for fiscal years ...

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In March 2018 a special EU committee on financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance (TAX3) was established. Now, one year later, The EU Parliament has approved a controversial report from the committee. According to the report close to 40 % of MNEs’ profits are shifted to tax havens globally each year with some European Union countries appearing to be the prime losers of profit shifting, as 35 % of shifted profits come from EU countries. About 80 % of the profits shifted from EU Member States are channelled to ...

A beneficial ownership toolkit was released 20. May 2019 in the context of the OECD’s Global Integrity and Anti-Corruption Forum. The toolkit, prepared by the Secretariat of the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, is intended to help governments implement the Global Forum’s standards on ensuring that law enforcement officials have access to reliable information on who the ultimate beneficial owners are behind a company or other legal entity so that criminals can no longer hide their ...

The Guideline outlines ATO’s compliance approach to the transfer pricing outcomes associated with the following activities of inbound distributors: distributing goods purchased from related foreign entities for resale, and distributing digital products or services where the intellectual property in those products or services is owned by related foreign entities Such activities, together with any related activities involving the provision of ancillary services, are referred to in this Guideline as ‘inbound distribution arrangements’. This Guideline applies to inbound distribution arrangements of any scale. The framework in the Guideline is used to ...

12 March 2019 the EU Council added ten jurisdictions to the list of Non-Cooperative Tax Jurisdictions – Tax Havens. Non-Cooperative Tax Jurisdictions are those that refused to engage with the EU or to address tax good governance shortcomings. See the full 2019 document with the Council’s conclusions on the revised EU list of noncooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes here. As of March 2019 the EU list of Non-Cooperative Tax Jurisdictions includes 15 countries: American Samoa Barbados Guam Samoa Trinidad and Tobago US Virgin Islands Aruba Belize Bermuda Dominica Fiji Marshall ...

Bupa reaches $157m settlement with the Australian tax office after decade-long dispute The settlement was the result of a decade-long dispute with the ATO over a “number of different matters”, included transfer pricing issues with acquisitions in Australia in 2007 and 2008. Bupa’s tax affairs came under scrutiny last year in a report by the Tax Justice Network. The report alleged that Bupa frequently used related party loans and debts from a corporate restructure, among other things, to reduce its profits in Australia. According to the report, Bupa posted a ...

The European Commission has now opened an in-depth investigation to examine whether tax rulings granted by Luxembourg to Finnish food and drink packaging company Huhtamäki may have given the company an unfair advantage over its competitors, in breach of EU State Aid rules. Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner in charge of competition policy, said: “Member States should not allow companies to set up arrangements that unduly reduce their taxable profits and give them an unfair advantage over their competitors. The Commission will carefully investigate Huhtamäki’s tax treatment in Luxembourg to assess whether ...

This paper addresses the first stage and aims at clarifying certain concepts in applying the PSM: (i) when to use the PSM (i.e. in which circumstances it may be considered the most appropriate transfer pricing method) and (ii) how to split the profit based on the concepts described in the revised OECD Guidelines as well as by providing an inventory of recurrent splitting factors. For the avoidance of doubt this report should be regarded as complementary to, and supportive of, the text of the OECD Revised Guidelines on the application ...

In a publication of preliminary results for 2018 mining giant Glencore reports a major tax assessment issued by HMRC in December 2018. “UK Tax Audit In December 2018, HMRC issued formal transfer pricing, permanent establishment and diverted profits tax assessments for the 2008 – 2017 tax years, amounting to $680 million. The Group intends to appeal and vigorously contest these assessments, following, over the years, various legal opinions received and detailed analysis conducted, supporting its positions and policies applied, and therefore the Group has not provided for the amount assessed ...

Apple has agreed to paid an additional 571 million euros to France in a settlement with the tax authorities. According to the French news agency, l’expansion l’Express – “For several months now, secret negotiations on this subject have been taking place between Apple and the French International Audit Department (DVNI). But it is not until the end of December 2018 that a confidential agreement was reached. The subject of the negotiations has been the limited revenues and the low taxes paid by Apple in France for the last ten years.” ...

Flir Systems Inc, a global leader in infrared Cameras, is involved in a SEK 2.8 billion transfer pricing dispute with the Swedish Tax Authorities. In a recent 10Q filings Flir Systems Inc. provides information on the dispute: “…the United States Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and other tax authorities regularly examine our income tax returns. Our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely impacted if any assessments resulting from the examination of our income tax returns by the IRS or other taxing authorities are not resolved in our favor ...

US Gaming Giant, Activision Blizzard Inc. – known for games such as World of Warcraft and Diablo – is and has been involved in several major transfer pricing disputes – with the US, French, UK, and Swedish tax authorities. In a 10Q filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission from November 2018 the following information was provided by the company on pending tax cases. “Activision Blizzard’s 2009 through 2016 tax years remain open to examination by certain major taxing jurisdictions to which we are subject. During February 2018, the ...

The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to examine whether tax rulings granted by the Netherlands to Nike may have given the company an unfair advantage over its competitors, in breach of EU State aid rules. Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner in charge of competition policy, said: “Member States should not allow companies to set up complex structures that unduly reduce their taxable profits and give them an unfair advantage over competitors. The Commission will investigate carefully the tax treatment of Nike in the Netherlands, to assess whether it is in ...

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has reached a settlement with the Canada Revenue Agency which provides for a final resolution of Wheaton’s tax appeal in connection with the reassessment under transfer pricing rules of the 2005 to 2010 taxation years related to income generated by the Company’s wholly-owned foreign subsidiaries, Wheaton International, outside of Canada. Wheaton is the leading company in the precious metals streaming business, essentially providing up-front financing to mining companies looking to build mines. In return, it earns the right to buy silver and gold output from those ...

Analog Devices has been issued a $52m tax demand from the Revenue Commissioners in Ireland. The assessment is related to inter-company transfers back in 2013, where – according to the tax authorities – the Irish entity has failed to conform to OECD transfer pricing guidelines. Analog Devices specialises in data converters and chips that translate a button press or sound – into electronic signals. The company was established in Ireland in 1977, where today about 1,200 people is employed at its original and main hub in Limerick, in addition to its ...

The ATO is currently reviewing international arrangements that mischaracterise intangible assets[1] and/or activities or conditions connected with intangible assets. The concerns include whether intangible assets have been appropriately recognised for Australian tax purposes and whether Australian royalty withholding tax obligations have been met. Arrangements that allocate all consideration to tangible goods and/or services, arrangements that allocate no consideration to intangible assets, and arrangements that view intangible assets collectively, or conceal intangible assets, may be more likely to result in a mischaracterisation. Where arrangements are between related parties, we are concerned about ...

The Australian Taxation Office has agreed on a settlement with BHP Mining Group to resolve a transfer pricing dispute relating to transfer pricing treatment of commodities sold to a Singapore marketing hub. BHP had originally been assessed with over AUD 1 billion in additional taxes. According to the settlement BHP will pay additional tax of AUD 529 million to resolve the dispute, covering the years 2003–18. According to the settlement BHP Group will also increase its ownership of BHP Billiton Marketing AG, the company conducting BHP’s Singapore marketing business, from ...

Like other sectors of the economy, there are base erosion and profit shifting risks in the mining sector. Based on the ongoing work on BEPS, the IGF (Intergovernmental Forum on Mining) and OECD has released guidance for source countries on transfer pricing in the mining sector. The transfer pricing and tax avoidance issues identified in the sector are: 1. Excessive Interest Deductions Companies may use related-party debt to shift profit offshore via excessive interest payments to related entities. “Debt shifting” is not unique to mining, but it is particularly significant ...

The Australian Taxation Office has issued new guidance for multinational groups using offshore marketing- and procurment hubs for tax avoidance purposes. The guidance adresses tax schemes where MNEs uses offshore hubs to shift profits and thereby avoid Australian taxes. Offshore hub arrangements are catagorised by the ATO as white, green, blue, yellow, amber, or red – based on the risk assesment for tax purposes of the transfer pricing setup. The new guidance is a result of recent Australian investigations and hearings into tax avoidance schemes used by Multinational Groups. Tax ...

New Oxfam research shows that four pharmaceutical corporations — Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer — systematically allocate super profits in overseas tax havens. In eight advanced economies, pharmaceutical profits averaged 7 percent, while in seven developing countries they averaged 5 percent. In comparison, profits margins averaged 31 percent in countries with low or no corporate tax rates – Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands and Singapore. The report exposes how pharmaceutical corporations uses sophisticated tax planning to avoid taxes ...

Following an investigation into Luxembourg’s tax treatment of McDonald’s under EU state aid regulations since 2015, the EU Commission concluded that the tax rulings granted by Luxembourg to McDonald’s in 2009 did not provide illegal state aid. According to the Commission, the law allowing McDonald’s to escape taxation on franchise income in Luxembourg – and the US – did not amount to an illegal selective advantage under EU law. The double non-taxation of McDonald’s franchise income was due to a mismatch between the laws of the United States and Luxembourg ...

Major US MNE’s with regional Headquarters in Ireland for European business activities. The corporation tax rate in Ireland is only 12.5%. However to further sweeten the deal for MNE’s, Ireland has been known to offer special tax deals to MNE’s resulting in much lower effective tax rates. Ireland provides MNEs with both low tax centers for European activities and conduit holding companies serving as hubs for transferring profits and capital to low tax jurisdictions such as Cyprus and Bermuda. Especially MNEs within the IT sector have been known to use ...

Circular on transfer pricing – profitability rates and ranges for certain transactions – Limited Risk Distributors (LRDs) ...

The OECD’s final report on interest limitation rules notes that thin capitalisation rules are vulnerable to loans with excessive interest rates and many transfer pricing practicioneres finds that transfer pricing may not the most effective way to prevent profit-shifting using high-priced related party debt. Related-party transactions are fundamentally different to third-party transactions. Factors that increase the riskiness of a loan between unrelated-parties (such as whether the debt can be converted into shares or the total indebtedness of the borrower) are less relevant in a related-party context. In New Zealand new ...

In July 2018 Center for Global Development published a study of special transfer pricing practices in the oil sector, and their potential application to hard rock minerals. According to the study, governments of mining countries are vulnerable to investors manipulating transfer prices as a means of avoiding paying taxes. The two main risks are mining companies undercharging for mineral exports sold to related parties, and overpaying for goods and services. The “solution” has been to apply the “arm’s length principle,” which gives governments the right to adjust the value of ...

Since June 2013, the European Commission has been investigating tax ruling practices of EU Member States. A Task Force was set up in summer 2013 to follow up on allegations of favourable tax treatment of certain companies, in particular in the form of unilateral tax rulings. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”) provides that “any aid granted by a Member State or through State resources in any form whatsoever which distorts or threatens to distort competition by favouring certain undertakings or the production of certain goods ...

A new report from the OECD contains guidance for tax administration on the application of the approach to hard-to-value intangibles (HTVI), under BEPS Action 8. This new guidance present the principles that should underlie the application of the HTVI approach by tax administration, with the aim of improving consistency and reduce the risk of economic double taxation. The new guidance also includes a number of examples clarifying the application of the HTVI approach in different scenarios; and addresses the interaction between the HTVI approach and the access to the mutual ...

Boston Scientific and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service have finalized a settlement of $610 million in taxes and interest dating back to the $26 billion acquisition of Guidant in 2006. Boston will pay $303 million in taxes and $305 million in interest to the IRS within the next three months. In 2016, Boston Scientific agreed to pay the IRS $275 million plus interest in a dispute over transfer pricing, plus charges related to a 2006 deal in which Abbott bought Guidant’s stent business from Boston Scientific ...

Apple’s tax affairs have been in the spotlight of tax authorities for decades – and still are! Settlements have been entered with numerous European Countries, among others – Italy, the UK and France. Apple has also been investigated by the EU and a State Aid ruling was issued in August 2016. According to the ruling “Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple” and the European Commission ordered Apple to pay €13 billion, plus interest, in unpaid Irish taxes from 2004–14 to the Irish state. U.S. Senate scrutiny of Apple Inc.’s ...

In May 2018 the final report on corporate tax avoidance in Australia was published by the Australian Senate. The report contains the findings, conclusions and recommendations based on 4 years of hearings and investigations into tax avoidance practices by multinationals in Australia ...

Under the Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP), Finland and India have settled a long running tax dispute involving Nokia. The tax authorities in India issued a tax assessment to Nokia for violating withholding tax regulations in India while making royalty payments to its parent company in Finland. An additional assessment was then issued by the tax authorities in India to the parent company in Finland for the same transaction as – according to the tax authorities – the company had a permanent establishment in India. According to the MAP settlement Nokia ...

The OECD has released additional guidance on the attribution of profits to permanent establishments. This additional guidance sets out high-level general principles for the attribution of profits to permanent establishments arising under Article 5(5), in accordance with applicable treaty provisions, and includes examples of a commissionnaire structure for the sale of goods, an online advertising sales structure, and a procurement structure. It also includes additional guidance related to permanent establishments created as a result of the changes to Article 5(4), and provides an example on the attribution of profits to ...

The dispute between Amazon and the French tax authorities relates to transfer pricing in fiscal years 2006 to 2010. Amazon has been accused of tax avoidance in the EU by channeling all local sales through Luxembourg. This set up has been changed in France, where Amazon in 2015 established a branch where all retail sales, charges and profits in France are booked. In October 2017 the EU commission decided that Luxembourg’s arrangement with Amazon is in conflict with EU State Aid regulations and ordered Luxembourg to recover 250 million euros ...

Apple has paid an additional £136m taxes in a settlement with the UK. The settlement is revealed in Apple Europe’s 2017 accounts. “Following an extensive audit by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) the Company agreed to pay a corporate income tax adjustment of £136m covering prior years up to September 26, 2015. This payment of additional tax and interest reflects the Company’s increased activity and is recognized in the current financial period which ended on 1 April 2017. As a result of this adjustment the Company’s corporate income tax ...

Most Sub Saharan African jurisdictions see the area of mineral transfers/sales as the main transfer pricing risk, but only few have systems in place to check if prices applied to minerals transferred to related parties comply with the arm’s length principle. Studies highlights a strong need for capacity strengthening in the area of transfer pricing throughout the African continent and for enhancing the knowledge of mining industry within tax authorities. South Africa has, for many years, been the leader in transfer pricing audits among the African countries. But emerging countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, ...

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On December 5, 2017, the EU published it’s blacklist of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions (tax havens). 1. American Samoa American Samoa does not apply any automatic exchange of financial information, has not signed and ratified, including through the jurisdiction they are dependent on, the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance as amended, does not apply the BEPS minimum standards and did not commit to addressing these issues by 31 December 2018. 2. Bahrain Bahrain does not cover all EU Member States for the purpose of automatic exchange of information, has ...

French Tax Officials raided Disney’s Paris Office. The tax investigation focuses on a fee that Disneyland Paris paid for use of Disney’s intellectual property. The same payment appeared to be associated with services provided by a U.K. unit tasked with managing “Disney activities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since 2011,”. The problem, in this case, is that the company’s decision to combine the two costs made it impossible for tax officials to confirm whether the pricing had been at arm’s length. Disney lost four lawsuits it filed to ...

Several mining companies are beeing audited by the Canadian Revenue Agency for aggressive tax planning and tax evasion schemes. Among the high-profile companies that have filed pleadings with the Canadian Tax Court are Cameco, Silver Wheaton, Burlington Resources, Conoco Funding Company and Suncor Energy. The CRA says, the companies inappropriately ran international transactions through subsidiary companies in low-tax foreign jurisdictions. In the Cameco case the Revenue Agency has audited years 2003 to 2015 and challenged Cameco Canada’s arrangements with a Swiss subsidiary. Cameco sells uranium to its marketing subsidiary in ...

Mutual-fund seller AGF Management Ltd. has settled a federal tax case over income shifted from Canada to an overseas subsidiary. The company has recently disclosed that the Canada Revenue Agency sought a total of $71.9-million in back taxes, interest and penalties related to the period spanning 2005-10. An agreement has since been reached, but the terms were not disclosed. In its latest quarterly report, AGF said the disagreement over taxes owed relates to transfer pricing with a foreign jurisdiction. The AGF disclosures do not mention whether the issues relate to ...

The Study on the Application of Economic Valuation Techniques for Determining Transfer Prices of Cross Border Transactions between Members of Multinational Enterprise Groups in the EU provides an overview on how valuation techniques can practically and most efficiently be used for transfer pricing purposes in the EU, particularly for transactions involving intangibles. It investigates the differences between valuations for transfer pricing purposes and valuations for other purposes, and the state of play in terms of experience gathered by EU Member States and trade partners ...

The OECD report on harmful tax incentives provides details on reviews of 164 preferential tax regimes. Some preferential tax regimes are considered harmful – where these encourage the erosion of other jurisdictions’ tax bases. All 102 members of the BEPS Inclusive Framework have committed to ensuring that any regimes offered meet the criteria that have been agreed as part of BEPS Action 5. Crucially, this includes a requirement that taxpayers benefiting from a regime must themselves undertake the core business activity, ensuring the alignment of taxation with genuine business substance ...

A transfer pricing dispute between South African Revenue Service and Sishen Iron Ore, a subsidiary of Kumba Iron Ore, has now been resolved in a settlement of ZAR 2.5bn. The case concerned disallowance of sales commissions paid to offshore sales and marketing subsidiaries in Amsterdam, Luxembourg and Hong Kong. Since 2012, Kumba Iron Ore’s international marketing has been integrated with the larger Anglo American group’s Singapore-based marketing hub. The settlement follows a similar investigations into the transfer pricing activities of Evraz Highveld Steel, which resulted in a R685 million tax claim ...

A tax dispute over a potential 11.6 billion rand ($878 million) charge between South Africa -based international chemicals and energy company Sasol and the Revenue Service will play out in South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal within the next 12 months. June 30. 2017 a R1.2-billion tax liability was approved by the Tax Court in a case against Sasol by SARS relating to the company’s international crude oil procurement activities between 2005 and 2012. The Tax Court further reported that the final tax amount along with other tax principles raised ...

The Handbook on Effective Tax Risk Assessment explores how information contained in CbC reports can be used for risk assessment and which types of tax risk indicators that may be identified using the information contained in CbC Reports. In chapter 4 some of the main tax risk indicators that may be identified using CbC Reports are described: The footprint of a group in a particular jurisdiction A group’s activities in a jurisdiction are limited to those that pose less risk There is a high value or high proportion of related ...

The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, have developed this toolkit for African tax authorities seeking to assess transfer pricing risk in the mining industry. The purpose is to strengthen authorities’ capacity to determine whether they should audit particular high-risk “related party transactions.” The toolkit employs a specific risk review approach, which focuses on particular transfer pricing issues that present a high risk to revenue (as distinct from a comprehensive risk ...

In a public hearing held 22 August 2017 in Sydney Australia by the Economics References Committee, tech companies IBM, Microsoft, and Apple were called to the witnesses stand to explain about tax avoidance schemes – use of “regional headquarters” in low tax jurisdictions (Singapore, Ireland and the Netherlands) to avoid or reduce taxes. Follow the ongoing Australian hearings into corporate tax avoidance on this site: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Economics/Corporatetax45th Transcript from the hearing: ...

Canadian mining company, Cameco Corp, has settled a tax dispute and will pay the IRS $122,000 for income years 2009-2012. Cameco’s dispute with tax authorities relates to its offshore marketing structure and transfer pricing. Cameco sells uranium to its marketing subsidiary in Switzerland, which re-sells it to buyers, incurring less tax than the company would through its Canadian office. Cameco says it has a marketing subsidiary in Switzerland because most customers are located outside Canada ...

By Javier Garcia-Bernardo, Jan Fichtner, Frank W. Takes, & Eelke M. Heemskerk Multinational corporations use highly complex structures of parents and subsidiaries to organize their operations and ownership. Offshore Financial Centers (OFCs) facilitate these structures through low taxation and lenient regulation, but are increasingly under scrutiny, for instance for enabling tax avoidance. Therefore, the identifcation of OFC jurisdictions has become a politicized and contested issue. We introduce a novel data-driven approach for identifying OFCs based on the global corporate ownership network, in which over 98 million firms (nodes) are connected ...

The Practical Compliance Guideline (Guideline) from the ATO outlines the compliance approach to the taxation outcomes associated with a ‘financing arrangement’, as defined in section 995-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997), or a related transaction or contract, entered into with a cross border related party. Such an arrangement, transaction or contract is referred to in this Guideline as a ‘related party financing arrangement’. This Guideline does not cover financing arrangements characterised as equity in accordance with Division 974 of the ITAA 1997. The framework in these ...

In June 2017, the Indonesian government announced that it had settled a lengthy tax dispute with Google for 2016. While the settlement sum has not been disclosed, it is perceived as setting a new tone in the interpretation of permanent establishment status for tech companies ...

The Platform for Collaboration on Tax (IMF, OECD, UN and the WBG) has published a toolkit for addressing difficulties in accessing comparables Data for Transfer Pricing Analyses. The Toolkit Includes a supplementary report on addressing the information gaps on prices of Minerals Sold in an intermediate form ...

On 7 June 2017, over 70 Ministers and other high-level representatives participated in the signing ceremony of the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“Multilateral Instrument” or “MLI”). Signatories include jurisdictions from all continents and all levels of development. A number of jurisdictions have also expressed their intention to sign the MLI as soon as possible and other jurisdictions are also actively working towards signature. multilateral-convention-to-implement-tax-treaty-related-measures-to-prevent-BEPS ...

Google has agreed to pay 306 million Euro to the Italian authorities in a transfer pricing dispute related to years 2009 – 2013. The dispute was one of several initiated due to the billions of dollars in sales to European consumers and Googles lack of tax payments in Europe. Google has already settled with the UK, paying 130 million in back taxes in 2016 to end an long lasting audit. Other disputes still remain elsewhere in Europe. The settlement follows an agreement reached in 2015, where Apple paid 300 million ...

Singapore marketing hubs are being used by large multinational companies — and billions of dollars in related-party transactions that are being funnelled through the hubs each year. The Australian Tax Office has issued claims of substantial unpaid taxes to mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have revealed through the Senate inquiry they have been issued amended assessments for tax, interest and penalties of $522 million and $107 million respectively. These claims will be challenged in court. The cases centres on the use of commodity ...

The UN Transfer Pricing Manual does not address industry-specific issues, but, in 2017 a guidance note was developed by a subcommittee looking into transfer pricing issues in extractive industries, both relating to the production of oil and natural gas and relating to mining and minerals extraction. The note draws on materials that have been published in other fora, including the Platform for Cooperation on Tax (hereafter: “the Platform”), reflecting enhanced collaboration between the IMF, OECD, UN and WBG for the benefit of developing countries. Reference can be made to the ...

In March 2017 the JTPF agreed the Report on the Use of Comparables in the EU. The report establishes best practices and pragmatic solutions by issuing various recommendations for both taxpayers and tax administrations in the EU and aims at increasing in practice the objectivity and transparency of comparable searches for transfer pricing ...

The Practical Compliance Guideline (Guideline) sets out the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO’s) compliance approach to transfer pricing issues related to the location and relocation of certain business activities and operating risks into a centralised operating model. The type of activities commonly centralised include marketing, sales and distribution functions although centralised operating models are not necessarily limited to these functions. For the purposes of this Guideline, these centralised operating models are referred to as ‘hubs’. The ATO understands that the overall structure of hubs, the transactions that flow in and out ...

Oxfam’s list of Tax Havens, in order of significance are: (1) Bermuda (2) the Cayman Islands (3) the Netherlands (4) Switzerland (5) Singapore (6) Ireland (7) Luxembourg (8) Curaçao (9) Hong Kong (10) Cyprus (11) Bahamas (12) Jersey (13) Barbados, (14) Mauritius and (15) the British Virgin Islands. Most notably is The Netherlands placement as no. 3 on the list. Oxfam researchers compiled the list by assessing the extent to which countries employ the most damaging tax policies, such as zero corporate tax rates, the provision of unfair and unproductive ...

This report from www.oxfam.org examines tax competition, and the resultant race to the bottom in the taxation of global corporations. Using new research, this report exposes the world’s corporate tax havens – the 15 countries which facilitate the most extreme forms of tax dodging. The report looks at the harm caused by falling corporate tax rates and tax giveaways in countries across the world. Finally, the report identifies clear actions governments can take to act in the interest of their citizens and put an end to tax havens and the ...

The Accenture settlement with the Swiss tax authorities results from a significant discrepancy in the valuation of intangibles in a 2010 inter-company transfer from Switzerland to Ireland via Luxembourg that was disclosed in 2014 as a result of Lux Leaks. The Lux Leaks documents show that in the 48 hours it took to complete the inter-company transfer, the value of the intangibles had increased by almost 600 percent from $1.2 billion to $7 billion. In a document to the Luxembourg authorities detailing the tax treatment on the transaction, PwC confirmed ...

Developments in Canada In January 2016, the Federal Court of Appeal affirmed the decision of the Tax Court of Canada in Marzen Artistic Aluminum Ltd. v. The Queen, 2016 FCA 34, upholding most of the CRA’s transfer pricing adjustments and the imposition of transfer pricing penalties. The case, however, provided little insight into the meaning of “reasonable efforts” in the context of transfer pricing documentation, given that the taxpayer did not prepare contemporaneous documentation. The Tax Court is scheduled to hear its first recharacterization case later in 2016 (Cameco v ...

Application of Economic Valuation Techniques for Determining Transfer Prices of Cross Border Transactions ...

The US Treasury in 2016 strongly criticized the European Commission for it’s state aid actions relating to US Corporations; Apple, Starbucks, Amazon, and McDonald’s. US Treasury white paper of August 2016 US Treasury letter of February 2016 ...

Just days before trial, Boston Scientific Corp. has agreed to pay the Internal Revenue Service $275 million plus interest to settle more than $1 billion in disputed taxes dating back more than a decade. Boston Scientific has long disputed the IRS’ assertions that the company and its Guidant subsidiary have underpaid corporate taxes by as much as $1.16 billion. The dispute centers on “transfer pricing” and the amount of taxes owed to the United States for intellectual property transferred among its domestic and foreign subsidiaries. The primary issue for all ...

According to a royal decrete dividends received deduction is not available in Belgium where the recieving company is resident in a country defined to be a “tax haven” A tax haven is defined as a country where: (1) the nominal rate of the corporate income tax is less than 15%; or (2) the effective corporate tax burden is less than 15%. The Belgien list of “tax haven” jurisdictions for 2016 contains the following countries: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dubai, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Macao, ...

Li & Fung (Trading) Ltd., Hong Kong, entered into contracts with its global third party customers for provision of sourcing services with respect to products to be sourced by such global customers directly from third party vendors in India. For the sourcing services, the Hong Kong company received a 5% commission of the FOB value of goods sourced. The company in India was providing sourcing support services to the Hong Kong group company, and remunerated at cost plus 5 percent mark-up for provision of these services. The tax administration found that the the company in India should ...

Apple has agreed to paid an additional 347 million dollars to Italy in a settlement with the tax authorities. A spokesperson for the Italian tax office says that Apple is paying the sum to end the investigation, and that it is in line with what the agency had asked for — although substantially less than the €880 million Apple has been accused of withholding for sales booked in Italy. A similar agreement has later been entered into by Apple in the UK and Apple in France ...

The European Commission has formally opened an investigation into Luxembourg’s tax treatment of McDonald’s. Tax ruling granted by Luxembourg may have granted McDonald’s an advantageous tax treatment in breach of EU State aid rules On the basis of two tax rulings given by the Luxembourg authorities in 2009, McDonald’s Europe Franchising has paid no corporate tax in Luxembourg since then despite recording large profits (more than €250 million in 2013). These profits are derived from royalties paid by franchisees operating restaurants in Europe and Russia for the right to use ...

OECD (2015), Making Dispute Resolution Mechanisms More Effective, Action 14 – 2015 Report, OECD/G20 BEPS Project, After two years of work, the 15 actions have now been completed. All the different outputs, including those delivered in an interim form in 2014, have been consolidated into a comprehensive package. The BEPS package of measures represents the first substantial renovation of the international tax rules in almost a century. Once the new measures become applicable, it is expected that profits will be reported where the economic activities that generate them are carried ...

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In April 2015 the Forum agreed on a Report on Improving the Functioning of the Arbitration Convention including a revised Code of Conduct for the effective implementation of the Arbitration Convention. The report and the revised Code of Conduct are the result of a monitoring exercise carried out by the JTPF and provide clarification inter alia on the following topics: Application of the AC in certain cases (absence of tax payment, changes in the status of the taxpayer) Transparency in cases when access to the AC is denied Implications of ...

The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to examine whether the decision by Luxembourg’s tax authorities with regard to the corporate income tax to be paid by Amazon in Luxembourg comply with the EU rules on state aid. The opening of an in-depth investigation gives interested third parties and the Member States concerned an opportunity to submit comments. It does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation. The tax ruling in favour of Amazon under investigation dates back to 2003 and is still in force. It applies to Amazon’s ...