How the OECD will Impact IP and Transfer Pricing
1 January 2009
By Dr. Emmanuel Llinares with Dr. Graham Poole
Transfer pricing as a discipline is being redefined in important ways by the raft of developments sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This article from International Tax Review Intellectual Property examine how these developments -- specifically, ones relating to the use of profit-based methods, the introduction of the significant people functions concept to the attribution of profit to permanent establishments, and business restructuring -- will shape the future of transfer pricing for intellectual property. Taxpayers and practitioners are entering a more challenging environment in this area, the authors note, and it will become harder to justify structures such as R&D cost sharing and contract R&D performed on a cost plus basis that hitherto have been regarded as part of mainstream solutions. On the other hand, the aforementioned developments may well enable companies to build stronger and more sustainable solutions in transfer pricing, especially in regard to IP.
