Introduction to Transfer Pricing

Transfer pricing refers to the pricing of cross-border intercompany transactions. In the context of taxation, the main aim of transfer pricing is to share the income – and thus, the tax base – of multinational enterprises between the countries where they are doing business. The importance of transfer pricing has significantly expanded over the last few decades.

With the globalisation of business activities, the need for States to monitor transfer prices so as to avoid the illegitimate erosion of their tax base, and the risk of double taxation faced by groups entering into intercompany transactions, transfer pricing has become a key question for multinational enterprises and tax administrations. Introduction to Transfer Pricing intends at providing a general introduction to the fundamentals of transfer pricing.

The book is focused on explanations of the principles that apply, albeit to various extents, in most countries. Although the majority of these principles is provided by the OECD, the views of other international organisations, in particular the United Nations and the European Union, are also taken into account.

Moreover, the book illustrates the fundamentals of transfer pricing with concrete examples based on the structures often used by multinational enterprises when conducting cross-border business activities. Such examples are intended to facilitate the understanding of transfer pricing principles, and emphasise the tax planning or risk mitigating aspects that may be considered by multinational enterprises and that need to be monitored by tax administrations. Also included are relevant court cases from a variety of countries.

Among the issues and topics covered are the following:

• the arm’s length principle in theory and practice;
• transfer pricing methods recognised by the OECD Guidelines;
• intercompany transactions involving intangibles;
• common types of intercompany transactions and transfer pricing models;
• cross-border business restructurings;
• the substance requirement for transfer pricing purposes;
• attribution of profits to permanent establishments; and
• the prevention and resolution of transfer pricing disputes.