Transfer Pricing

Transfer pricing between related entities in different countries is one of the most difficult and important tax issues that global companies face.  Companies are obligated to determine appropriate transfer prices for their future transactions, contemporaneously document transfer pricing for current transactions and defend transfer pricing for past transactions in audits, appeals, competent authority negotiations and litigation in multiple jurisdictions.  Our lawyers have been leaders and innovators in transfer pricing planning, documentation and dispute resolution since the 1970s.

EXPERIENCE

Our lawyers have extensive experience in numerous industries developing transfer pricing methodologies that both facilitate the client’s cross-border operations and satisfy the tax authorities of the countries involved.   Since all our transfer pricing lawyers have degrees in economics, including a Ph.D. in economics from Yale and an advanced degree from the London School of Economics, we regularly apply economic and mathematical, as well as legal principles, to address transfer pricing issues.  In addition to our own resources, we have relationships cultivated over many years with the most qualified transfer pricing advisors in many foreign jurisdictions; thus, when a dispute requires coordinated responses in multiple jurisdictions, we can ensure that our clients receive sound advice and effective representation before the foreign tax authorities.

INNOVATION

A hallmark of our practice is creative solutions.  We helped to develop the advance pricing agreement program by filing a request for such an agreement eight months before the program itself was created. We have also introduced a number of transfer pricing methodologies that at the time were quite novel but have since become widely accepted.   We serve our clients by crafting imaginative but principled methodologies and strategies that fit their particular circumstances and business objectives but also satisfy the appropriate tax authorities.

RECOGNITION

Three Alston & Bird lawyers are included in Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Transfer Pricing Advisors.  One of our partners chairs both the Competent Authority Subcommittee of the ABA Tax Section Committee on Transfer Pricing and the Tax Treaty Subcommittee of the U.S. Council for International Business (USCIB) Tax Committee. He was also the sole private practitioner asked to be on an IRS task force formed to advise on management of the APA staff within the IRS and was invited to participate in OECD Transfer Pricing Experts advisory meetings. Another of our lawyers is considered one of the world’s foremost experts in transfer pricing and is the editor and principal author of the premiere treatise on the subject, Practical Guide to U.S. Transfer Pricing.  He, in conjunction with another partner, wrote the BNA Tax Management Portfolio on “Income Tax Treaties – Administrative and Competent Authority Aspects,” which is one of the primary references on using competent authority to resolve transfer pricing disputes.

AN ADDITIONAL DIMENSION

In addition to our experience, expertise, contacts and creativity, an asset that we and our clients value highly is our reputation for both sophistication and integrity.  Transfer pricing professionals at the IRS and other tax authorities know that Alston & Bird strives for both analytical rigor and factual accuracy. As a result, the methodologies and analyses that we present, even if quite unconventional, are given careful consideration and often are ultimately accepted notwithstanding initial reluctance.