Dokumentationskrav til transfer pricing i Danmark

Abstract

In today’s global economy, a significant portion of world trade is carried out by intragroup companies. Given the differences in tax legislations in individual countries, multinational enterprises (hereafter referred to as “MNEs”) are able to move profits between country boarders in order to minimize their tax payments. This emphasizes the importance of transfer pricing rules and guidelines for intercompany transactions. Therefore, the topic of transfer pricing is an ongoing discussion amongst many different stakeholders including governments, tax authorities, transfer pricing advisors and the MNEs themselves. This thesis examines the role of documentation in the context of transfer pricing. Specifically the thesis focuses on the role of OECD’s action plan for BEPS action 13 and how it influences Danish transfer pricing in practice. Firstly, the thesis studies and analyzes Danish as well as international guidelines and legislations on transfer pricing documentation. The study shows that Danish regulations are highly influenced by international guidelines regarding the role of transfer pricing documentation. However, the existing guidelines fail to thoroughly define the extent to which transfer pricing documentation is required in order to be satisfying. Action 13 of the BEPS action plan presents new, more specific guidelines to be implemented into national legislation. The new guidelines are meant by OECD to be implemented unified among member countries thus creating greater transparency and more even requirements to transfer pricing documentation. The thesis assesses how the new guidelines will affect the major stakeholders related to transfer pricing: MNEs including advisors on one side, and tax administrators on the other. The new guidelines seem to significantly increase the administrative and compliance burden for MNEs by requesting a larger scale of information. Tax administrators will also be affected by the need of an economic foundation to process the new level of information. It is concluded that a uniform implementation among member countries are vital to make the new guidelines a success. If uniformity is not achieved, the new transfer pricing guidelines on documentation requirements will not be able to bring increased transparency and simplification to transfer pricing. Also, a non-unified implementation will inevitably create an even higher burden for MNEs, which is all in contradictionary to the purpose of the new guidelines.