The Transfer Pricing Solutions team offers their insights on the discussion draft as well as on the TP treatment of financial transactions from various jurisdictions across Asia Pacific, namely Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.

Raffaello, a contributor to the comments sent to the OECD Discussion Draft, shares his jurisdictional insights on TP aspects of financial transactions in Italy, as well practical experiences and court cases related to guarantee fees and cash pooling treated by Italian Tax Authorities.

As the majority of BEPS Action Points directly or indirectly impact financing between group members, revisiting how debt and other financing mechanisms are designed and implemented has become more important than ever. Dr. Chand provides a technical session on the common frameworks for analyzing intra-group financing mechanisms such as inter-company loans, financial guarantees, captive insurance and cash pooling arrangements.

Peter and Reto from GHM Partners discuss the recent TP developments in Switzerland and Germany respectively, in the context of the BEPS project.

Vikram provides his take on long term policy solutions for taxing digitalized businesses models.

Stefaan and Vikram discuss core issues arising in the attribution of profits to PEs and the concept of digital PEs, starting from BEPS Action 7, the AOA, the Additional Guidance on Attribution of Profits to PEs, European Commission’s directive on the taxation of digital PEs and OECD's Interim Report the context of digital PEs.

Davide provides a practical, case-study session on fixed place PEs and attribution of profits to a fixed place PE. Following a background on Article 5 of the OECD Model Tax Convention, he continues with numerous case studies on profit attribution to a fixed place PE.

Piotr's session focuses on profit attribution to Agency PEs with several case studies on the role and remuneration of a commissionaire. 

Digitization has fundamentally changed the way businesses carry out their activities globally. While the digital disruption has affected almost every area of doing business, it is posing a particular challenge to the international tax framework. Vikram discusses these challenges, and provides his take on taxing digital business models and discusses current approaches in attribution of profits to Digital PEs.

Pitambar Das discusses the introduction of the significant economic presence (SEP) test in the Indian domestic tax law applicable to all enterprises, and when non-resident enterprises exceed either a revenue or a user threshold. Pitambar draws from numerous examples and provides his insights on the practical implications for non-resident enterprises in India.

Kestutis talks about OECD BEPS and other developments relating to intangibles. He provides practical guidance on determining the ultimate entity entitled to returns derived from the exploitation of intangibles, and discusses on the importance of DEMPE analysis and how it is amplified by the CbC reporting and other requirements.

Actions 8-10 of the BEPS framework address the ever-challenging world of intangibles from a transfer pricing perspective. In this session, Kestutis explains how to perform a functional analysis for intangibles. More specifically, he covers the concept of development, enhancement, maintenance and exploitation (DEMPE) of intangibles.

From an international tax professional’s perspective, intangibles and their valuation and treatment for tax purposes have always been challenging tasks. In particular, valuation techniques and their implications from a transfer pricing perspective have been a hot topic in light of the new digital economy and the rise of intellectual property. Tim explains how the income approach can be used to value intangibles using a 7-step process. 

Trade secrets are included in the definition of intangibles in the OECD BEPS Guidelines as well as 'qualifying IP' in a number of European 'patent box' tax regimes. Donal explains key characteristics of trade secrets and what BEPS developments and several new directives across the US and EU are attempting to address challenges with regulations trade secrets.

Vikram provides his take on long term policy solutions for taxing digitalized businesses models.

Stefaan and Vikram discuss core issues arising in the attribution of profits to PEs and the concept of digital PEs, starting from BEPS Action 7, the AOA, the Additional Guidance on Attribution of Profits to PEs, European Commission’s directive on the taxation of digital PEs and OECD's Interim Report the context of digital PEs.

Tatiana, Barry and Vikram jointly discuss on the current trends in digital taxation, unilateral measures, developments at the EU, OECD and UN level. They provide their own unique insights on devising rules that can address taxation issues caused by the digitization of the economy.

Across the globe, tax jurisdictions continue to amend consumption tax legislation — be it a Value-Added Tax (VAT) or Goods and Services Tax (GST) system, and this in response to the unprecedented growth of the digital economy. To comply with consumption taxes instantly and seamlessly, digital solutions are more crucial than ever. John McCarthy from Taxamo is a leading expert in helping digital businesses manage their global VAT/GST compliance and presents how Taxamo’s digital VAT/GST compliance tool helps businesses around the world. 

As countries and taxpayers begin to implement the Anti Tax Avoidance Directive I (ATAD) as of 1 Jan 2019, Mazars Germany looks at some of the key aspects of the Directive and together with Barry Larking discuss the implications at a practical level for taxpayers in the EU.

In a comprehensive session on key tax developments in 2018, Barry addresses questions such as: Do holding companies have a future? How disruptive will digital taxes be? Does the EU Blacklist matter? What about the US Tax Reform and what happened to the MLI? He also gives a sneak peek into the future and what taxpayers need to prepare for in the short and long run. 

Ben discusses transfer pricing strategies in managing two significant features of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 - Base Erosion Antiabuse Tax (BEAT) and the Global Intangible Low Tax Income (GILTI) provisions. He provides specific examples and case studies of how these two measures will impact taxpayers and their tax position in the US.

Article 7(1) of the MLI contains provisions related to the prevention of treaty abuse, including treaty shopping that correspond to changes proposed in the BEPS Action 6 Final Report.Tax Agreements of many countries include ‘purpose provisions’ with respect to specific benefits, generally royalties, interests and dividends, although there is no ‘catch-all provision’. These provisions might be replaced by the ‘Principal Purpose Test’ provision of Article 7(1). In this session, Marcus discusses the challenges in implementing the PPT in practice and how to overcome them.

2017 was a year marked with major developments in taxation around the world. Driven by a world that is ever more globalized, public opinion and governments have taken a serious look at the way current tax systems work and whether they are in need of reforms. From digital taxation initiatives, permanent establishment changes, EU blacklist and US tax reform plans, Barry discusses in detail what these developments mean and their impact for stakeholders around the world.

Ben discusses transfer pricing strategies in managing two significant features of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 - Base Erosion Antiabuse Tax (BEAT) and the Global Intangible Low Tax Income (GILTI) provisions. He provides specific examples and case studies of how these two measures will impact taxpayers and their tax position in the US.

In this session, Filip provides an overview of Luxembourg TP developments with a focus on the new Luxembourg IP regime. He also shares his insights on B2B financing structures, the application of the new general TP rules, lessons learnt from the first CbCR submissions, overview of the market and links with the IP regime. 

Until recently, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been perceived as a region where taxation and transfer pricing are not high topics on governmental agendas. Safae will cover recent economic trends in the MENA region, as well as the OECD initiative on the BEPS project, which have encouraged governments in the region to adhere to important international tax framework agreements as well as to consider updating their tax legislation in this respect.

In January 2018, the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance published a discussion draft on the introduction of new Transfer Pricing Rules. Vykintas explains the implications of the new rules such as mandatory preparation of transfer pricing documentation until the 6th month following the financial year-end, for each transaction exceeding 30 thousand EUR, for each entity which total turnover is more than 3 million EUR. He also covers TP developments in Latvia and Estonia and what the future looks like for the region in this area.

Mario discusses recent EU Commission’s investigations on State aid and tax rulings. The EU Commission has taken the view that tax rulings confer a selective advantage upon its beneficiaries insofar as they lead to a lowering of the tax burden by deviating from the tax that the beneficiaries would otherwise be obliged to pay under the general corporate tax system. He illustrates the way in which various decisions released by the EU Commission interpret the OECD TPG.

Following BEPS developments which have increased international coordination in the field of transfer pricing, multinationals everywhere face tougher and more complex compliance and disclosure requirements. At the same time, today’s technology enables many business processes to be conducted more efficiently, including here transfer pricing. John discusses how recent trends in technology, such as automation, have changed the way we think about transfer pricing processes and how TP software can help companies execute their transfer pricing policies in a smarter, faster and more accurate way.

Following BEPS developments which have increased international coordination in the field of transfer pricing, multinationals everywhere face tougher and more complex compliance and disclosure requirements. At the same time, today’s technology enables many business processes to be conducted more efficiently, including here transfer pricing. John from Intercompany Software discusses more about the how recent trends in technology, such as automation, have changed the way we think about transfer pricing processes and how TP software can help companies execute their transfer pricing policies in a smarter, faster and more accurate way.

Public pressure, increased transparency and more detailed guidance on Transfer Pricing makes the tax authorities put more and more focus on cross border transactions. What does that mean for M&A deals? How to manage the increased risks? What are expected changes in the way the deals are structured? Are there still tax opportunities on the table as part of the deal? In this session, Arnas discusses transfer pricing aspects that are key in M&A deals and shares his insights on how changes in a post-BEPS world are impacting the M&A process.

MNEs worldwide have seen a spike in the number and complexity in TP disputes. Robert reviews 5 hot button TP disputes and covers market concentration and intangible migration, coping with tax haven and foreign trust over-structuring, addressing a production activity that creates multiple distribution chains, how gray marketing impacts transfer pricing, and using the profit split arrangement for loans.

Oliver demonstrates how to best utilize Excel tools to simplify analysis and compile consistent and focused transfer pricing documentation. He reviews prominent OECD case studies and illustrates in practice how to conduct a pragmatic value chain analysis.

In a post-BEPS environment, the concept of value chain analysis has become pivotal. OECD has introduced the value chain analysis as a key basis for setting and documenting transfer prices in accordance with the arm's-length standard. Ben explains their in-house developed 5-step approach to conducting value chain analysis which serves to formalize best practices for transparency and accuracy and effectively advise clients.

The concept of Value Creation has gained a lot of attention from the transfer pricing community in the last year. The inclusion of this term in the new Transfer Pricing Guidelines presents a new challenge for transfer pricing practitioners. Brigitte applies Michael Porter’s value creation approach in a pragmatic way, and offers an alternative to MNEs seeking to align transfer pricing to business strategies.

Learn about this ever changing landscape and the gap between new taxable events in cryptocurrency transactions and the regulations needed to support them. Kirk focuses on US taxation, however, defining the unique events in cryptocurrency are universally important regardless of how a jurisdictions applies the respective rules. He answers questions like: What accounting method should be used to calculate capital gains and losses? When is cryptocurrency considered ordinary income vs. capital gain income? Why is cryptocurrency considered property for taxation purposes? What accounting method should be used to calculate capital gain income?

Following the changing tax landscape around the world, it seems that new skills are in demand for tax professionals. The reach of a tax professional’s work is no longer local, but rather global and with wide-reaching impact in the organization they work for. Radomir, a seasoned tax professional and founder of Taxjobz, a fast-growing job board matching tax professionals and multinational corporations and professional firms, provides an overview of the job market for tax professionals and what the trends look like for the future.

In light of recent developments in tax disputes of multinationals with governments around the world, implementing a tax risk management framework has become key for many businesses. Karen Holste, expert in tax litigation and tax advisory with in-house and tax authority experience, explains methods, principles and systems to support and manage tax risks and the tax litigation processes cross border to secure cross group alignment on tax audit management.