Advance pricing agreements : The concept and its implementation in Swedish tax law

Transfer pricing (TP) has for a long time been an important tax issue, however it is only within the past decade that it has gotten the attention it deserves. This since more and more corporations becomes globalized. When setting a TP within a multinational enterprise (MNE) it is important to consider the arm’s length principle. The reason for this is that all countries, involved in an internal transaction, are entitled to their fair share of tax revenues. The principle implies that when performing a transaction within a MNE, the price used shall be set on the same circumstances as if the tran... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Ehrstedt, Helena
Alm, Maria
Dokumenttyp: Student thesis
Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
Verlag/Hrsg.: Internationella Handelshögskolan
Högskolan i Jönköping
IHH
Företagsekonomi
Schlagwörter: Advance pricing agreements / transfer pricing / United States / Arm's length principle / Germany / Sweden / Netherlands
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26808575
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-15079

Transfer pricing (TP) has for a long time been an important tax issue, however it is only within the past decade that it has gotten the attention it deserves. This since more and more corporations becomes globalized. When setting a TP within a multinational enterprise (MNE) it is important to consider the arm’s length principle. The reason for this is that all countries, involved in an internal transaction, are entitled to their fair share of tax revenues. The principle implies that when performing a transaction within a MNE, the price used shall be set on the same circumstances as if the transaction was performed between independent actors. Corporations which do not set their TPs in accordance with the arm’s length principle face the risk of adjustments and future audits. Setting a TP, which is in line with the arm’s length principle is, however, not an easy task, therefore the subject of advance pricing agreement (APA) has emerged. APA has existed since the middle of the 1980’s when it was first implemented in Japan. However, it was as recent as last year, 1st of January 2010, that a legislation concerning APA was implemented in Swedish tax legislation. The legislation implies that corporations which are a part of a MNE can apply for a binding agreement at the Swedish tax authority regarding future TP. This opportunity will provide for a foreseeable tax future. Due to this recent implementation of APA legislation in Sweden, we have chosen to conduct a cross-country analysis concerning regulations of APA, using countries which have had APA legislation for a substantial amount of time. The different countries which legislations we have studied in this thesis are Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the U.S. The purpose with this thesis is to examine if the Swedish legislation concerning APA will provide any advantages for Swedish MNEs. A qualitative research method with the focus on an abductive research approach has been used for this thesis. The abductive approach consists of both deductive and inductive ...