Scope, review, draft, finalise, implement cycleWe always start with the end in mind: in a tax audit, will the intercompany agreements support the taxpayer’s TP position or undermine it? To achieve the right result, we follow a systematic process to implement appropriate agreements. We also monitor and maintain those agreements, to ensure they stay aligned with the group’s operations and TP policies.

Overview

Intercompany agreements, or ICAs, are one of the most important parts of any multinational group’s legal structure. They are also one of the most widely misunderstood. By ensuring that our clients’ ICAs are fit for purpose, we help them to avoid many serious risks.

Intercompany agreements define the legal terms on which services, products, intangible assets and financial support are provided within the group. Multinational groups dedicate extensive resources to preparing appropriate TP policies and documentation, but these policies are of little use unless they are implemented in legal reality, through appropriate intercompany agreements.

We ensure that our clients avoid the defects that can occur in ICAs. Some examples of these problems are:

  • ICAs which contradict the allocation of risk described in TP documentation, meaning that historic tax filings are incorrect
  • Gaps in the intercompany transaction types covered by ICAs, so that certain transactions are not legally documented at all, leaving risk allocation and price open to the interpretation of tax administrations
  • Agreements that are too long, use legalese language, which contain administrative provisions that are not followed in practice, and/or are poorly structured. All of this makes it much harder to get the agreements reviewed by everyone who needs to do so. The result can be that the agreements do not reflect how the group actually works, or do not take into account the needs of an important stakeholder
  • Out-of-date ICAs which no longer reflect the group’s structure, its contracting structure, or the operations of the relevant business units
  • Agreements that are unsigned, undated, incomplete, or not centrally archived
  • Agreements which have not been updated to reflect revised benchmarking or revised TP policies and models
  • Failure to integrate newly acquired or incorporated legal entities
  • Over-reliance on local tax managers to maintain files of signed intercompany agreements, with no assurance that they are complete, and no contingency plans in place if those managers are unavailable or have left the group

 

In so doing, we avoid the consequences of having ineffective ICAs in place, such as:

  • In certain jurisdictions, corporate groups are routinely subject to fines and penalties, simply for failing to produce signed ICAs when requested
  • Expenses may be disallowed
  • Post year-end ‘true up’ or ‘true down’ adjustments may be rejected
  • Local tax authorities may be more likely to attempt to re-characterise a transaction as something other than that claimed by the taxpayer
  • Groups may be subject to adverse transfer pricing adjustments and associated fines and penalties

 

Since 2013, LCN Legal has advised multinational groups with combined annual revenues of over $130billion. We know all the processes that are required to create and maintain intercompany agreements.

Three things make LCN Legal unique

We are the leading experts in ICAs. Our book ‘Intercompany Agreements for Transfer Pricing Compliance – A Practical Guide’ is the definitive work on the subject.

We bring a global and cross-functional perspective. Around the world, large corporates and leading TP professionals choose us because we offer a unique skill set: we are corporate and commercial lawyers with an understanding of TP. This allows us to take a cross-functional approach to designing and implementing ICAs. We liaise with all the stakeholders involved (not just in tax) to ensure that the ICAs support all of the group’s objectives.

We provide ongoing support to maintain audit-readiness. We focus on the end result that corporates need: a comprehensive central archive of signed ICAs, which is aligned with TP policies and kept up-to-date. This enables our clients to respond quickly and effectively to tax audits, and reduces the risks of protracted investigations, adverse TP adjustments and double taxation.

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Why work with us?

World-leading
Legal
experts

We are the world-leading experts and educators in intercompany agreements and related corporate structures.

Global and
cross-functional
approach

We liaise with all the stakeholders involved, not just in tax, to ensure that the intercompany agreements and legal structures we maintain support all of the group’s objective.

Ongoing support
to maintain
audit-readiness

We provide an outsourced management service for multinational groups, to ensure that their intercompany agreements are maintained in a tax-audit ready central archive.

LCN take a pragmatic approach to intercompany agreements: documents are written to include the necessary terms but are not overly complex or lengthy for no good reason. The team turn things round quickly and are priced competitively.

Alex Williams, Chief Financial Officer
Axis Spine Technologies Ltd

I worked with Paul Sutton for many years whilst he was at McGrigors / Pinsent Masons, in my role as Group Tax Manager of Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems (Europe) Ltd (SEWS-E Ltd), and also for a period as SEWS-E Ltd Company Secretary. In this time I had extremely valuable assistance and advice from Paul, not only as regards general corporate law matters, but also particularly across a wide spectrum of legal aspects of SEWS-E Ltd group transfer pricing policies, implementation, inter-group agreements and legal compliance.

Martin L Kinsey, Group Tax Manager
Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems (Europe) Limited

I have worked with Paul and his team in structuring significant Corporate Debt and have found his approach to be commercial, pragmatic and measured. I would have no hesitation working with Paul again, as we value his commercial and responsive approach.

Joanne Luce, Director
Acqua Trust Company Limited, Jersey

All-Fill Inc, a US based manufacturer of packaging machinery, has had the distinct pleasure of working with Ivan Hanna and the LCN Legal team in relation to our overseas acquisition projects. Ivan has displayed patience and intricate knowledge of English law as it applies to us as a foreign company. Ivan’s counsel has been calculated and sound, together we tailored an approach that is telling of our company’s aggressive nature. I was most impressed at Ivan’s willingness to dig deep into the details and investigate any way to give our side a competitive advantage while negotiating. Ivan has been our guiding light since our initial engagement.

Ryan Edginton, President & CEO
All-Fill Inc

I have been working with Ivan Hanna over the past year on various corporate matters including a group share restructuring project and intercompany agreements for our transfer pricing compliance. Compared to other corporate law firms I have worked with, Ivan took the time to understand our business, our stakeholders and my needs. He was incredibly responsive and went above and beyond to manage our various stakeholders and turn around a big piece of work in a short amount of time. I have no hesitation in recommending Ivan or LCN Legal – they are what all solicitors should be!

Becky Karver, CFO
Deallus Consulting

It is my privilege to recommend Ivan. He is able to process requirements quickly and formulate an effective strategy that protects one’s commercial interests. He is very personable and exceeds expectations. A great lawyer!

Roop Singh Sood, Executive Producer
AKA Filmworks

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