Intercompany Agreements

The Dolce & Gabbana Litigation and Type C Service Provider Arrangements

This is a guest post by Harold McClure, a New York City-based independent economist with 26 years of transfer pricing and valuation experience. (One of several that he has written for us.) Here he discusses the issues raised by a 2022 Italian tax case: Italy vs Dolce & Gabbana. Paul Sutton’s recent discussion of…

Intercompany Agreements

Intra group debt: loan agreements vs loan notes

Paul Sutton

Differences in legal terminology and legal mechanics From a transfer pricing perspective it’s almost impossible to ‘delineate’ intra group debt without reference to the legal terms. One financial instrument cannot be compared with another for pricing purposes unless there is clarity on the associated legal rights and obligations of the respective parties. Here we’re talking…

Intercompany Agreements

New Podcast episode: the most important learnings from BlackRock

Paul Sutton

The key implications of the BlackRock judgment In summer last year, the UK Upper Tribunal’s decision in the case of HMRC v BlackRock Holdco 5 LLC caused some commotion in the Transfer Pricing community. There is still general agreement that the judgment has significant implications, but what exactly are they? Our new podcast episode explores…

Intercompany Agreements

The cost plus method: commonplace, but not to be underestimated

Paul Sutton

Typical cost plus service types in transfer pricing I wanted to share with you a slide that we use for internal development and training. It concerns cost plus arrangements. When I posted it on LinkedIn last week, people shared some very interesting thoughts in response. Although cost plus service recharges are commonplace in transfer pricing,…

Intercompany Agreements

Target margin arrangements: looking back is easier than looking forward

Paul Sutton

Some considerations in the legal implementation of target margin arrangements Intercompany agreements for implementing ‘target margin’ arrangements in TP can be challenging, for a number of reasons. One is that there may be a lack of clarity as to whether TNMM / CPM is being used on a price setting (ex ante) basis, or on…

Intercompany Agreements

Keep it real: understanding legal ‘anchor points’

Paul Sutton

The OECD’s TP Guidelines are very clear that intercompany transactions need to be assessed in the context of the legal and regulatory environment in which the relevant group entities actually operate. So the starting point in the creation of TP policies and documentation is to understand how the group actually works, commercially and legally. One…

Intercompany Agreements

Out now: The LCN Legal Podcast

Paul Sutton

Twenty minutes on the legal implementation of target margin arrangements The first episode of our podcast is now avaialable. You’ll find it here. It looks at approaches to the legal implementation of target margin arrangements. The in-depth discussion includes: When target margin arrangements are most likely to be suitable The two main options when drafting…

Intercompany Agreements

How would you improve this overview table for FAR analysis of intangibles?

Paul Sutton

I’d like to share an approach for creating an overview of transactions involving intangibles, and see whether you have any ideas for improving it. (When we did this with our ICA Healthcheck tool we received a lot of interesting suggestions, which we applied to create an improved version, so if you haven’t tried it out…

Intercompany Agreements