The exponential growth of international trade and the rapid expansion of corporate supply chains due to the rapid globalization of recent decades have placed increasing strains on systems of trade regulation and tax administration designed for a world of discrete states and corporate entities. A particular area where this tension has become pronounced is in the disconnect between customs valuation and transfer pricing, the legal regimes for valuing international transactions for purposes of assessing import tariffs and corporate income tax respectively. While both systems establish similar broad baselines -- the “arm's-length principle” for transfer pricing and the “transaction value principle” for customs valuation -- because of the different goals of each system and the scope of transactions to which each applies, the specific methods used differ, leading to confusion and inefficiency. Efforts to coordinate the two systems, both at an international level and in the U.S., are progressing but incomplete. This paper illuminates the disparity in these two systems, with a specific focus on the U.S, through studying current laws, regulations, and practices in both areas, along with the steps taken thus far to align them, concluding with recommendations for how these efforts should be continued. This paper was written for the Transfer Pricing: Special Topics graduate-level seminar at Georgetown University Law Center during the Spring 2015 term.

Issues of transfer pricing have come to the fore in both international tax and customs regimes. In particular, the problem of how to apply the two systems of valuation to the same transaction is of widespread concern. This well-known book, now in a fully updated second edition, is a problem-solving guide for professionals charged with valuating transactions in their client’s or company’s best interests. Through detailed examination of relevant guidelines, transfer pricing methodologies, and business realities prevailing among multinational enterprises, it offers a cogent and convincing account of how tax and customs transfer pricing regimes may be harmonized. Among other essential elements, the author discusses the following in depth: – the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines; – the GATT/WTO Customs Valuation Code (GVC) and other valuation rules in key jurisdictions and regional agreements; – the OECD and UN model tax conventions; – the arm’s length principle; – methods, both traditional and new, of determining whether the parties’ relationship in uenced the price; and – additions to and deductions from the customs value. This second edition discusses new developments in the eld, including a chapter on Commentary 23.1 and Case Study 14.1 of the Technical Committee on Customs Valuation of the World Customs Organization (WCO) – the rst international instruments linking transfer pricing and customs valuation. The book concludes with an analysis of the circumstances and conditions under which the introduction of transfer pricing year-end adjustments to transaction value would be consistent with Article 1 of the GVC. The book will continue to provide practitioners, customs administrations, and academics with a highly practical analysis of the intersection of transfer pricing and customs valuation. It will be welcomed by customs administrations charged with examining the acceptability of a transaction value xed between related parties and by multinational companies as a truly actionable tool they can use to optimize decision-making as it relates to transfer pricing and customs valuation in a “real world” setting.

This book discusses the intricate role of transfer pricing and customs value in international business environment. It examines the relationship between valuation for transfer pricing purposes and valuation for customs, and the significance of the relationship for multinational enterprises, tax authorities and customs administrations. The book begins by reviewing relevant international standards such as the OECD Guidelines and the GATT/WTO Customs Valuation Agreement. This is followed by a discussion of related issues such as VAT and administrative matters. Country chapters provide an overview of the applicable legislation and valuation methods, and case studies allow direct comparison between the practices of the different countries. The book concludes by summarizing the existing relationship between transfer pricing valuations and customs valuations, and by suggesting possible solutions towards a more integrated approach.

A radical shift is underway in global value chains as they increasingly move beyond traditional manufacturing processes to services and other intangible assets. Digitization is a leading factor in this transformation, which is being accelerated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The Global Value Chain Development Report, the third of a biennial series, explores this shift beyond production. The report shows how the rise of services value chains offers a new path to development and how protectionism and geopolitical tensions, environmental risks, and pandemics are undermining the stability of global value chains and forcing their reorganization geographically. It is co-published by the WTO, the Asian Development Bank, the Research Institute for Global Value Chains at the University of International Business and Economics, the Institute of Developing Economies, and the China Development Research Foundation.

The book pays attention to the tax treatment of transfer pricing in a single perspective of analysis since the most important principles (the arm’s length -ALP- i.e. conditions that independent parties would share, and the sale country) are agreed worldwide. They must be applied in the same way regardless of the economic sector or industry. A country survey overlooks the most important issue of the fiscal problem, that is, the ability to project a unitary policy in compliance with the ALP (or with the sale country principle) and that should be audited by one sole (only theoretically) existing tax authority. The practical part and examples disclose how rules should be/have been applied, how legal proceedings can arise/arose regarding their application , how they were decided if litigation truly occurred, and finally the author’s motivated opinion with special focus on which is “the breaking point” of a specific analysis. The term “breaking point” is used to explain which can be the factual and/or the interpretative change that is able to modify such analysis and thus the solution. Extract from the preface of prof. Reuven Avi-Yonah: “this book is a must read for any serious student of the topic and an important contribution to understanding how the ALP is applied today as well as to how it should be applied. It is an invaluable contribution and should be read widely by both tax lawyers and accountants and by tax policy makers”.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.