Intangible assets are becoming increasingly important as value drivers for multinational companies. It is a strategic question how to allocate intangibles within the multinational corporation. It needs to be defined by whom and under which conditions they can be utilized. Typical IP migration models such as licensing, joint development and transferring are becoming a focal point within tax audits across the globe. Hence,defining an intangibles system that fulfils the tax requirements is of utmost strategic importance for multinational corporations. A central question is how to value intangibles in line with the arm’s length principle as is required internationally for transfer pricing purposes. Edited by leading transfer pricing and valuation experts in Europe, this comprehensive book offers practitioners an effective road map for identifying, valuing and implementing intangibles for transfer pricing purposes under consideration of both the OECD and local perspectives. It is therefore a must-have book for transfer pricing and valuation practitioners on all levels of experience. The book starts with an introduction to the role of intangibles in the world of transfer pricing including typical intangibles migration models. It describes common intangible assets across all types of industries, including e.g. automotive, consumer goods and software.Using several numerical examples, the book then covers state-of-the-art valuation methods including how to apply these methods in practice in a way consistent with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. The different country chapters written by local experts provide country-specific guidance on the legal framework concerning intangible assets from a transfer pricing and valuation perspective. Finally, the book covers practical advice on the implementation of an intangible assets system. This book offers invaluable guidance to practitioners seeking tools to apply the arm’s length principle in the world of intangibles.

In a global economy where multinational enterprises (MNEs) play a prominent role, governments need to ensure that the taxable profits of MNEs are not artificially shifted out of their jurisdiction and that the tax base reported by MNEs in their country reflects the economic activity undertaken therein. For taxpayers, it is essential to limit the risks of economic double taxation.

The arm's length principle serves as the domestic and international standard to evaluate transfer prices between members of multinational enterprises for tax purposes. The OECD has adopted the arm's length principle in Article 9 of its Model Income Tax Convention in order to ensure that transfer prices between members of multinational enterprises correspond to those that would have been agreed between independent enterprises under comparable circumstances. The arm's length principle provides the legal framework for governments to have their fair share of taxes, and for enterprises to avoid double taxation on their profits. This timely book contains a comparative analysis of the legal basis for the arm's length principle and the contents of the arm's length rules in US tax law as well as in the OECD Model Tax Convention and Transfer Pricing Guidelines. It includes a thorough review of international case law on transfer pricing from the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The book ends with an analysis of the issues associated with the application of the arm's length principle for multinational enterprises in a global economy.

The phenomena of increasingly global business enterprises with valuable intangible property expose companies to transfer pricing enforcement by different countries around the world. Many of these countries are increasingly aggressive in enforcing their local transfer pricing rules, as they attempt to protect their tax revenue base. To avoid double taxation of the same income in this environment, companies often are required to deal with the highly specialized, bilateral treaty-based competent authority process developed to prevent double taxation at a time when trade mainly involved only two established countries. Even more challenging today, companies and tax authorities increasingly are faced with the potential for multiple taxation of the same income, as supply chains cross many borders and as the tax authorities of emerging countries become players in the global taxation process, and the resulting stresses, strains, and limitations of the bilateral treaty-based competent authority process have become more apparent. In light of the high-dollar risks presented by the increased enforcement efforts of tax authorities worldwide, the complexity of the ever-changing, inherently uncertain transfer pricing standards, and the continually evolving business models of businesses adapting to the constantly changing global economy, companies need practical guidance to permit them to develop and defend their transfer pricing strategies. Transfer Pricing Answer Book gives companies such guidance by discussing all aspects of transfer pricing, from initially planning a transfer pricing strategy, to alternative ways to defend the strategy from attack by two or more tax authorities, to resolving a case before competent authorities, to bringing a transfer pricing case to court. The book's non-technical discussion is presented in a question and answer format that will appeal to readers regardless of their prior level of experience or familiarity with taxes in general and transfer pricing in particular. Transfer Pricing Answer Book is an invaluable resource for company executives and their advisors who are seeking to better understand this important area of tax law that has become such an important economic facet of so many businesses.

This consolidated version of the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines includes the revised guidance on safe harbours adopted in 2013, as well as the recent amendments made by the Reports on Actions 8-10 and 13 of the BEPS Actions Plan and conforming changes to Chapter IX.

Transactions involving intellectual property play an increasingly significant role in economic activity at every level from global to local, with particular challenges for taxation and revenue authorities. Moreover, the manifold complexities associated with identifying, valuing and transferring intangibles make this an issue requiring a creative review of existing transfer pricing methodologies and techniques. In this ground-breaking new study, Michelle Markham offers an in-depth examination of attitudes at the forefront of this rapidly evolving area of taxation law, focusing her work on a comparative analysis of the US, OECD, and Australian perspectives on the transfer pricing of intangible assets. The Transfer Pricing of Intangibles not only highlights the current problems encountered in inter-affiliate transactions of intangible property, but also attempts to offer a variety of solutions to these problems. Among the issues explored are the following: how the tax treatment of intangible in the context of transfer pricing has become a major international tax concern;definitional issues which are vital to an understanding of transfer pricing;application of the arm's length principle to intangible asset transactions;determination of legal and economic ownership of group intangible assets;intangible asset valuation and transfer;transfer pricing methodologies;global formulary apportionment;transfer pricing documentation requirements;penalties for non-compliance;resolution of transfer pricing disputes; and,advance pricing agreements Revenue authorities, multinational enterprise executives, and tax practitioners around the world will greatly appreciate the recommendations and solutions proposed in this knowledgeable and thoughtful book. Its acute sense of the opportunities and pitfalls of an ever-more-complex area of economic activity place it in a category of its own, of inestimable benefit to interested parties.

Transfer pricing is an area of tax law that has significantly expanded over the last decades. With the globalisation of business activities, the threat of international double taxation, and the need for States to monitor transfer prices to avoid the illegitimate erosion of their tax base, transfer pricing has become a key question for multinational enterprises and tax administrations. The book provides a general overview on the fundamentals of transfer pricing from an OECD perspective. The book also illustrates the fundamentals of transfer pricing with concrete examples based on the structures often used by multinational enterprises when entering into cross-border intercompany transactions. This book is primarily addressed to students reading international tax courses, but may also be of use to tax professionals in matters pertaining to transfer pricing.