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Take advantage of our free expert resources, written by the experts at LCN Legal, based on their practical experience of working with multinational groups and their advisers across the globe. If you are interested in these areas, you may wish to bookmark this page to check back regularly for new information.

Are you going to amputate the wrong leg? Webinar Registration

Paul Sutton

According to the OECD’s TP Guidelines, analysing the contractual allocation of risk in intracompany agreements (ICAs) is the second step for pricing risk, after you’ve identified which risks are relevant. Comparables aren’t comparable, unless the risk allocation is at least similar. This makes complete sense. In our day-to-day lives, we all instinctively factor in contractual […]

LCN Updates

Live Workshop for TP Advisers: Scoping Local Sales Entities

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In our experience, MNEs screw up their arrangements involving local sales entities more often than any other intercompany transaction type. We’re talking here from the perspective of legal implementation of TP policies. Why does this matter? Because the transaction will fail at Step 4 of the OECD steps for analysing risk and pricing transactions, since […]

LCN Updates

The No. 1 Question for Assessing How Well an MNE is Legally Implementing its Transfer Pricing

Paul Sutton

One of the blessings of the ‘new normal’ for us, is that we’ve been able to sponsor and participate in a far wider range of TP conferences than would otherwise have been the case – over the last 12 months, this has included TP Minds Australia, Asia, West Coast, Canada and Americas, as well as […]

Intercompany Agreements

Workshops – bring together representatives of the key in-house functions involved (e.g. tax, finance, legal, compliance and risk).

Paul Sutton

I’ve lost count of the number of transfer pricing articles I’ve read over the last couple of months which tell their readers to “review your transfer pricing policies” and “update your intercompany agreements” in the light of recent economic circumstances. This is undoubtedly good advice. The problem is that few TP or tax professionals know […]

LCN Updates

Coca-Cola’s US$ 12 billion IP mistake

Paul Sutton

The following article first appeared in IP Briefs, the journal of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law. One might think that an organisation with one of the most recognised and valuable brands in the world, founded in 1892, might be a well-oiled machine when it comes to managing its intellectual property rights. And […]

Intercompany Agreements

New Vacancy at LCN Legal: Team Administrator

Sonia Polden

Summary of new vacancy: team administrator LCN Legal is seeking a superstar team administrator to join our dynamic and ambitious firm. We offer a unique combination of benefits: The ability to work from home (or any other suitable location). A friendly and supportive culture. The opportunity to support the growth and development of an award-winning […]

LCN Updates

Managing the TP aspects of M&A integration: TP Masterclass interview with Adnan Begic

Paul Sutton

We recently began a new series of Transfer Pricing Masterclass Interviews. The first was with Adnan Begic, a hugely experienced and widely admired expert on the subject, who is Head of Transfer Pricing Asia-Pacific for the Michelin group. The starting point for the interview was the fact that traditional TP due diligence on a target group […]

Interviews

TP Audits – Get Your ‘Hard Hat’ at TP Minds International!

Paul Sutton

It’s TP Minds International this week, and I’m looking forward to contributing to a panel discussion on ‘Managing TP Audits and Defending Your TP Position’ on Wednesday 16th at 13.05 BST. The discussion will feature Catherine Harlow, Head of TP at AstraZeneca and Kurt Wulfekuhler, TP Director at Verizon Communications, and will be chaired by Anton Hume, […]

LCN Updates

New vacancy at LCN Legal: Mid level / senior corporate lawyer

Paul Sutton

Summary of new vacancy: mid level / senior corporate lawyer LCN Legal is seeking a mid level / senior corporate solicitor / associate to join our dynamic and ambitious team. We offer a unique combination of benefits, including a clear route to partnership: Direct exposure to a diverse range of multinational corporate groups and household […]

LCN Updates

New TP documentation rules from HMRC could increase the compliance burden, especially for SMEs

Paul O’Regan

Our partner Ivan Hanna recently spoke to the International Tax Review for an article about new TP compliance rules that HMRC is planning. These could have implications for many businesses, particularly smaller ones that were previously exempt. As Ivan points out, the 30-day deadline to produce a master and local file on request means that […]

LCN Updates

How should TNMM / CPM arrangements be implemented in ICAs?

Paul Sutton

Some TP methods – specifically, the cost plus method – imply a specific drafting structure for pricing clauses in intercompany agreements (ICAs). Others do not. Take for example, the Transactional Net Margin Method (TNMM), aka the Comparable Profits Method (CPM). This method may suggest a drafting approach based on the relevant profit or margin, or […]

Intercompany Agreements

Checklists for creating, reviewing & updating Intercompany Agreements

Paul Sutton

Defective intercompany agreements can undermine your transfer pricing policies, and can give rise to unnecessary risks of adverse tax adjustments, fines and penalties. The team at LCN Legal have created a suite of practical checklists which is designed to help multinational groups ensure that their intercompany agreements are aligned with their transfer pricing policies, and […]

Intercompany Agreements

8 Ways that Intercompany Agreements are Different from ‘Traditional’ Agreements

Paul Sutton

One of the most interesting audience responses we got from TP Minds Americas last month was in relation to the question ‘How are intercompany agreements different from ‘traditional’ agreements?’ The overwhelming majority of respondents chose option B: ‘No difference – ICAs should be as similar to third party agreements as possible.’ This misconception may account […]

Intercompany Agreements

How can we future-proof our intercompany agreements?

Paul Sutton

This is one of the most common questions which come up at the training sessions we run on intercompany agreements for TP compliance. The short answer is “You can’t.” You can sign a piece of paper saying that the duties of the parties, the pricing and the risk allocation will automatically adapt to whatever your […]

Intercompany Agreements

Transfer Pricing Override Clauses – Yes or No?

Paul Sutton

We are sometimes asked to include ‘Transfer pricing override’ clauses in intercompany agreements (ICAs). These clauses are intended to adjust the contractual price to the price charged for tax purposes if there is a TP adjustment at either end of the transaction. This sounds like a good idea: a clause which can go back in […]

Intercompany Agreements

The four areas of alignment for legal implementation of TP

Paul Sutton

Although we publish detailed checklists for intercompany agreements, and to a great extent ‘the devil is in the detail’, sometimes it’s helpful to remind ourselves of the macro, helicopter view. From this perspective, the 80 / 20 rule applies: 80% of the upside of getting intercompany agreements right (or the downside of getting them wrong) often […]

Intercompany Agreements

HMRC Consultation on New Mandatory TP Documentation

Paul Sutton

On 23 March 2021, HMRC issued a consultation document on proposals to introduce new mandatory requirements for TP documentation. By way of background, the consultation document notes that in the last 5 years (2015/16 to 2019/20), HMRC has brought in over £6 billion in additional tax from transfer pricing compliance activities. Transfer pricing therefore continues […]

Intercompany Agreements

How to scope the Intercompany Agreements you need for Transfer Pricing Compliance

Paul Sutton

Accurately scoping out intercompany transactions is the essential first step in creating, reviewing or updating intercompany agreements for TP compliance. Unless this is done correctly, the resulting agreements are likely to be gibberish, and your TP objectives may fail for lack of legal implementation. The need for alignment between intercompany agreements and TP analysis of […]

Intercompany Agreements

Not another rebranding fail

Paul Sutton

Corporate rebranding projects can be tricky. If you want a laugh, have a look at this short article listing 15 rebranding failures, including some shocking ones such as MasterCard and Gap: https://www.fastprint.co.uk/blog/15-of-the-worst-corporate-rebrands-ever.html So why are we rebranding? We’ve come a long way since we first started in 2013. We now do more business in 2 […]

LCN Updates

TP Advisers: How long is long enough?

Paul Sutton

This is a sensitive subject for many TP advisers. How long is long enough? Of course, I’m talking about the duration of intercompany agreements. Only this week, a Big Four TP adviser suggested that a 6 month notice period was ‘impracticably long’. Maybe that individual hadn’t read the OECD Guidance on the TP aspects of […]

Intercompany Agreements

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